Topic: Lenmar LIS970P not charging in 702

[su6oxone]

I got a new Lenmar LIS970P 7800mAh battery from buy.com for my 702, and have not been able to successfully charge it in the unit.  When I plug in the AC adapter, the battery charge light flashes yellow, as expected, but in 5-10 minutes, it becomes solid yellow, indicating it's done charging.  But when I unplug the 702 and turn it on, the voltage is in the low 6s and the green power light is flashing and it powers down not too long after (when I plug in some mics to speed up the process).  I plug in the adapter again and the yellow light starts blinking, but again after 5-10 minutes it becomes solid yellow, and so on and so forth. 

So I'm wondering if the 7xx recorders have any issues charging the Lenmar in the unit or if maybe this battery is defective or do I need to charge it in an external charger first or what not.  I've searched but couldn't find much on this specific battery (but found threads saying that charging in the unit works well generally).  Any input would be appreciated, thanks!

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Sounds like a bad battery.

[su6oxone]

Sounds like a bad battery.

Thanks, I hope buy.com will take it back then. 

Think I'll just go with the Sony batteries... seem more reliable.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Careful on the sony's.  There seem to be a fair number of counterfeits and I haven't heard of a way to identify them.  Some have actually reported more trouble with Sonys.

The way I figure it, there isn't much point in counterfeiting an off-brand.  If you're going to fake it, you go for sony. Is it true?  Who knows.

[su6oxone]

Careful on the sony's.  There seem to be a fair number of counterfeits and I haven't heard of a way to identify them.  Some have actually reported more trouble with Sonys.

The way I figure it, there isn't much point in counterfeiting an off-brand.  If you're going to fake it, you go for sony. Is it true?  Who knows.

I was planning to get it from amazon... which should be safe I assume?

[it-goes-to-eleven]

With counterfeit stuff, I'm not sure what to believe on stuff like that anymore.  With amazon, you have amazon proper and their marketplace sellers.  The latter are like ebay.

I'd go with the source and batteries that others here have recently had good luck with.  I haven't bought in a long while, so no help there.

[JD]

Two weeks ago I bought two of the lenmar LIS970P batteries off of the Amazon Marketplace from buyer seller "ComputerBrain".
They arrived in two days and I have gotten run times of a little more than 8 hrs on my 722 (Back light off, 48v on to Avenson ST02 mics, writing to CF and the Hard drive). Think I paid about $115 for the pair shipped.

[su6oxone]

Cool, thanks for the tips!  The only problem now, is that the 1850mAh battery which is not used and had a full charge when I got them from the previous owner, also won't charge in the 702.  Same dealio, yellow light becomes solid after 5-10 minutes plugged in.  It's very odd... what could this be?  If it's affecting multiple batteries, I'm thinking it may be the unit or charger? 

edit: btw, I'm using the older 7xx charger: XL-WPH, which according to the SD site delivers 24 watts vs 30 watts on the newer XL-WPH2 charger.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Now that's getting weird.  I used the internal charger in my 722 99% of the time.. worked great.   I always preferred to leave my primary battery in the 7xx to prevent wear and tear.  Zman was always alternating between two batteries and eventually had the contacts break apart at a show, and it left him without power.

I'd suggest you try and find another 7xx locally and see if it can charge your batteries, etc. Another thought would be to try and find a store who sells the sony camcorders that take those batteries.  They should have a charger behind the counter they use to charge the demo bats.  Toss your battery on there and see what happens.

[JD]

If it's affecting multiple batteries, I'm thinking it may be the unit or charger? 

I agree. Try plugging the charger into the wall and see how much voltage you measure on the plug. If I recall correctly, you should have 12vdc twice, on the two sets of the pins that are catty corner from each other. Be careful not to short the plug out with the VOM leads as there is not much room in there.

My charger is the older model as well.

[su6oxone]

If it's affecting multiple batteries, I'm thinking it may be the unit or charger? 

I agree. Try plugging the charger into the wall and see how much voltage you measure on the plug. If I recall correctly, you should have 12vdc twice, on the two sets of the pins that are catty corner from each other. Be careful not to short the plug out with the VOM leads as there is not much room in there.

My charger is the older model as well.

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it!

Freelunch: I may try that after work today, if I can find a place/person...

JD: I get a '11.9V' reading when the 702 is plugged in, but don't know how (or have the equipment) to measure the voltage directly from the plug (is that what you meant?).  I may try giving SD a call today as well.

[JD]

JD: I get a '11.9V' reading when the 702 is plugged in, but don't know how (or have the equipment) to measure the voltage directly from the plug (is that what you meant?).  I may try giving SD a call today as well.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Just grabbed this from a 7xx manual.

pin 2 to negative
pin 3 to positive
operates the on-board Li-ion charger when the unit is both turned on and off. Use when plugged into AC power.

pin 1 to negative
pin 4 to positive
operates the on-board Li-ion charger only when the unit is turned on-there is no external current draw when powered off. Use when connecting to an external battery pack.


Regardless of whether pins 1 and 4 or pins 2 and 3 are used, the unit will always charge the battery when the unit is powered on.

Have you tried to charge the battery with the recorder turned on?

If you do and it charges, you may have an open wire in the charger lead.
If it doesn't, I'd tend to think something in the charging circuit of the recorder may be afoul.
 

[su6oxone]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Just grabbed this from a 7xx manual.

pin 2 to negative
pin 3 to positive
operates the on-board Li-ion charger when the unit is both turned on and off. Use when plugged into AC power.

pin 1 to negative
pin 4 to positive
operates the on-board Li-ion charger only when the unit is turned on-there is no external current draw when powered off. Use when connecting to an external battery pack.


Regardless of whether pins 1 and 4 or pins 2 and 3 are used, the unit will always charge the battery when the unit is powered on.

Have you tried to charge the battery with the recorder turned on?

If you do and it charges, you may have an open wire in the charger lead.
If it doesn't, I'd tend to think something in the charging circuit of the recorder may be afoul.

Thanks again JD.  I'll have to check when I get home, but I think I did try to charge them with the unit on as well as off, and the same thing happened both times.  Think it's time to give SD a call...

[su6oxone]

Just got off the phone with SD tech support and they didn't really have any ideas, but suggested I try another battery and just leaving it plugged in and seeing what happened (although I did leave the Lenmar plugged in for a couple of hours with the solid yellow light and still was not charged it seems).  I'll fiddle around with it a bit when I get home I guess.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Not to be too alarmist, but flakey lithium batteries can be dangerous.   I'd keep any suspect batteries away from anything that could burn, especially while charging.  And when they very rarely do explode, it is often after they're taken off charger and 'powered' up.