Gt Battery, How Do It Know?

[Digger54]

Hi;

Searched the forum history for this concern, but could not find it. If it has already been discussed please forgive me.

Yesterday I just rec'd a new Sovereign GT. I plugged the battery up to the charger for the first time yesterday at noon. The manual tells me a completely drained battery may take up to 14 hours to charge then the battery light will dim when fully charged. 7:30 am this morning, 17 hours later, the battery light has not dimmed. I took it off the charger anyway. The battery pack was warm and the charger very warm. I fired up the GT and power wise everything seems OK. I will be logging how many hours I get on this first charge.

Has there been any issue with the GT battery pack lights not dimming when fully charged?

 

[JimmyCT]

Hi Digger,

I have the same exact problem as you. I received my GT this past Wednesday, (5-4-11) and plugged in the rechargeable pack. Approx 15 hours later the green light is still bright as ever. Time to contact the company I bought it from. You should do the same.

 

[biglry]

Perfectly normal,
the first few time you charge the SOV battery you will notice the LED does NOT appear to dim and will never go out no mater how long you charge it. I had the same concerns as you guys, but after contacting Minelab I was told this is normal and by using the detector and recharging after use I would see a difference over time. Well, it has been 3 years since I had this conversation with Minelab about my SOV GT battery and charging concerns and I must say when I charge it now the green LED dims low after about 8 hr on the charger, but never goes out completly. I run my SOV about 8 to 10 hrs between charges and it has not let me down yet.

 

[Digger54]

Perfectly normal,
the first few time you charge the SOV battery you will notice the LED does NOT appear to dim and will never go out no mater how long you charge it. I had the same concerns as you guys, but after contacting Minelab I was told this is normal and by using the detector and recharging after use I would see a difference over time. Well, it has been 3 years since I had this conversation with Minelab about my SOV GT battery and charging concerns and I must say when I charge it now the green LED dims low after about 8 hr on the charger, but never goes out completly. I run my SOV about 8 to 10 hrs between charges and it has not let me down yet.

Thanks for the response.

I wonder why Minelab does not put a "do not panic" notice with the units?

 

[Rick(ND)]

I agree with this statement for those that dont have access to this forum, but those that do, learn more by asking questions from some of us that have been using the Sovereigns for years. The first thing should be a big sticker right on the face of the detector where it can be seen "Warnning !!! turning on this detector you are going to hear tones and noise you have never heard before,DON'T PANIC as it is the language you never heard before and those that take the time to learn the language will be well rewarded with great finds. Those that dont want to learn the language, spend the time to use it, or want this detector to understand how you hunt and adapt to your hunting should box it up and sell it to someone that will take the time to understand it and use it as it was designed to be used.


Now and the seriuos side this battery issue has been ask since the Elite and GT came out and it is normal for the light not to dim at first, but seems to after it has been charged and discharged a few times. All the Batteries for the Sovereigns and the Explorer/E-trac I sell I put them on a charger that will charge and discharge 2 or 3 times to wake the cells up as these batteries will not hold a full charge untill they have been used a few times. This should be mentioned in the owners manual, but how many will actualy read the owners manual before trying to use the Sovereign?? Or any detector.
Take the time to get to know your Sovereign as it is differnt, but it will find the good targets others walk over as their detector cant see it or ID it correctly. The Sovereigns uses the best IDing system ( the operators own head)I have seen, it gives you the info with the tones, meter readings and lest you the operator decide what to dig and what not to, works excellent.

Good Luck and welcome to the best Sovereign foum on the web.

 

[biglry]

I agree with this statement for those that dont have access to this forum, but those that do, learn more by asking questions from some of us that have been using the Sovereigns for years. The first thing should be a big sticker right on the face of the detector where it can be seen "Warnning !!! turning on this detector you are going to hear tones and noise you have never heard before,DON'T PANIC as it is the language you never heard before and those that take the time to learn the language will be well rewarded with great finds. Those that dont want to learn the language, spend the time to use it, or want this detector to understand how you hunt and adapt to your hunting should box it up and sell it to someone that will take the time to understand it and use it as it was designed to be used.


Now and the seriuos side this battery issue has been ask since the Elite and GT came out and it is normal for the light not to dim at first, but seems to after it has been charged and discharged a few times. All the Batteries for the Sovereigns and the Explorer/E-trac I sell I put them on a charger that will charge and discharge 2 or 3 times to wake the cells up as these batteries will not hold a full charge untill they have been used a few times. This should be mentioned in the owners manual, but how many will actualy read the owners manual before trying to use the Sovereign?? Or any detector.
Take the time to get to know your Sovereign as it is differnt, but it will find the good targets others walk over as their detector cant see it or ID it correctly. The Sovereigns uses the best IDing system ( the operators own head)I have seen, it gives you the info with the tones, meter readings and lest you the operator decide what to dig and what not to, works excellent.

Good Luck and welcome to the best Sovereign foum on the web.

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[GunnarMN]

I ran mine till it was really dead , and then charged it and you could definetly tell the light was brighter at 1st , and it is new

 

[Digger54]

I doubt I will have any issues with learning the sounds as I am a relic hunter who was taught to dig everything, and the beaches I plan on detecting will be relic related. Needed a machine that can figure out wet salt sand. Ergo my choice of the GT. Thanks for the advice.

 

[JimmyCT]

Thanks biglry,

for the heads up on the battery situation. The dealer I bought from was going to be receiving a call from me on Monday. Now....I can cancel the call and go look for more goodies.

 

[biglry]

I doubt I will have any issues with learning the sounds as I am a relic hunter who was taught to dig everything, and the beaches I plan on detecting will be relic related. Needed a machine that can figure out wet salt sand. Ergo my choice of the GT. Thanks for the advice.

And the best choice for what you are doing IMO.

 

[Maxwedge]

THANKS RICK FOR THE BATTERY INFO. MY NEW BATTERY IS DOING THE SAME THING, BUT I UNPLUGGED IT AND WILL DETECT TOMORROW AND LET IT DISCHARGE. AFTER A FEW CYCLES, I'M SURE, LIKE YOU SAID, THE INDICATER LIGHT WILL DIM, LIKE YOU SAID. THANKS AGAIN. MARK

 

[kirklyn]

This is from the FAQ on minelabs site.



1. The Sovereign shares one rather unusual characteristic with the Excalibur - if you've been hunting for several hours and you notice that the Threshold volume level begins to gradually get louder and louder, this is telling you that the Battery Pack needs to be re-charged!

2. If you've charged your NiMH Battery Pack overnight and the little green LED light on the Pack is still lit, this is normal. They will gradually grow dimmer as the battery is charged. However, the light will normally not go completely off.

3. The Sovereign GT Meter should be calibrated for a reading of "550" with a U.S. Quarter, like all the earlier versions of the Sovereign.

 

[Rick(ND)]

On the meter 550 is for the older Minelab meters, those that were built for the GT and now discontiuded would be 180 you want to set it for.

 

[kirklyn]

Yeah I probably should have edited out #3
All 3 where on the same tips in minelabs FAQ.
But the other 2 still apply to the GT battery.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

To answer the question How do it know this is part of most batteries in electronics today.
Thermistor

Thermistors are circuit devices whose resistance varies with temperature. PTC thermistors have a Positive Temperature Coefficient in that their resistance increases gradually with temperature and over a limited range the resistance can be considered linearly proportional to temperature. Similarly NTC thermistors have a Negative Temperature Coefficient and their resistance decreases as temperature increases. These components are used extensively in monitoring and protection circuits to provide a voltage analogue of temperature or in control circuits designed to provide temperature compensation. They may be used to terminate the charge (dt/dT) or to disconnect the battery from the charger in an over-temperature condition when the temperature cut off point is reached, or they could be used to turn on cooling fans.

In some applications the thermistor may be the only means of communication between the battery and the external world.



Thermistors can also be used by the charger to determine starting environmental conditions and prevent charging if the battery temperature is too low or too high.

 

[Critterhunter]

The wall "charger" for the GT is just a DC power supply that puts out a constant 50 mill amps (I think...read the writing on it...it should say .50 amps) of DC power. There is a tiny "charging" circuit inside the rechargeable pack right around where the DC plug plugs in, hidden in a small compartment that can be seen if you remove the battery cover and slide it completely off the bottom half. I never really looked at that little circuit to see if it is indeed a charging circuit that will cut off current when the pack has peaked, or if it's just a basic reverse polarity protection circuit along with perhaps a thermistor to prevent over heating. I just know that if you are using an aftermarket charger you must hook it up to the two main battery leads that make contact with the GT, as the DC plug won't show true pack voltage to aftermarket chargers.

Anyway, here's a quick and dirty way to monitor the state of charge of the pack. While it's charging using the stock charger put a volt meter onto the two main battery leads. Note and write down the voltage and come back an hour later. Is it higher than it was an hour ago? Then the pack is still charging. Write down the voltage again and check it an hour later. When the voltage no longer has risen or is staying the same for several hours then the pack has peaked. You need a volt meter that shows tenth and hundredth voltage numbers, like 11.42 where the .42 is the number to pay attention to, as the pack might only slightly rise in voltage in an hour at a charge rate of .50 milliamps. If I was using the stock "charger" I would use a volt meter to check on things because whether the circuit inside the pack detects voltage peak or not, I don't trust the thing myself.

On the other hand, .50 milliamps is such a low/slow charge rate that over charging for several hours isn't going to heat up the pack or even hurt things. As a matter of fact, that's well within the range of a trickle charge which many chargers (usually nicad chargers) will constantly give to a pack as it sits ready for use in the future. By delivering such a slow trickle charge it keeps the pack topped off and ready to use, avoiding a slow discharge setting on the shelf. Now, many say nimhs should never be kept on a trickle charger but others do, so take your pick.

What I'm getting to is this...Regardless of how dead you think your pack is (but it's far better to drain it dead, at least once in a while to excercise it), just keep it on the stock charger long enough to ensure a completely dead pack would be fully charged. Assuming my memory is right, and the charger is putting out .50 milliamps, divided into the 1000ma pack means it would take 20 hours to charge a completely dead pack. Actually I'd lean more towards about 24 or 25 hours, because a good pack often will hold much more capacity then the label says. I wouldn't be surprised if the stock pack might hold 1200 or 1400ma, so I'd leave it on for maybe even 24 to 28 hours. If your light is indeed supposed to go dimmer when the pack is fully charged, that's probably why you guys aren't seeing it change on a new pack until a few charges down the road...You aren't keeping it on long enough for it to reach it's peak. 20 hours will only do 1000ma and the pack is probably wanting to hold something much higher than that.

Regardless, my point is...dim light or not...completely dead pack or not....50 millamps is so low that it won't hurt the pack leaving it on the charger too long. As said, it's more of a trickle than an actual charge rate. If the pack is for sure all the way dead then try 24 to 28 hours or so. If it's not dead then 20 hours is more than enough time to insure it's been fully charged.

On the other hand, I'd invest in a good charger such as the Accucel 6 and leave all doubt behind.