Topic: My very first Lion Initial RB-270 battery DOA! Gotta get some power soon!

[Carrera2]

Well, I've seen discussion back and forth around the stability and reliability of Lion and NiMH batteries.  Reports seem to stack up in favor of NiMH being the most reliable.  Nonetheless, there seemed to be enough supporters of Lion that I decided to try that route.

So my RB-270 Initial that was delivered from bhphotovideo.com yesterday seems to be DOA.  Charged overnight, and the battery barely registered a charge this morning.  Had one green light only when the black button was pressed.  I did plug my UA-5 in (yes, I checked and re-checked polarity both visually and with a multimeter) and the UA-5 did power up, but the one and only green light faded almost instantly.  I have unplugged and reconnected the battery from the charger a couple of times, so that the reported circuit protection I have read about should have been re-set

I gotta have power for my newly modded UA-5 for a show next Wednesday that's really important to me, so I'll have to pursue another avenue soon for power.

Any reason not to use one of these: http://snipurl.com/1h72s or something similar and wire it with the proper adaptaplug (already got that in hand for the Iniital?)

Any other secrets about getting the RB-270 charged up initially (pun there somewhere?)  Seems like it should be a no-brainer.

Another question:  Any reason why the classic thread for RC swappable packs:

http://www.taperssection.com/reference/html/DIY_EdirolUA5Power/

suggests using one NiCad and one NiMH battery?  I should think two NiMH would work best given the memory effect problems of a NiCad.  But perhaps there are other advantages to having one of each?

Thanks!

[Brian Skalinder]

Any other secrets about getting the RB-270 charged up initially (pun there somewhere?)  Seems like it should be a no-brainer.

No secrets, and it is a no-brainer - you got a bunk unit.  I'd call B&H and ask if they'll send a replacement immediately, shipping in time for your need.  Retailers are sometimes willing to do ship a new unit before receiving an old one if you approve their putting a hold on your CC.  That way, if they never receive the bad unit, they can charge you for the replacement.  When they receive the replacement, they can cancel the hold.  Worth a try, I think.

[flipp]

Try charging the battery again. One of my RB270s took almost 36 hours to get a full charge while the other three charged in 6-8 hours. Since that initial long charge, it has recharged at the same rate as the other batts. If another overnight charge doesn't get all the lights to illuminate, call B&H and tell them you need to warranty the battery.

[Carrera2]

Well, what to do?

I went ahead and left the unit to charge overnight a second night.  No power.

B&H agreed to cross-ship a replacement by two-day air for the price of three-day air ($6 instead of $17), which seems quite reasonable. Otherwise, it would have taken several weeks by ground for these things to move back and forth by ground shipping.

So what to do? The replacement should be here Tuesday, in time for the Wednesday gig.  Do I trust that the replacement will be just fine, or do I build an NiMH RC over the weekend just to be safe.  Hmmmm......

+T for the counsel, gentlemen.


edit punctuation

[Carrera2]

Great news.  Battery arrived late this afternoon.  The problem was with the original transformer, not the battery!  All four lights are bright now, and I'm all packed to head out to my first "open" gig tomorrow night.  Very excited.  Wish me luck.

Planning to run AKG 481 > BMp2+ UA-5 > H120 [rockboxed] and AT853-SC > ST-9100 > R-09.