Low battery alarm.... time for some troubleshooting

[cdv1]

Last two times I've charged the excal battery I noticed the battery and the charger didn't feel warm. Usually I can feel a slightly higher temperature on the battery so after the second time charging, I got out the meter and read the battery voltage 12. xx (can't remember the other digits) so I thought it was good..... well, just as I was getting in the groove today, she started screaming at me.....so I tucked tail and headed back to the car.....

One thing I did notice yesterday was some minor corrosion inside one of the battery jacks and cleaned them up good and applied some silicone grease. I'm wondering now if the corrosion was the problem and not allowing it to charge?? Guess I'll find out soon, its back on charge now and if I don't feel some warmth on the battery after a few hours, I'll get out the meter and check the charger.

I should have known better....

Cliff

 

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[bigscoop]

I experienced the same type thing a while back. An electrical minded friend of mine told me that it isn't really a voltage issue, but rather it is a DC current issue in the failing battery. i.e., the battery can show a full charge and still be bad. The battery I had the issue with will only sustain an operating charge for about 4 -5 hours now, but once charged if you check it with a meter it will show a full 12+ charge, and it still gets warm when charged for any extended length of time, like overnight. My advice, (which I have yet to follow myself).....order a replacement battery. In fact, I may do that myself today.

PS: That "scream" is really creepy! Darn thing really sounds like it's dying. lol

 

[Uncle Jeff]

OK BAG BAD move ....

One thing I did notice yesterday was some minor corrosion inside one of the battery jacks and cleaned them up good and applied some silicone grease.

Silicone grease and heat transfer compounds for electronics, high voltage and potable water

Silicone greases are formulated to provide very durable, non-setting, work stable products used to lubricate, electrically insulate and act as a heat transfer medium.

Note the electrically insulate, in other words helps prevent electricity from passing through... So probably the worst thing you can put on battery or charger connections Go to your locale auto parts store and ask for the waterproofing grease for your cars head lamps. They usually have these in small little single application packets similar to like a ketchup pack but smaller and will give them to you for free These stuff is water repellant while still being a great conductor.

*** edit also a side note as stated above, rechargeable batteries only have a life of one to two years so it may be time to replace the batteries.

 

[cdv1]

Ok, some additional information..... battery voltage right now 11.8 volts (unconnected), charger open loop voltage 18v, when connected to the battery, voltage at connector is 12.2 volts.
Battery is only 10 months old.

Cliff

 

[seeker41]

my excel battery is at least 6 years old and may actually be the original(near 8 or 9 years old) and it works fine and charges great.

 

[Southernstyle]

I have had same issue with connections. The best thing I have ever done to my Excaliburs is replace their stuff with better stuff. The charging system that comes with the Excalibur's is a poor design....You don't even know if you have a good connection because there are NO indicators to let you know you have a connection, just plug it in and hope for the best. So I bought a after market charger off amazon that has indicators letting you know when you have a good connection, red light is charging and green light is charged. WOW, What a great idea, how did Minelab not figure that one out? I guess there idea is that if it works great for all the other charging systems in the world then Minelab should do it differently. I still sometimes have to re adjust my plug when charging because my aftermarket charger doesn't light up, letting me know I have no connection.

As far as the battery terminals rusting....welcome to another one of Minelabs poor designs. It is inevitable. I use proper grease/silicon on my connections, they still rust away after time. Your best bet is to buy replacements from Ikelite or send it back to Minelab every year or so. If you're lucky enough to still be under warranty, make sure when you send it in as it was when it was stock.

I have replaced my battery charging system with better aftermarket charger, replaced my headphone BAND with another band off of a pair of yard type ear protection(luckily it was same type of slide connection where band and ear piece lock together, making them actually fit the contour of my head, thus making them fit tighter/more snug around my ears.), replaced knobs to Anderson knobs which give me nicer/easier control of fine tuning my threshold and a Anderson shaft for a better balanced and easier to control detector. I have had to replace my battery connections at least 6 times over the past 5 years on 3 different Excal's. I have also bought replacement batteries and cases of ebay/amazon to replace the stock one when they rust away.


Hopefully you have fixed or found your problem area. My battery contacts, male and female are rusted badly and still work and it will until they break off. You hopefully just had a battery that didn't charge. When my machine screams at me constantly it was due to the coil separated and got water in it. When it screams at me because of low battery is a different scream and will repeat scream 3 or 4 times then will quickly die out after first few sets of alarms, the threshold will actually get louder as it dies, then quickly lowers its tone to nothing.....dead battery.

Good luck with her,
Chris

 

[seeker41]

ok, I take back my earlier post!! my pod and charger are sunray. they are at least 6 years old!!!!

 

[Twinkletoes]

Last two times I've charged the excal battery I noticed the battery and the charger didn't feel warm. Usually I can feel a slightly higher temperature on the battery so after the second time charging, I got out the meter and read the battery voltage 12. xx (can't remember the other digits) so I thought it was good..... well, just as I was getting in the groove today, she started screaming at me.....so I tucked tail and headed back to the car.....

One thing I did notice yesterday was some minor corrosion inside one of the battery jacks and cleaned them up good and applied some silicone grease. I'm wondering now if the corrosion was the problem and not allowing it to charge?? Guess I'll find out soon, its back on charge now and if I don't feel some warmth on the battery after a few hours, I'll get out the meter and check the charger.

I should have known better....

Cliff

Me too! Got out for an early start and twenty minutes into the hunt, the "no go" tone. Came home and have charged the battery for 5 hours, now I'm going out again. I don't know how long it will last, but I want to go metal detecting! About two hours ago I ordered the Excalibur alkaline battery pod for back up! H Digs

 

[bigscoop]

I'm drowning my Excal in the salty surf nearly every day and I have had no such problems (knock on wood), and it's an old blue, a 2001 as I recall. I did change the nobs and upgraded from the stock headphones but not because of failures, and I did replace the seals at the battery connector as this eventually did wear out, but nothing as far as major leaks and failures and I'm pretty brutal on mine - original battery needs replaced but still holds a charge for 4-5 hours. I'm sure, with as many Excals as they sell, that a few lemons find their way into the market, but I still think 90% of it involves a lack of daily and routine care. Just the other day I broke mine down, inspected and cleaned "everything". I do this about once every 2 weeks or so. When I rinse the machine I even turn the pods back and forth to insure that I get a good flush. I never leave it in the vehicle overnight or anyplace where it can be over-exposed to the heat & sun or where it can get needlessly bounced around, like in the trunk of a car, and I keep it inside the house in a controlled environment when not in use. So I guess I've just been lucky.

 

[dewcon4414]

I used corroisonX on most of my electrical stuff. Make sure you progs are spread. My ML charger not under load reads almost 18 DCV. My batteries fully charged are 14.25..... which is the same as the charger output listing.

Dew

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Last two times I've charged the excal battery I noticed the battery and the charger didn't feel warm. Usually I can feel a slightly higher temperature on the battery so after the second time charging, I got out the meter and read the battery voltage 12. xx (can't remember the other digits) so I thought it was good..... well, just as I was getting in the groove today, she started screaming at me.....so I tucked tail and headed back to the car.....

One thing I did notice yesterday was some minor corrosion inside one of the battery jacks and cleaned them up good and applied some silicone grease. I'm wondering now if the corrosion was the problem and not allowing it to charge?? Guess I'll find out soon, its back on charge now and if I don't feel some warmth on the battery after a few hours, I'll get out the meter and check the charger.

I should have known better....

Cliff

Cliff:
Silicone grease is an insulator (does not conduct electricity). It should be used sparingly between the, male pins on the ikiltie connector which is screwed into the battery pod to prevent chatter.
You do not want to place any silicone grease on the male Ikelite pins or inside the female pins in the battery pod or charge adapter as this will create an open circuit because of the high resistance.
IIRC, the battery charger transformer may be damaged if it is left in the electrical outlet without charging (trickle).
Corrosion usually discharges your battery; it could increase the amount of current needed to charge your battery (sort a high resistance short in parrallel) .
I find it easier to detect the heat from the charging transformer by pressing my cheek on it. It takes much longer for the battery pod to get warm because of its thermal mass.
To properly test a battery, you have to check it under load, which requires a special tester. All you will know by testing it with a meter is that there is voltage; you cannot tell if the cells are weak/ damaged.

 

[cdv1]

Hey all, thanks for the comments and suggestions. Still don't think the battery is charging but the replacement battery and charger have been ordered. I'll check the battery tomorrow, if all is working properly, it should be charged. I do have a battery tender charger that I may try tomorrow. I vaguely remember dropping the battery a few days ago and now I'm wondering IF I might have a loose connection inside the battery module. So if nothing works tonight or tomorrow with the battery, I'll take it apart and take a look at everything.

As for the silicone grease, the amount that was put on shouldn't make a difference.....and it wasn't put on the terminals until after I had suspected the thing wasn't charging so it shouldn't be the problem but could add to the problem!

Cliff

 

[cdv1]

Ok, I don't know whether to feel stupid and embarrassed or not but I'm a straight shooter and always have told others the stupid things I've done all through life.... maybe someone will learn from it.... Here goes:
My battery apparently is ok, I had it on the ML charger all night and it is warm and now at 14.6 volts. Do I have a problem or am I the problem.... here is a story that will maybe explain better what may have happened....
Pretend you are in your favorite vehicle on a trip and your gas gauge doesn't work (no lights or meters on the ML charger). You start your trip with a full tank of gas an you drive a bit but aren't sure of the miles you drove so you stop at the gas station and you put a few gallons in just to be sure you have enough. You don't fill it up, you just put in enough gas to compensate with what you thought you used. Well, eventually, you calculations will be off and you will run out of gas..... that is what I think happened to me.
I had been only charging for the amount of hours that I thought I used the machine and I don't think you can do that with the ML charger.. on top of that, I may have missed a time or two to "top off the battery".
Live and learn... good news, new battery is coming this week with a better charger that has indications on it of the state of the battery.... now I just need to find a battery housing to put that one in and I'll have a spare!
Thanks for all the tips and tricks, maybe someone will learn from my stupidity!
HH and GL all
Cliff

 

[bigscoop]

I get up early one morning, load up the cooler and vehicle for a full day of hard & serious hunting at the beach....it truly is one of those perfect days, my spirits and confidence is high....recent weather has removed a lot of sand from the beach and created several deep holes, cuts, etc. I'm really pumped up and have a lot of expectations for a successful hunt. Thirty minutes later I arrive at the beach, the tide is low-low and the ocean is flat. AWESOME! Five minutes later I realize I forgot my detector. Now that defines, stupid!

 

[Twinkletoes]

Ok, I don't know whether to feel stupid and embarrassed or not but I'm a straight shooter and always have told others the stupid things I've done all through life.... maybe someone will learn from it.... Here goes:
My battery apparently is ok, I had it on the ML charger all night and it is warm and now at 14.6 volts. Do I have a problem or am I the problem.... here is a story that will maybe explain better what may have happened....
Pretend you are in your favorite vehicle on a trip and your gas gauge doesn't work (no lights or meters on the ML charger). You start your trip with a full tank of gas an you drive a bit but aren't sure of the miles you drove so you stop at the gas station and you put a few gallons in just to be sure you have enough. You don't fill it up, you just put in enough gas to compensate with what you thought you used. Well, eventually, you calculations will be off and you will run out of gas..... that is what I think happened to me.
I had been only charging for the amount of hours that I thought I used the machine and I don't think you can do that with the ML charger.. on top of that, I may have missed a time or two to "top off the battery".
Live and learn... good news, new battery is coming this week with a better charger that has indications on it of the state of the battery.... now I just need to find a battery housing to put that one in and I'll have a spare!
Thanks for all the tips and tricks, maybe someone will learn from my stupidity!
HH and GL all
Cliff

Well that begs a question. If you fully charge the battery overnight (12 hours), then only end up hunting 2-3 hours. Do you fully charge the battery again if you plan to go the next day?

 

[SonnyFl]

I would say NO! Just have a back up. I carry one in my bag because I get too far from my car. I cap the battery with a 3/4 pvc end cap. I fill the end cap with cylecone to form the seal. Let it set up and walla. Handydandy battery on stand by. I don't know how you all feel about this, but, I've found that draining the battery down to 5 or 6volts,when it appears to not take or hold a charge. This doesn't happen too often, but, it works for me.

 

[Harold in Fla.]

Hi Cliff, well don't feal that way, everybody has one of them days, one day i got everything ready headed out and a hour and half drive, and put all my stuff on and went down to the water and turned the detector on and nothing, something burned out on the board, had nothing at all, had no spare detector or nothing and had to drive all the way home, had to send it in and they fixed it, now i check it to be sure it's working before i leave the house now, HH

 

[teklord]

"I get up early one morning, load up the cooler and vehicle for a full day of hard & serious hunting at the beach....it truly is one of those perfect days, my spirits and confidence is high....recent weather has removed a lot of sand from the beach and created several deep holes, cuts, etc. I'm really pumped up and have a lot of expectations for a successful hunt. Thirty minutes later I arrive at the beach, the tide is low-low and the ocean is flat. AWESOME! Five minutes later I realize I forgot my detector.

Now that defines, stupid! "

I went to Amelia Island for a week last year and forgot a scoop, Kellyco saved the day by shipping one directly to the hotel. Now I have a spare. I carry a back up rechargeable and a back up standard battery pack, and extra batteries. I could hunt for a month.