Battery pack problem

[troyer]

After being unable to find a new batt pak for my '95 model soverign I decided to build one using the original as the pattern. I bought the correct battaries and soldered them exactly as

the original however, they will take a charge, could it be the minelab charger that is not compatible? any help would be appreciated,
thanks

 

[synthnut]

You have a TON of room inside the battery box ....You really need to check out the "Excal Charger " thread and order yourself some Lipo's and an Accucell charger ......I did just that and have NEVER looked back ....They are lighter, cheaper , charge faster, and last longer , once you get everything set up .... Believe me when I tell you , you won't even give AA batteries a 2nd thought ......Jim


Here's the first page .....Read it all and get a good education on batteries and chargers .....It's a good read .....Jim

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1178409,page=1

 

[Critterhunter]

Yea, read that thread. Also look in the mods forum for info/pics from Kered on going lipo with his XS and GT. Like he said, if you go lipo you'll never look back.

Just the same, on your problem. Can you be more clear what's going on? Did you take apart the stock rechargable pack and then rebuild that with new cells? If you did, even if the capacity of those cells is much higher, it should charger with no problem with the stock charger. If you soldered it up exactly in that stock rechargable pack then if there's an issue it's going to come down to one of two things. Either that little "charge" circuit found in a tiny side compartment (where the charger plugs into) is bad, or your Wall "charger" that plugs into it is bad. You could hook a volt meter up to the wall unit and see if it's putting out the proper voltage that it says on it.

Regardless of either problem, there's an easy solution...Buy the Accucel 6 charger and use that to charge your pack. Hook the charger up to the two battery terminals that make contact with the Sovereign via the alligator clips that come with the charger. Don't know which is positive or negative (can't remember...anybody?), then most volt meters will show a negative number if you hook it up the wrong way to the terminals to find out. The charger also has a reverse polarity function that will alert you if you hooked up to the wrong leads, but I'd be wary of trusting that unless you know the cells have some charger to them. I suspect if they are flat dead the charger wouldn't be able to tell if polarity is reversed and might try to charge it. What I did was check with a volt meter, and then marked the polarity on the pack with a magic marker for future reference. Reason why you need to charge that way and not through the little DC charging port is because that little circuit behind it isn't a direct pass thru to the cells and the Accucel won't work with that.

 

[Rick(ND)]

If it is a 1995 model Sovereign than the battery pack is a plug in one and not the drop in pack used in the after 1998. If this is the case and a plug in pack than I found a place that makes the packs that are 2500 Mha for around $38 stock #12337. They make the pack for the Excalibur too, but not the drop in pack used on the Sovereigns XS2 or the XS2a, just the plug in packs. I also tried there battery charger # 12515 for $20 that works great too and puts out 700Mha
I just did a XS2a for a freind and coverted it to a plug in pack so he could use one of these batteries as the drop in one are not even available from Minelab.
http://www.onlybatterypacks.com/items.asp?db=48

 

[arod777]

Just a friendly reminder to lipo Sovereign beach hunters, "Lipos and water don't mix"
I would do the Lipo mod but I chest mount my XS2a with Bino straps in lakes and shoreline and that is not a good combination.
HH

 

[synthnut]

I would waterproof any Sovereign that I brought into the water that I was wading in , or any water that would submerge the Sovereign if I fell ....Protect me , and my Sovereign .....Jim

 

[arod777]

Thanks synthnut I respect your opinion, I forgot to add that my xs2apro is waterproofed.
I just don't feel comfortable with the water that close to LIPOS if my box leaked.
It just freaks me out. Maybe others don't care.
HH

 

[synthnut]

You should never do anything that you are not comfortable doing .....If the battery short circuited , it could also explode !!...... I am as cautious as I can possibly be with anything that I build .....I guess things could go wrong , but I try to eliminate any bad situations from happening ...... Again, I can understand your concern about being in the water with Lipo's ..... Its up to the individual ....Jim

 

[kered]

Safer in the water than out, at least you got water to put the fire out sorry couldn't resist.

 

[Critterhunter]

Actually a lipo in the water is at no greater risk than a nimh or nicad. That's how you are supposed to dispose of a lipo- place it in a bucket of salt water for several days to drain it dead after cutting the battery leads off (one at a time!). Being dunked in water won't cause it to explode or anything.