v3.2 bug? or short? or radio shack charger...?

[c sherer]

Got in tonite and went over everything listed above to see if I missed anything. Still the same problem. But, When I attached the battery, I briefly got a low battery msg on the board before it fritzed out. So I thought, lets try something different. I took the battery & charger unit out to the car and hooked it up to the cigarette lighter in the car to let it charge. 3 hours later, green light. Ok, now I thought this thing *should* have a solid, full charge. Put it on the X and it so far, works fine. All menus work. put 500ish shots on it. Still strong.

So, the culprit seems to be the radio shack charger that is being referred to here on AO. It seems to put a solid charge on it, but apparently it is not. I've read many people who are swearing by this thing, but it really seems to not work properly. Can anyone confirm this? Have any of you that are experiencing similar problems been using this charger? I'm off to radio shack to return this piece of crap and will look into another option.

AGD: Do you all have any plans to make a wall converter unit or can you officially recommend a compatible charger unit?

I really hope the charger was the root of the problems. I will put the X thru a solid workout this weekend and report back on how it performed, but it would really be nice to be able to charge this thing at home and not have to run out to the car and leave the keys in the car while it is charging up...

CoSherer

[xen_100]

the radio shack "charger" you are using. is that the one with the cigarette lighter port on the front of it? cause if your emag charger will work in your car, there is no reason (other than being defective) that the radioshack power supply shouldn't work. they both put out 12V.

[c sherer]

the charger was the wall plug unit. the 1500mA 12v.
I'd hook it up and the light on the agd batter box would not come on at all, so I left it charging for about 4 hours. I tested the battery, and it seemed to have a full charge (18v). I tested the output of the wall unit and it seemed to be putting out 22-23v. But, the battery never would charge well. So I used the agd cig lighter and it worked fine.

Still haven't really used the X yet, so jury is still out, but it appears to be fine. I'll post results sunday nite after practice.

C

[xen_100]

so am I right in assuming that you did not hook up the radio shack charger to the AGD charger right? you just put the radio shack charger into the emag?

if the charger puts out 12V, it is not going to charge an 18V battery. the 22V output you see is an unloaded output. (probebly a switching powersupply) but the loaded output will put out only 12V (this is why it did not charge the battery)

if you get a 12V power supply (not a battery charger), the kind with a cigarette lighter socket on the front. then you can plug your stock AGD car charger into it. that will charge the battery. it will be just like it is in your car.

[c sherer]

No, you can't hook the battery directly to the (radio shack) charger.
You get the cigarette lighter cord and the grey/black box that mounts on top of the battery (when you buy an e/x mag). This has the red/green light.
The charger in question simply replaces the power cord portion of the charging setup, so no I did not do it incorrectly. (this 'types' like I'm being short, but just trying to get facts straight & help determine the problem)

Your point on the 12v vs 18v charger makes sense, but I purchased the specified model number as it was listed in previous AO posts.
Here's the link:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F009%5F001%5F001%5F001&product%5Fid=273%2D1779

Do a search on '1500mA' to find the posts for this charger unit.

So how about all those people with this unit - have you had any issues? Will the 12v charge an 18v battery? I'm pretty far from an electrician, but it sounds like the charger may be too weak for the battery?

Oh yea,
The "adaptaplug" that comes with this unit is set up as per previous posts stated to maintain polarity. Unless they were wrong... I did not reverse this plug as it has been stated that doing so could blow the battery.

C

[cledford]

I haven't had any problems yet with the 1500ma wall charger that BlackVCG recommended, but have only used it a couple of times. Before that I was using the Radioshack "cigarette" style charger. My list of battery woes is long and expensive - I'm on my second battery, second charger, and there was a trip (for the marker) back to the factory.

All I can say is that I've never charged my battery a lot. It is good for many thousands of shots and even though it is NiMH I'm a believer in "don't charge it until you need to." NiMH or not, they only have so many cycles on them.

Anyhow, my first charger (after maybe 6 uses over a 1.5 year period) just stopped working - no LED, no charge, nothing. I was using it with the "cigarette" style charger. I decided to open the charger after talking to Gunga who had informed me that no matter what the problem, the charger was out of the warrantee period and would not be fixed. When I opened it the board was smoked - not sure why - it was just burnt. Bought a new charger from AGD at the incredible price of $80! I was pretty shocked! According to Gunga they're custom made and AGD pays a huge cost from them. Anyhow, then the battery still wouldn't charge (tried 1500ma charger , the car, and the other Radio Shack charger) and then sent the battery (with gun) back to the factory. (this was before I'd been there for training ) Gunga called and said the battery wasn't holding a charge and likely had a bad cell in it. The battery was getting close to 2 years old but had no more the 10 cycles on it - so I was shocked, but the voltmeter doesn't lie. I shucked out the $40 bucks for the new pack. All I can say is that I hope it all hangs in there. With the new house I can't afford ANYTHING anymore I just hope I don't have any other electronics related troubles with it.

I hate to criticize AGD on anything, I love the company, the products, and Tom is my hero. That having been said - if I've got any question in my mind at all about the Emag line, it is entirely related to the battery/charger system which I'm not as confident in as I'd like to be. Everything else is ROCK solid.

-Calvin

[c sherer]

I tend to agree regarding the batterys. I've been a mag user for past 9 years or so and to date, the e/x mag battery / charger unit seems to be the only weak link in the whole AGD line.
I'd love to see some new solution from AGD regarding this stuff. Apparently the same battery / charger structure has been in place since the developement of the Emags, which is several years I believe.
I'm sure that if a better, more reliable solution existed, people would shell out a little cash for it in order to have a solid performer battery and charge setup.
Cell phone batteries have come a very long way and are pretty reliable and small these days. Maybe AGD can look into reworking their battery platform. Lithium Ion perhaps instead of NiMh...? Or maybe just replaceable over the counter batteries?

CoSherer

[xen_100]

ok, that is a powersupply. (not really a charger) so you have the right thing. just double check and make sure it is connected correctly. if it is. then I would suggest that you have a defective rat-shack part. 12V @ 1500mA should be more than enough to charge a battery. does anybody know what mAH the battery is in the emag?

as far the 12 Vs 18 thing. as long as you are using the AGD charger that came with the emag, that is doing the conversion of voltage for you. I was jsut making sure that you were using that. cause charging an 18V battery from a 12V source wouldn't work without it.

anywho, I would get a different powersupply and try again. its a little more money, but these are great 12V supplies.( and relativly cheap if you look at other 12v 3A supplies)

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F009%5F001%5F005%5F000&product%5Fid=22%2D504

[Miscue]

Originally posted by cledford
I'm on my second battery, second charger, and there was a trip (for the marker) back to the factory.

I'll be on my third battery, and I'm getting a spare. Kinda sucks...

[hitech]

Sounds like either the charger you are using is "bad" or you're charging regime is off. I don't care what anyone says, charging a NiMH battery before it is "discharged" is going to lead to problems. If the battery gets hot while charging something is wrong. It could be the battery or the charger. But something is wrong.

[Miscue]

I haven't been charging it until the electronics fail... as I've been working on my program and not shooting the gun.

I think I'll send the charger back too... seems strange to have repeated problems unless it's just my luck.

[hitech]

Originally posted by Miscue
I think I'll send the charger back too... seems strange to have repeated problems unless it's just my luck.

I would, esp. if the battery is getting hot while it is charging.

[Mango]

Is there a specific sequence of events that have to occur to cause this problem? After reading this thread I'm a little concerned.

[Ghost24]

My problems are gone. RobAGD and myself thought it might have been the 3.2 software. Rob got 3.2 from Miscue so we should have know it wasn't the software . Rob re-installed 2.1 and I still had the same problem with the marker stopping to fire in E-mode and the display acting crazy (i.e low batt flashing or no display at all). Turns out the red wire was not attached well from the battery to the contact. A quick solder and its rip city all over again. Everyone check the battery wiring. Rob Da Man!

[Miscue]

Originally posted by Ghost24
My problems are gone. RobAGD and myself thought it might have been the 3.2 software. Rob got 3.2 from Miscue so we should have know it wasn't the software .

Err, I don't have 3.2... just 3.0 and my stuff. He probably used Q1.0 to compare with 3.0. If both are doing the same thing, hardware problem.