I have 3 of the R3 Moteino Power Shield boards and either all three are bad or I have done something wrong. I soldered 2 of them to Moteino R4 and connected a 3.7v LiPo batt and the Powershield started to smoke. There is a 6pin chip near the A6 Pin that is melting. I thought I shorted the boards so I connected to the 2nd assembly and the same thing. So then I opened a brand new Power Shield that was fresh out of the package and connected it. Same result. So the only thing left in common is the Battery. I tested the Batt and find 4v output. So other than that I have no idea what the problem would be. Are these shields bad? I think not. What would be the odds of all 3 being bad?
Show me your battery connector.
My bet now is that your battery connector is reversed polarity, that will smoke it.
FWIW The boards get tested for proper boost and charging after they are assembled.
All I did was weld a connector that fit the one on the board. There is only one way to connect a black wire to a black wire :)
Not sure what you mean by that.
I was trying to understand if the black went to + and red went to -, assuming black is GND and red is VCC on the battery. I can't see the connector of the battery in the photo above.
Ok finally back in office. I am attaching the pics for the battery connector. In these pics, of course Red from the Connector is soldered to Red on the battery. And vice versa with Black.
Yup just what I thought, the polarity is exactly in reverse. The board is marked on TOP and BOTTOM silkscreen to indicate where + and - polarity should be connected, pretty hard to miss.
I updated the guide (https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/powershield/) to add this photo to make it even more obvious.
Anyway here's what it should be:
(http://i.imgur.com/9KYFWdw.png)