FP3 doesn’t charge in the UK…but works fine in Hong Kong

Help Fairphone 3
1

Hi there,

I hope someone can help with this issue I’ve been having!

My FP3 is refusing to charge, I’ve tried different plugs, different cables and removing the battery. When I remove the battery and try and charge it nothing happens. No exposure to water. Tried cleaning the port.

This has happened to me before, also when I was in the UK. This might sound crazy but it seems to charge fine in Hong Kong but refuse to charge in the UK. I am wondering if there might be a slight difference in voltage between the two countries, causing this issue?

Any suggestions very welcome!

2

Hi and welcome to the community.

Thats normal

For the rest, I suggest to use the search function of the forum.

What does your preferred search engine say to this and then compare with the charger you use?

3

I’ve already searched the forum which is why I did the remove battery thing - according to another thread a red light should show on the phone even with the battery removed.

I have searched for answers on this before asking here. I haven’t been able to find a solution and nothing about HK to UK charging difficulties. The two countries use the same plug sockets but with slight differences in voltage, which is why I was wondering whether that’s the cause of the issue.

“it isn’t exact, but the differences in voltage are usually tolerated by most electrical devices”

I was asking here because if the issue is the exposure to slight differences in voltage, I am not sure whether replacing the battery or replacing the bottom module would be best.

4

Not sure where you read that, however thats not true for the FP3. On the FP2 you could use this “charge without battery” trick to help identify rhe root cause, however thats not possible with the FP3.

sure there is nothing specific HK-UK and still there are many topics around charging issues.

So what is slight differeent voltage and what charger do you use (HK vs. UK)? Does it charge when connected via USB to a PC

5

As far as I can see the HK electric system uses 220V just like UK (10 or 20V difference should not matter here). Most chargers tolerate anything between 100V and 240V without issues. Still, my main focus would be on the charger. Have you tried other ways of charging? Powerbank, Notebook USB-C charger, other phone charger, different cable, charge on a PC/Notebook or any other USB power outlet?

3 Likes
6

The target voltage for the FP3 is 5V.
220V / 5V = 44 conversion coefficient

If you have for example 240V:
240V / 44 = 5,45V

On Wikipedia I found this:

grafik
grafik1780×592 77.6 KB

So, depending on the charger, the tolerances of @HKphone sample of FP3 and the (maybe locally bad) power stability, problems could be quite possible.

But like already said:
Most quality chargers and other electronics should be able to cope with these tolerances, too.

7

Just a suggestion:

Use a powerbank for now.
The power supply from any random powerbank should still work fine.

And the powerbank can get it’s power from the charger, which doesn’t work with your phone. :wink: