Excal II charging

[JOe L]

Now that I am becoming an experienced Excal II user.. LOL, far from it. I do have one question for my Brother users.
If I fully charge my Excal. battery pack, and only use it for an hour or so, should I recharge it a bit or let it run down? Also, since this is not a trickle charger, can this batt. pack be ruined by over charging? This issue has always boggled me... I hear it doesn't hurt to charge this pack whenever but, I would really like to hear your suggestions and how you do it. Thanks, JOe

 

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[954hunter]

Excellent question.

Just to be on the safe side I have only recharged after about 9-12 hours of hunting, but would like to know definitively.

 

[JOe L]

to add.. I called Minelab on charging and the gentleman I talked to there sounded like I woke him from his nap and really had NO info on charging at all other than to repeat the things I said. As in. "the manual says initial charge of 17 hrs is this OK to go over. His answer, charge for 17 hrs." WELL, will it hurt it to charge over "May hurt it" Thanks, GOOD BY.

So I am hoping you fine folks will have some info on how you do it.

 

[Sandman]

I don't have the standard battery pack but a NIMH 1600 pak which is different. I recharge mine after around 20 or more hours of use for 14 hours. You shouldn't have to recharge it after only 9 hours use. The charger might be damaged by to long a charge. There isn't much in the way of telling when it is charged like a cell phone or even the Sov GT charger.

 

[Foilman]

I wouldn't leave it on charger for days and days. The NIMH shouldn't be left charging. Your best bet is put a DC voltmeter on it. If you don't have one you good get one pretty reasonable at radioshack or an auto parts place. I think at full charge its 14volts dc. (not sure)
If it drops down 2-3 volts I would give it a couple hours or more to get to full voltage and that is it. Before you go to use it check the voltage if it is at full charge just go, if not give it a couple hours and check it. It should not take more than a few hours once the initial charge is done.

Seems Minelab wants everybody guessing, and frying, and buying batteries.

 

[JOe L]

Thanks guys, I have a mulit meter and will take your suggestion.

 

[JoeinMemphis]

I wonder if you could put a DC Ammeter in line with it and watch the amp load change. I know lead - acid batteries start with a high amp load, and ease up to almost nothing when they are fully charged. I wonder if the NiMh batt's are the same?? HH Joe

 

[Foilman]

You could do amp meter too, but you would have to cut and splice. with voltage on that battery you can just put the probes into the battery with the connector undone. Also I think it would, yes be higher current at the beginning of the charge, but the last 30 percent the flow probably wouldn't change much and you still wouldn't no if you are at full voltage.

P.S. -The output on the charger is 14.3 volts if you look. That tells me 14.3 is the highest possible voltage you would get on the battery.

I just checked mine and it is at 13.5 volts-pretty sure it is fully charged.

 

[Foilman]

I am gonna start monitoring and report back!

 

[Foilman]

Disclaimer a voltage test doesn't indicate a battery is neccessarily good. It tells a lot though.

FYI- My deep cycle trolling motor battery is 12v- when it gets down to 10-10.5 volts the motor is about to quit. However a fully charged wet cell in good condition charges to about 2.2 volts per cell and a "12v"- fully charged is about 13.2 at least or more. (2.2 volts per cell X 6 cells=13.2)

I don't know what the top is for these batteries. My guess is 13.5-13.9 in good condition.

 

[JOe L]

Just checked mine also, I am just at 12 and a half. That's after 2-3 hrs use. I think this is going to be the answer, just have to watch it. My XT70 has the batt. gauge wish the excal had something better to tell you its time for a charge.

 

[Foilman]

The real question is what does the circuitry require.
If it runs on 5v your OK for along time, if it is 10v not so much.
If you know what voodoo circuit is in there you could you could spec out the chips to see the operating voltage min/max, without that it will be trial and error, I don't know why minelabs can't at least, tell you this. Of course I am not sure there are any engineers in Vegas.

 

[JOe L]

I don't see why they do not offer a charger with a indicator as to when the charge is done. I would be the first in line to purchase!!!!!

 

[JoeinMemphis]

Amen Brother!!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I have been using my Minelabs (Excals & Sovs) for 2 years now. I charge over night before every hunt usually 12 to 18 hours and never seem to have a problem with power.

It would be nice to have a full charge LED, but I can live with out it as long as I keep finding the gold and diamonds like I have since buying them.

I am still doing the happy dance from my July 4th finds....

 

[JOe L]

TH, Thats one heck of a happy dance.
I guess you just have to get into a routing on charging...

 

[Foilman]

I just checked it for the first time since July 9Th and the voltage is 12.58, down from the 13.5 at start.

I have used it 4 times at 3-4 hours each trip. I am gonna charge it before I forget. I would like to find the bottom limit but I don't have a spare and I don't want it to go dead in the middle of the hunt, so my data stream is over for now.

 

[JOe L]

it sounds like you got some good use for the drop being so little.

 

[Foilman]

Update: After an overnight charge as soon as I took off the charger it read 14.00v

It quickly dropped to 13.98,
after five minutes it settled to 13.90v .
after 10 minutes 13.78

after 20 minutes 13.75

and that is a momentary test not leaving the voltmeter on there.

I will check it to see if it loses anymore off charge after setting a while. It is typical for some settling after charging a battery. This was only the third charge on this battery. As it ages, performance is anybodies guess.

JOe
if I only have to charge it after every 3rd or 4th use I won't complain.

 

[JOe L]

Bringing my meter home tonight, will do some testing. Just charged about 2 days ago and haven't used it since then. Would like to see what it looks like after sitting a couple days.
Being the excal has no indicators, adapter LED's or anything to let you know its fully charged, I think this testing is a good thing just to see where the battery state is at a given time.