Am I not charging my E-Mag correctly?!

[Valadian]

I bought the 273-1779 12VDC/1500mA AC-to-DC Adapter from radio shack so that I could charge my Emag at home. However I am wondering if I am even doing it correctly or what the deal is. I remove the battery pack, plug the box in on top of it and plug the adapter into the box. Light goes red, I leave. Come back later and find the light to be green. So according to the charger, red means "fast charging" and green means "charged and ready to go" or something like that. So I think "yay" but then I plug it into the gun, see "AGD 1.37" come on, then it disappears, gun seems ok for a sec, but then it starts flashing "LO BATT" at me. Isnt it supposed to be charged? Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible to fry the battery somehow or could I have a defective battery? The gun is still relatively new. HELP! :)

[Load SM5]

Have you tried using the car charger? Does it do the same thing?

[Valadian]

gonna give it a shot.....

[Dude]

You have a defective charger. The EXACT same thing happened with my E-Mag when I had it, before I got a new charger. Call AGD and ask for a new charger.

[AGD]

Some of the chargers come on green pre-maturely. Just leave it on for a few hours and it should charge up fine.

AGD

[Valadian]

Thanks for the help Mr. K, however is it possible that Dude is right and I have a defective charger? When I first plug it in, the thing turns green and then goes red after about 30 seconds. Oh well I've decided to leave it on for the night and check it in the morning, then if its still goofy I'm gonna try the car charger when I head back to college tomorrow. Thanks again for all the help everyone.:D

[Valadian]

Well, I left the thing plugged into the wall and charging from around mid afternoon yesterday till about noon today. Tried plugging it in and I'm still getting the "LO BATT" message. So.............. anyone have a clue what this means? Either has to be: The wall adapter, the charger itself, or the battery. Well I guess the gun coulda gone crazy :)

Anyhow I'm hoping and praying its just the charger, to try to narrow things down more, I'm gonna try driving around and charging the gun to see if that changes anything. What are the chances of the battery itself being screwey? I've only played with the gun once, and other than that its just been me messing around with it, like taking shots out back, I've also been charging it, but I guess if the charger is screwey then I've really just slowly been draining the battery since its never really charged. Any further help? Looks like I might have to call AGD up tomorrow.

It's a great gun other than that, I like it much more than the various Angels I've played with, good job AGD! :)

[Load SM5]

Originally posted by Valadian
Well, I left the thing plugged into the wall and charging from around mid afternoon yesterday till about noon today. Tried plugging it in and I'm still getting the "LO BATT" message. So.............. anyone have a clue what this means? Either has to be: The wall adapter, the charger itself, or the battery.

Have you tried it in your car for a few hours, and not the wall adapter?

If so my guess would be the charger. I don't suppose you have a bud with an e-mag so you could borrow his?

[Valadian]

Nope Load have yet to try the car charger, but I plan to tonight when I head back to college. And if that doesnt work then we may have it narrowed down somewhat to the charger. I take it the chances of the battery being the problem aren't too great?

[Load SM5]

I just think a charger is more likely to be the cause than a stack of batteries that has been working up until now. I could be wrong but....

Hopefully the car charger will work for you. If it does'nt I'll mail you mine to try out so we can narrow it down a little further.

[Valadian]

Seriously? That'd be awesome, but I dont know if you'd have to go to such great lengths, I can always just call up AGD and ask them for a replacement, or see what they suggest. Anywho, thanks again! I'll post later tonight after I've tried out the car charger.

[Valadian]

Well I've driven or 30 minutes and have been charging the battery, while it never went green, I do think that it should have been a decent amount of time to charge the battery past the point where it would be saying "LO BATT", shouldn't it? So as you all can probably guess, I'm still getting the "LO BATT" message which leads me to believe that its either the charger or the battery. Any further advice or should I just give AGD a call in the morning? :mad:

[Load SM5]

Call AGD. They'll get you fixed up. The offer to borrow the charger still stands.

[Valadian]

Alright, thanks alot Load, you've been a big help. I'll give em a call tomorrow and get things sorted out =)

[Fleisher]

Something you could try ,the battery can get a"memory" ie false charge level, best thing to do is make sure its totally drained,then give it 16 hours on a wall socket ,this should wipe the memory.All you need to do then is top it up via the car charger before you use it and drain it/16 hour charge every so often.:)

[Valadian]

So you're saying that I should just leave it plugged into the gun and let it die?

Also, wasn't one of the major selling points that the mag's battery wasn't able to build a memory?

[ProjectMag]

The Emag battery doesn't develop a "memory." It's a Nickel Methal Hydride (NiMH) battery which lack the memory characteristics of NiCd batteries. There's no need to drain the battery completely, you can top the charge off any time.

[Valadian]

Yea thats what I was thinking.

Always something has to go wrong, I can't just blast people with impunity :mad:

[Fleisher]

Thats odd US supplied ones must use different batteries to UK ones as mine had the aforementioned fault though mine is quite an early model,wrong batteries supplied ?

[hitech]

Originally posted by ProjectMag
The Emag battery doesn't develop a "memory." It's a Nickel Methal Hydride (NiMH) battery which lack the memory characteristics of NiCd batteries.

They CLAIM that NiMH batteries don't build a memory. That is NOT my experence with computer and cell phone NiHM batteries. :( When I started always draining the batteries before recharging the problems stopped. :) You can always trickle charge them to top them off.

[Fleisher]

Hitech,thanks for the info as I`ve also had problems with phone Nimh batteries and Emag ones just goes to show "don`t belive the hype!"

Nice to hear from a fellow Phantom/6pak owner,shadow or express version ?

[hitech]

Originally posted by Fleisher
Nice to hear from a fellow Phantom/6pak owner,shadow or express version ?

I have one of the original Phantoms. Fixed barrel, twist CO2 "quick" change (I changed it to a standard ASA)... You know, one of the very first ones. In my opinion it was the best pump paintball gun (we didn't call them markers back then) made. The Carter Comp was close, but didn't have the "auto trigger".

[Fleisher]

Originally posted by hitech


I have one of the original Phantoms. Fixed barrel, twist CO2 "quick" change (I changed it to a standard ASA)... You know, one of the very first ones. In my opinion it was the best pump paintball gun (we didn't call them markers back then) made. The Carter Comp was close, but didn't have the "auto trigger".

Without doubt the best pump ever,mines a 1988/89 vintage shadow(10" barrel) with a home made stainless steel bottomline/45 grip,its home made bcause at the time they didn`t exist in the UK,I`ve inverted the 6pak and fitted a square delrin pump,also homemade,I still use it but not often as parts are hard to come by,power stems being a major hassle.Damn sight more accurate than any other marker I own and I`ve loads.:)

[Valadian]

My post has turned into a phantom pump thread?!
Hmmm maybe you guys are right.
How do I go about converting my Emag to a pump? :D
Because currently it would be better than the unfortunate state its in now hee hee ;)

EDIT: OOOH! I got it!! Electro pump guns!! The wave of the future!! OOH I'm gonna get right on this and start designing my own! If AGD or anyone else comes out with a design for one, I'm gonna sue! :p

[Fleisher]

Originally posted by Valadian
My post has turned into a phantom pump thread?!
Hmmm maybe you guys are right.
How do I go about converting my Emag to a pump? :D
Because currently it would be better than the unfortunate state its in now hee hee ;)

EDIT: OOOH! I got it!! Electro pump guns!! The wave of the future!! OOH I'm gonna get right on this and start designing my own! If AGD or anyone else comes out with a design for one, I'm gonna sue! :p

He he very funny .:) but you shouldn`t mock the old.
Sorry to hear your still having problems with the Emag,don`t give up their awsome when 100%(not as good as a Phantom though,did i ever tell you about the time...)

[Valadian]

Oh I dont plan on giving up at all, just gonna take some time to get it fixed. And I'm just a little miffed at the fact that I might not be able to play this weekend, or even if I could (it may or may not rain) I'll be out there with a fancy RT mag that cost around 1300 ;)

ALSO! I'd never mock a pump gun. My first time playing was with a pump and I loved it. I plan to get one sometime in the near future after I've done some research into whats the best (probably get a phantom of some kind). I'm kinda torn between getting a pump next or getting something like a PGP or PT Extreme cause I'd like to have a little backup to my Emag (mainly for sh*ts and giggles) :)

But a good pump would be cool, just.....stock, or trick it all out with constant air, hopper, etc etc etc.....
Thats the dilemma

[Cobrachs]

You may want to find someone with a meter to test the voltage, my emag was saying low battery and i had 18v on the battery. Turns out the board was bad and had to be replaced. Good luck

[Valadian]

Hmm... thats unsettling. Mine is saying the same thing. And ya after calling AGD the other day they said to grab a volt meter and test it out. So I plan to do that this weekend. Did your Emag work before the whole LO BATT thing or did it always say that?

[sniper1rfa]

never rely on one as a battery level indicator. i have a 9 volt battery to prove this. it will read 9.4 volts but will drop to 6 when you try to do anything with it.

[Valadian]

Well thats just what the AGD tech said to do, so I'm gonna do that and call him back. In the end I don't really see how this is gonna help anything, I'm still gonna have to send something in, and might as well ship the whole damn gun and say "Look and fix!" :) and be done with it.

[Fleisher]

Originally posted by Valadian
Oh I dont plan on giving up at all, just gonna take some time to get it fixed. And I'm just a little miffed at the fact that I might not be able to play this weekend, or even if I could (it may or may not rain) I'll be out there with a fancy RT mag that cost around 1300 ;

ALSO! I'd never mock a pump gun. My first time playing was with a pump and I loved it. I plan to get one sometime in the near future after I've done some research into whats the best (probably get a phantom of some kind). I'm kinda torn between getting a pump next or getting something like a PGP or PT Extreme cause I'd like to have a little backup to my Emag (mainly for sh*ts and giggles) :)

But a good pump would be cool, just.....stock, or trick it all out with constant air, hopper, etc etc etc.....
Thats the dilemma
Its small compensation but if you`d spent$1300 on ...say an Angel,you`d have a $1300 ornament at least with an Emag
its still usable butI do take you`re point as this seems a not uncommon problem.