Topic: Wal-Mart Battery - field problems

[coloartist]

Never have ever had this happen to me as I said earlier, I have seen it happen to others..

I am not using a radio shack connector, so I am going to have to reccommend the fine company and friend, that makes all my connectors and cables.

www.kindkables.com

Ed will set you up fast, and you hopefully will never have a short again.


http://kindkables.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=11&products_id=29&osCsid=90903703eb2e31e6d1cc49422a6cbbfd

[deadheaded]

Thanks Bennett!!!

[thunderbroom]

ooh...i'm pretty sure i know what causes this...forgive my non-technical description...but its caused by the connector shorting out the battery when you plug it in.  Duh you say.  But I found after trial and error that the connectors have varying coverage of "rubber"(?) on the tips.  The connectors with less rubber wrapping around into the inside of the tip shorted out constantly.  I had to go through and try about 30 different connectors (at the store) before I found one with good rubber coverage that I couldn't short the battery out with (a bunch of them would only short the battery maybe 10% of the time).

Apologies for not mentioning it earlier but I didn't bother cos i thought I was the only one who didn't have access to ratshack and was therefore using 'dodgy' connectors from my local store.  Hope this hopes y'all out.

I had two batteries at one time and used the same cord for both batteries.  One battery worked great and the other would short at least 50% of the time.  I think the main problem with them is the dubious quality control.

[gmm6797]

I am not using a radio shack connector, so I am going to have to reccommend the fine company and friend, that makes all my connectors and cables.
www.kindkables.com
Ed will set you up fast, and you hopefully will never have a short again.

Will he make custom cables for the Wal-Mart battery?  I use the battery with a ua5 or a schoeps vms02 (same plarity and size on both... lucky me)

[coloartist]

He will make custom anything!

[terrapinj]

i don't think it has anything to do with the battery itself. at wakarusa my buddy shorted his battery, so i loaned him one of mine, and it immediately blew as well, reset it and i have never had issues with it since, he was using a homemade power cable which was likley the culprit.

[deadheaded]

i can make you a cable that will power both ua-5 & vms2 1b from 1 lion battery.
all parts in stock and can ship right away.
thanks
ed

[612]

Yep this short cost me a Built to Spill tape last week. Adaptaplugs from RS & the ESA 9v. Last night I charged it back up to a solid green and did the plug into batt, plug into UA-5 and then power up UA-5 (phantom power on) method. The UA-5 was powered up for less than a minute and then crapped out just like at the show. BUT...

I tried a second time, this time only charging the batt for 5 seconds with the wall adapter. Then...cable into battery, cable into UA-5, power up UA-5...I ran the UA-5 for around 2 hours give or take without issue. So while I am now weary of these batteries I can testify that this reset/jump start method can save you in a pinch if you can get the charger into a venue outlet for a few seconds.

[coloartist]

I am telling you all, I have never had this problem. Buy better cables.

[dnsacks]

seems the common factor in the failures is folks using the rs adaptaplug setups -- sounds like they're CLOSE to the dimensions of the stock connectors but not exactly right, leading to either shorts or intermittent connections that trip the batterys' protection circuits.  I'll def. put in another vote for ed's work, and it sounds like his cables have field tested quite well.

Another alternative, if you're at all handy with electricity/a soldiering iron is to simply homebrew a cable out of the cable that comes with the wallmart battery and the wall wart that comes with the ua5 (or cable that comes with another device).  I did this (simply cut each cable where necessary, peeled back the insulation on each cut end and soldiered together the appropriate wires to obtain proper polarity) and have yet to run into this problem with the several different batteries I use.

[612]

I am telling you all, I have never had this problem. Buy better cables.

qft. get ahold of ed everybody.

Will do. Thanks.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

When I first started running the Wally battery for my UA5, I had another second dongle for my ODL276.  I lasted one show - I plugged into the battery and went to plug into my UA5, but the 2 ends had touch, shorting out the battery.

Remember that UA5 is reverse polarity, so it + is on the outside.  Where are the polarity of everything else is normal, so - is on the outside.  It might be the other way, but irregardlsss, touch these 2 and you've just shorted your battery.

It will reset when you plug in to charge.

Terry

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Can someone post a pic of the connector they were using when this problem occurred and the gear they were running on the battery?

As I look into the output socket of a wally battery, I see the ground connector is Very close to the + pin.  If the + pin were to get briefly bent during plug insertion, I could see how it might touch the ground contact.  However, the circuit may not be live until the ground connector is displaced by the plug.

Edit: I very rarely unplug my wally batteries and haven't had a problem.

[gmm6797]

Can someone post a pic of the connector they were using when this problem occurred and the gear they were running on the battery?

Hard to get good close pix with out a macro lens, so I posted them on my WWW: http://www.tikcuf.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=1208

[Brian Skalinder]

I did this (simply cut each cable where necessary, peeled back the insulation on each cut end and soldiered together the appropriate wires to obtain proper polarity) and have yet to run into this problem with the several different batteries I use.

Same here.  All my power cords use the stock connector hacked into my own cable, because I've had poor results with the RS adapters.  And for those who suck at, do not, or are afraid to solder, you can simply use screw-on connectors.  This is what I do.  Very secure, and easily field-fixable should a problem arise.