Excalibur Battery

[mlayers]

I just got my Excalibur and I am wondering do you let the battery go completly dead before recarging it, or you charge it up after using it for the day. I have not seen if there is a low battery light on it. As I do not want to make to battery get a sort life span. I have a all day hunt planed for this week end and I have already used it for 10 hours and it is still going. Thanks for ay help....Matt

 

[Montauk3]

I recharge after every two hunts, each hunt up to 5/8 hours.
We don't have the concerns with the newer battery's like we had with the older ones.

HTH

P.S. You should not have problems with your upcoming hunt. Just make sure that you charge overnight No concern with charging overnight.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

montauk3 seems to say that the old nicad problem of "memory", is a thing of the past. I'm not so sure of that. I suppose the manufacturers have lessened the "memory" problem, compared to what it was years ago, but I don't think it's completey eliminated. So I still drain my batteries all the way, before recharging them, even on modern packs. And you're right: there's no strength indicator on the Excal. Just the low battery warning tone. So you might wanna get a second pack, and just carry it with you in the field, to change-out when necssary.

If you don't know what the "memory" problem is, it's the following: Say if you charge your nicads (like your home's walk-around phone, or a charge-flashlight, or whatever) after every hour of use. Eventually, the battery's will memorize that point, and ... presto: pretty soon they go dead at ....... 1 hr!

And you'll notice that most gadget manufacturers don't tell you this. For example: the instructions on your home's chordless phone, will tell you to put the handset back on the charger, after each use, right? This is why you'll find yourself going to radio shack 2x per year for a new nicad pack, because eventually, the pack depends on charges after only a few minutes of usage (ie.: memorizes). But if you only charge when the battery goes all the way down, the battery will last 5x as long. I think the manufacturers are in cahoots with the nicad battery manufacturers, to not instruct for full-discharges, so they can sell more nicad packs

 

[Woodland Detectors]

montauk3 seems to say that the old nicad problem of "memory", is a thing of the past. I'm not so sure of that. I suppose the manufacturers have lessened the "memory" problem, compared to what it was years ago, but I don't think it's completey eliminated. So I still drain my batteries all the way, before recharging them, even on modern packs. And you're right: there's no strength indicator on the Excal. Just the low battery warning tone. So you might wanna get a second pack, and just carry it with you in the field, to change-out when necssary.

If you don't know what the "memory" problem is, it's the following: Say if you charge your nicads (like your home's walk-around phone, or a charge-flashlight, or whatever) after every hour of use. Eventually, the battery's will memorize that point, and ... presto: pretty soon they go dead at ....... 1 hr!

And you'll notice that most gadget manufacturers don't tell you this. For example: the instructions on your home's chordless phone, will tell you to put the handset back on the charger, after each use, right? This is why you'll find yourself going to radio shack 2x per year for a new nicad pack, because eventually, the pack depends on charges after only a few minutes of usage (ie.: memorizes). But if you only charge when the battery goes all the way down, the battery will last 5x as long. I think the manufacturers are in cahoots with the nicad battery manufacturers, to not instruct for full-discharges, so they can sell more nicad packs

That certainly wouldn't surprise me Tom.
good post

 

[mlayers]

OK would it be best to do. When I know that I will be out all day and I don't have a back up battery it would be best turn the detector on when I am at work and then when I get home to plug in and charge my battery. So that way it would be fully charged for the day hunt. I would hate to drive a hour and then have to quit hunting in 3 or 4 hours because of a dead battery......Matt

 

[Tom_in_CA]

mlayers, there's nothing to stop you from doing "booster charges" before a hunt, to try to ensure that you won't go dead during your hunt. But just be aware, that this will ultimately shorten the life of the battery, to keep charging it when it is only 1/4 or 1/2 drained or whatever. Eventually, it will memorize that # of hours hunt time. If you just did it "now and then", and then the rest of the time DID let it fully discharge before re-charging, then it wouldn't get the memory.

To answer your other question: yes, I sometimes purposefully leave my machine on, overnight, in a corner, just to drain down the battery. Then re-charge it to full.

If you're going to do a lot of hunting, you can always just buy an extra alkaline pack. They do make alkaline packs for the excal, but it's a little chore to open them up to add batteries. Naturally, because it's water-proof, you have to have an alan wrench, if I recall, to get it open to change batteries (or maybe it was a lengthy threaded screw-in cap? I can't recall). And you have to be careful of the little rubber seal, etc... But at least by having this type backup pack, you will always have a way to get power, even in the field. Because batteries can be instantly had at just about any convenience store, gas station, etc....

When I hunted with an Excal a lot, I had 2 packs: the rechargeable, which was my main pack (for the obvious reason that it was reeeally cheap to use over and over). And I had the alkaline pack for a backup, for if I went dead in the field. Typically, I would only reach for this backup only rarely. And even when I did, just to finish off an hour or so in the field. So it took ages to ever use up the alkalines (ie.: maybe only once in a blue moon ever need to install new alkalines). The alkaline pack is also nice, because if ...... for some reason, you only had 2 nicad packs, and if you were ready to head out the door, and discovered they were both dead, you would be at the mercy of 8 hrs re-charge time. But by having an alkaline pack, you can always just add new batteries, and be back in business.

 

[peater2010]

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