Become a Site Supporter and Never see Ads again!

Author Topic: How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?  (Read 2812 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Humbug

  • Trade Count: (5)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 2161
  • Gender: Male
  • Humbug Hum Rejection Unit
    • Trading site
How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?
« on: October 23, 2015, 04:41:33 AM »
Yes, I still use a Creative Nomad JB3 to record, though always as a backup recorder. It works nicely with AT831s.

Recently however, the 10 year old batteries are showing signs of reduced life - with about 2.5 hour record time for two batteries installed. I own a multimeter, have a small stack of 5 batteries, and a friend has 8 more.

Is there any way of testing these batteries to figure out if any are still useable?

Or should I try and track down some (possibly non-genuine) new batteries on the web?
UK based taper: MK4>Nbox Platinum>PCM-M10
AT853C>CA9200 / PIPsqueak>Tascam DR-2D

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/Humbug66

Offline Life In Rewind

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 883
    • www.rovingsign.com
Re: How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2015, 09:02:55 AM »
Make a cable so you can use a USB phone charger battery.

Offline willndmb

  • Trade Count: (17)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6792
  • Gender: Male
Re: How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2015, 10:27:00 AM »
Make a cable so you can use a USB phone charger battery.
my thought too
you don't even need to make a cable though its a standard cable
Mics - AKG ck61/ck63 (c480b & Naiant actives), SP-BMC-2
XLR Cables - Silver Path w/Darktrain stubbies
Interconnect Cables - Dogstar (XLR), Darktrain (RCA > 1/8) (1/8 > 1/8), and Kind Kables (1/8f > 1/4)
Preamps - Naiant Littlebox & Tinybox
Recorders - PCM-M10 & DR-60D

Offline it-goes-to-eleven

  • Trade Count: (58)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6696
Re: How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2015, 10:09:38 AM »
Older lithium batteries often suffer from 'self discharge'. They discharge even when not used.

One way you could compare your batteries is to label them, charge them the same way. Then measure and record the initial voltage.  Wait a while, maybe a day or three, and record how much the voltage has decreased. If you see one that drops more quickly, it is likely a bad cell. One gotcha is you will see a high voltage right after charging that will quickly drop.  So probably don't put too much emphasis on that initial number unless it is particularly low.

On really bad cells, you might be able to just wait a week and see if the jb3 reports fewer battery status bars.

Another option would be to use each charged battery in exactly the same way and measure the voltage, or measure the number of battery status bars. So maybe that would be recording 30 minutes of the same content, or longer.

When measuring, don't short the batteries. They could explode.

Offline Humbug

  • Trade Count: (5)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 2161
  • Gender: Male
  • Humbug Hum Rejection Unit
    • Trading site
Re: How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2015, 01:34:28 PM »
Thanks for the reply above, much appreciated.
UK based taper: MK4>Nbox Platinum>PCM-M10
AT853C>CA9200 / PIPsqueak>Tascam DR-2D

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/Humbug66

Offline jerryfreak

  • No PZ
  • Trade Count: (31)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *
  • Posts: 6205
  • The plural of anecdote is not data
Re: How would you test a Nomad JB3 battery?
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2015, 12:35:07 AM »
old cells will often discharge at the expected rate, and then 'fall off a cliff' at some voltage thats not the lowest

only way to do a real test is to do a repeatable runtime test (same charging and discharging regimen, ie same inputs same bitrate)

and measure the runtime you get.
Unable to post or PM due to arbitrary censorship of people the mod doesn't like. Please email me using the link in my profile if you need to connect

 

RSS | Mobile
Page created in 0.041 seconds with 30 queries.
© 2002-2024 Taperssection.com
Powered by SMF