Shearwater Perdix Battery Died Twice

[dbnewton]

This looks like a very plausible reason for it to happen twice in a very short time

The device always asks for confirmation of battery type after a battery change. I know for fact that both times the device detected alkaline and I confirmed alkaline.

I had a Shearwater Pursuit that had the same issue. It was due to a defective depth sensor.

Interesting. I assume the point is the depth sensor was sucking all the battery power. None the less my depth indication seems correct, so I had no reason to suspect the depth sensor. But now Ill watch carefully.

 

[dbnewton]

I skipped the alkaline because I’ve had a few leak in other devices, and just don’t trust them.

I instead used the 3.7V Lithium rechargeables. I got a 4 pack, so I’ll always have a few ready to go. Keep one with me on day trips, and bring all 4 for vacation. The Perdix Fuel Gauge battery meter works with them, so it’s easy to see the state of charge.

Good point about the leak risk. Do you find the Li battery gives enough warning between yellow and dead?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Good point about the leak risk. Do you find the Li battery gives enough warning between yellow and dead?

Yes.

 

[Belzelbub]

Good point about the leak risk. Do you find the Li battery gives enough warning between yellow and dead?

Absolutely. With the lithium batteries I use, the battery indicator gradually creeps down as it’s used. It gives much more of an indication than a green, yellow, red. Not all battery types are compatible with the Fuel Gauge, though.

 

[Brules]

I have had great success using the SAFT battery. The exact battery called out in the manual can be bought through batteries plus. A little pricey but they last.

Good luck

Glenn

100%. I use Eneloop chargeable batts all over my house, but the SAFT is just that much better than pretty much anything. I pay th emoney for them only for my Perdix AI as they just LAST and last and last. Seems to be best fit for the computer and I only need 1-2 a year so I splurge on them (via Amazon) and have never had an issue. May be worth it to just use SAFT and no worries.

 

[mstevens]

Had a weird experience with Perdix battery indicators. My wife and I dive with Perdix AI's, our DM friend in Cozumel with a Perdix. Our batteries last for many dives - we replace them at the start of a trip and have never had them run particularly low over 2 to 4 weeks of diving. His battery wound end up in the red on the second dive. That made no sense if we were diving together and he didn't even have the AI radio. After trying all the brands of batteries available (Saft lasted 4-5 dives) we gave up and sent it in for service. I got a very polite call pointing out that the computer was set to rechargeable battery and that while of course one shouldn't start a dive on a low battery indicator, the batteries would have actually lasted as long as they were supposed to. It was just that the accuracy of meter is very dependent on the computer's knowing the battery type. I really thought I'd quadruple-checked all the settings, but obviously not.

 

[parzdiver]

I instead used the 3.7V Lithium rechargeables. I got a 4 pack, so I’ll always have a few ready to go. Keep one with me on day trips, and bring all 4 for vacation. The Perdix Fuel Gauge battery meter works with them, so it’s easy to see the state of charge.

Is there a particular brand of rechargeable that you use?

 

[NothingClever]

I don’t use rechargeables for my Perdix.

Saft for the win.

I carry a spare in my kit.

 

[Belzelbub]

Is there a particular brand of rechargeable that you use?

I had to look it up on my Amazon order. I’m using Shockli rechargeables. Bought them in 2019. So far I’m happy with them. No surprises, and they last a good long time.

 

[Caesar.Wong]

I use alkaline batteries and replace the battery before the next dive when it indicates yellow during the last dive. That has always worked until last week. I had a battery go from no indication to yellow to red and to dead in the course of one dive (albeit a 115 minute dive). I carry a back up computer and it was a very shallow dive so no harm done really.

I would have thought nothing of it except that after replacing the battery I did one dive with no issues but the next day before the following dive the battery was so dead I could not even power up the device.

These issues have not repeated after again replacing the battery so perhaps there is no issue. I could perhaps just ignore the first event and assume that the progression from no battery indication to yellow to red to dead in the course of one dive was simply due to a very long dive near the battery end of life. But I've never seen a battery progress that rapidly before. And I have no explanation for the 2nd event because the battery throughout the dive was full, it died overnight. The device powers itself down if left on for 15 minutes so leaving it on is not the explanation.

Recently my Perdix is behaving the same as how you have described it, but it's happening with the Energizer Ultimate Lithium battery, that's the type of battery I use all the time. New battery drained over a week with only 2 dives, 73mins total dive time.

For unknown reason, my Perdix is draining the battery even when it is off, battery indicator flashing red before the next dive during the following weekend. At first, I thought it might be just the bad lithium battery, so I replaced it with a double AA brand new alkaline just to try it out, making sure I chose the correct battery type, and off I'm gone diving. Half day gone and 2 dives done, about 1 hour dive each, the battery indicating yellow already! That night, I swapped the alkaline battery out with the 3.7v Li-Ion rechargeable battery. It was fully charged at 4.2v and it has gone down to 3.8v 33hours later...

I couldn't figure it out why is my Perdix behaving so power hungry after 2 months of dive break, it was working perfectly fine before I took the Lithium battery out for storage.

Any idea what happened with yours? And how did you fix it? I live in Malaysia and the nearest service centre is in Thailand. I wish it is easy fix that I could address it myself without having it sent all the way to get it checked in Thailand.

Cheers!