A question for any electronics buffs...

[stavroshamster]

I have a portable solar charger (Freeloader Pro) which is faulty and was replaced by a working one by the manufacturer. They didn't want the faulty one back.

Annoyingly, the fault is very minor, but does mean that the charger doesn't function properly. Basically, the problem is as follows:

There is a 'disc' in the middle of the charger which lights up red in two places if the unit is receiving charge from the sun to its internal battery, or if the unit is being used to charge a device such as a camera or mobile phone. This red light is supplied by two very small led's (e.g. http://www.ladyada.net/images/arduino/diecledplaced.jpg this sort of thing).

However, even when the unit is not receiving charge (or charging something else) one of these leds remains on all the time - this is the fault. This is a problem because it slowly drains the internal battery when the unit is not charging - this is a particular problem when the sun isn't very strong.

My question is, if I am able to remove the small led which is always on and solder between the points where it was connected, will this stop the power loss? Or is it just likely to muck up the other electronics?

[Steve]

If you short it the situation will be worse.

You have to remember that the LED isn't the reason the power's being drawn - something is driving that output from the charger controller chip, so the problem will be elsewhere - either the chip has a fault or some other input is sending a spurious signal.

[stavroshamster]

Thanks,
Figured that would probably be the case, but thought it was worth asking anyway.