Can light battery died

[kafkaland]

I have a UWLD canister light that is about two years old. After not using it for about half a year, it wouldn't work, and wouldn't recharge. It was stored indoors, with about 2/3 of a charge left. Is this normal for a battery pack to die that quickly? And, what can I do to prevent this? I was always under the impression that you are not supposed to top off Li-ion batteries.

 

[Caveeagle]

I have a different brand of light, but my manual says to charge after each use. When I am not diving for a while, I try to remind myself to put them back on the charger every so often.

That stinks.. That's an expensive battery. (however very nice).

 

[tbone1004]

I have a UWLD canister light that is about two years old. After not using it for about half a year, it wouldn't work, and wouldn't recharge. It was stored indoors, with about 2/3 of a charge left. Is this normal for a battery pack to die that quickly? And, what can I do to prevent this? I was always under the impression that you are not supposed to top off Li-ion batteries.

you are not supposed to leave them full for storage, somewhere in the middle is about right.

did you disconnect the light head for storage or did you leave it connected? If you left it connected, there is going to be some parasitic draw going on which while very small, after 6 months is going to add up. Your best bet is to call @Bobby and see if he can revive it. There is protection built into the battery packs and he has some fancy tools that he has that may be able to bring it back, may not, but it's worth at least asking.

 

[kafkaland]

Light head was disconnected. It was just sitting there on the shelf offer the last wreck dive last fall, and now I pulled it out again and it's dead as a door nail. It doesn't make much sense. I contacted Bobby, and his first thought was that the battery must have died, even though it shouldn't have. It's now on his way back to him and we'll see what he finds. Up to this, the light has worked without problems and I really liked it. I would hate to see such an expensive piece of equipment fail for no apparent reason.

 

[AJ]

Batteries do die if they are'nt used and charged regularly. They sometimes also die when taken care of properly. Did happen to me too. They also loose capacity constantly, even when not used. I consider them as replacement parts within some years.

 

[fmerkel]

Li-on should be stored at about 50% charge. That should last for months>years. Stored for me is anything over a week. If you are less conservative change that to a month. But they fare better if not stored fully charged. At LEAST get them down to 3.9-4.0v/cell for sitting around.

A light "system" with Li-on batteries REQUIRES some kind of cut-off (PCB), either in the light head driver, more likely in the battery. If, for some reason the pack gets down to cut-off level, it should kick in and stop the current. BUT, when current is applied in charging it should disengage and allow charging. You CAN get a failure of this PCB cut-off electronic. You can get a failure of the charger to deal with the low battery. I've seen 2 PCB fail. Personally I don't much like them because they generally don't balance the batteries. If the batteries are not well matched they get more out of balance with use until they fail. But, without a PCB circuit you really need to have a balance tap, a charger that can deal with it, and KNOW what you are doing. So, for most people the protected battery pack is the way to go. Mostly you don't have much of a choice.

Like a lot of electronics most of this stuff is made in China and you can get excellent, decent, mediocre, and damn poor electronics. I suspect your PCB failed, and the batteries are sitting in there just fine but you can't get at them.

NOTE - An NiMh battery needs entirely different care. Charge after use. Top regularly if not used routinely. Cycle occasionally if not used regularly. To my knowledge no one is using top grade LSD type cells in NiMh packs for lights. If they did, those would have even different care.

 

[kafkaland]

By now, Bobby has looked at the battery, and indeed at least one cell has died. Which unfortunately means the entire pack has to be replaced. The light is only two years old and has about 100 dives on it. *Sigh*.

 

[tbone1004]

By now, Bobby has looked at the battery, and indeed at least one cell has died. Which unfortunately means the entire pack has to be replaced. The light is only two years old and has about 100 dives on it. *Sigh*.

major bummer. I know he tries to keep some of the older generation packs that were from lights that got upgraded around, but probably better to bite the bullet and upgrade to Gen5. Sucks that you have to do it though.