Topic: jb3 internal batts SUCK!

[mmmatt]

Well,
after my last post it made me think that it will be awhile before I have an empty drive so I went ahead and tested last night.  All data removed from HD, contrast at 30%, and IR turned off.  I got 6hrs and 35 minutes.  I'll repaeat this test after next weekend to see if it was the full drive thing or if I just had some other issue.  Thanks for all the help guys, +Ts all around!

Matt

[F.O.Bean]

bet it was the remote thing honestly

[mmmatt]

bet it was the remote thing honestly

no, I had the remote turned off the whole time... it wasn't that.  After you first mentioned it I wasn't sure that I had it turned off, but I did.  I think it was the full 40gb drive,  or I didn't charge full like I thought.  It was only on the charger 3-4 hrs but the light (I thought ) was turned off.  Maybe it is best to go overnight.  Maybe it's because I haven't done a full charge-down in awhile.  Maybe the svu had something to do with it too... who knows.  I try not to cycle the batts more than I have to.  I actually pull them out unless I'm recording or charging.  I use my wall plug, and pull the batts, when I transfer, unless I need to charge at the same time.

Matt

[F.O.Bean]

well, sounds like they just werent fully charged, did the battery meter go out in the left bottom corner??

and the whole screen off??? if not, it just wasnt fully charged, especially since you JUST got 6hrs+ out of it

[mmmatt]

It showed a large picture of a battery in the screen and said "low battery" when I put my flashlight on it to look at it.  It must have been a very short time after it stopped recording.  I'm pretty anal about looking at my svu meeter, and if it wasn't for that I would have never noticed it was croakin.

Matt

[BCostigan]

Bean made a good point.....if all else fails and you determine it's a battery issue just *ONE* could be bad.....the good battery may be trrying to charge the bad one and power the unit at the same time.

Actually...the more I look at what ya describe it may be just that.   Try testing at home with just one battery....try each separately then together.  My guess is that one of them is bad.

[F.O.Bean]

or it just wasnt fully charged

let us know, i havent heard of any of their batts being bad yet, so im curious....

[mmmatt]

well,
If I went 6-1/2 hrs on two, I don't think it is the batts.  I think it was the 30gb of data I had on the drive, and maybe I didn't have a full charge like I thought.  

Matt

[Cooker]

i'm worried about the good-charging-the-bad battery issue, is that just speculation or it it a known issue?

i just got my second battery, and am thinking about hacking a car adapter.

[F.O.Bean]

i think that waS just a not fully charged battery IMO!!

[ChrisV]

i'm worried about the good-charging-the-bad battery issue, is that just speculation or it it a known issue?

i just got my second battery, and am thinking about hacking a car adapter.

As for the internal battery charging the other internal battery I seriously doubt that would be the case....that'd be a very poor design.  

I am not sure how that works and if it can detect when one internal battery runs out and then run exclusively off the other internal....I'd hope so anyways.


If you mean when plugging in a hacked car kit/SLA then yes they would charge the internals if they weren't fullly charged which isn't very efficient usage of your battery...so only use external batteries when your internals are fully charged or remove the internals. I suppose if you were near the end of the SLA's charge you could use the remaing juice in between sets or something to charge the internals.

[mmmatt]

I'm betting that the two internals run in parallel, and they drain equally at the same time.  I’m sure this could be easily tested with the right equiptment.  I can't immagine they would switch from one to the other.  Assuming they are in parallel, the full one will charge the dead one until they are both equall.  In my case I don’t think it was a bad battery, but either not a full charge, or the full hard drive.  My drive is chock full now, so I should do another test and see if I still get the 6.5 hrs.  I’ll do it in the next few days and post the results.
Matt

[John Kelly]

My guess is that it was none of the above and it may have overheated.  JB3s will sometimes shut down if they get too hot (there's no fan on the HD).

Did you try to turn it back on after it powered off?  Or did you just hook up the cable?

[mmmatt]

you may be right... no I did not try to restart it.  I just plugged in as fast as I could.  The screen on the JB3 did say "low battery", is that what it says when it overheats also?

Matt

[John Kelly]

I had it shut down on me once, and I thought it was too hot.  When I powered it back up the battery level was completely gone, but after a minute or two it showed a 2/3 charge.