what is the blue in the photo

[jazjaz]

Hi all,
to be honest I dont know the first thing about electronics
I am trying to find out why my sat finder keeps shutting down at 11.2V using a new 12V niCD battery pack?
I took the case off my unit and it looks like something has dried out? I have circled in yellow the place from a photo of how it should be it (the blue colour)?.
i would really appreciate if someone could tell me what it is please?
Thank you

 

[rjenkinsgb]

It looks like some sort of ink or paint - possibly a protective coating or warranty seal of some sort?
It almost looks as if it has writing in it?

However, 10 AA NiCD or NiMH cells should be at near 15V fully charged - 11.5V means they are flat!
Mid charge they should be at somewhere in the 12 - 13V range.

 

[jazjaz]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, I zoomed into the original and it looks like its some type of blue paste which has set? its definitely not a component/part

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, I zoomed into the original and it looks like its some type of blue paste which has set? its definitely not a component/part

As has already been said, your batteries are flat - and they don't last long in sat finders - there's almost certainly nothing else wrong, other than knackered batteries. Every sat finder I've ever seen, or has belonged to the many aerial installers I've known, has always had battery issues.

NiMh (and indeed NiCd) don't last very long, they require fairly regular replacement - a considerable part of our business at work is replacing such batteries in expensive professional equipment (and charging alot of money ) Li-Ion batteries are considerably better, but they still die as well, and we replace considerable numbers of 18650's.

Quite often I scavenge through the old 18650's and sort out the good ones - often only one or two in the pack have died, but for a professional repair all need replacing with identical new batteries.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

For info, this is a typical voltage vs. time discharge graph for a single NiCD cell at moderate discharge current; your 10 cell pack should be running at 10x the given voltages:

 

[jazjaz]

Hi, I purchased them last Friday 4 days ago, Cameron Sino battery pack it came sealed and is made for that particular satellite unit it has 12,6V in it just now. the internal charger works but the unit powers down at 11.2v it drains 1.4v in 30 seconds or so? thank you for the info/help

 

[For The Popcorn]

As everybody has said, when a 10-cell NiCad pack reaches 11.2 volts, it's dead. Period.

Either the new pack hasn't been charged fully (can take 24 hours depending on the charge circuit) or it's bad. It may be "new" but if it's sat on the shelf for years, it very well could be bad.

 

[jazjaz]

As everybody has said, when a 10-cell NiCad pack reaches 11.2 volts, it's dead. Period.

Either the new pack hasn't been charged fully (can take 24 hours depending on the charge circuit) or it's bad. It may be "new" but if it's sat on the shelf for years, it very well could be bad.

I will buy a 12V charger and leave on charge 24hrs, I cannot understand why the satlook manufacturers use a 4 pin 3cell (3S) balance charge port and JST-HX balance lead on the batteries, I have "ts400 pro duo touch screen and Imax B6" both of which charge all types of batteries but dont want to know these batteries.

My sincere thanks to everyone for all youre input(s)
I truly appreciate everything.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi, I purchased them last Friday 4 days ago, Cameron Sino battery pack it came sealed and is made for that particular satellite unit it has 12,6V in it just now. the internal charger works but the unit powers down at 11.2v it drains 1.4v in 30 seconds or so? thank you for the info/help

Look at the graph posted in post #5 - or the ones I did many years ago at: http://www.lpilsley.co.uk/viewbatt.htm

Your batteries are either flat, or knackered - charge them fully for a start - and see how they perform after that.

 

[jazjaz]

I opened the old pad and discovered the white wires are Not connecting to the unit, I then set up a crude charge and after 3hrs the charge was complete at 13.50v.
I put the put the battery pack back in and it read Complete but would not go into trickle charge as it should?
Attached photos
I will look at you're links with interest

Thanks very much I truly appreciate it.
Best regards to all

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I opened the old pad and discovered the white wires are Not connecting to the unit, I then set up a crude charge and after 3hrs the charge was complete at 13.50v.

They are connected thermally - it's to measure the temperature of the battery during charging.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

after 3hrs the charge was complete at 13.50v.

13.5V "on charge" for a ten cell pack is nowhere near full charge.
It should be somewhere between 14.5 - 15V at full charge.

It sounds like the pack has a dead cell, or that is the charger is set up wrong?

 

[jazjaz]

Again my thanks goes out to all.
it is a 12volt battery pack and at 13.5volts the pack is hot when fully charged charging at 1.1a
the unit Emitor Satlook Micro+, flashed to G2 (same unit with firmware upgrade) is stated to last roughly 1hr but today I managed to use it for over an hour with power still showing on the battery icon.
I have ordered a 12v trickle charger and am waiting on the delivery
link to unit below, if not allowed the link please delete and my apologies

Satlook Micro G2 ( NIT Spectrum) Emitor DVB-S ...​

Creative Satellite
http://www.creativesatellite.co.uk › contents › p1064_...



Battery: Rechargable 12v, 3.5amp/hour. Operational: About 1 hour on a fully charged; Battery. Weight: 1.5kg incl.battery & carrying case. Accessories:.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

As I said above, it sounds like the pack has one dead (shorted) cell. That would explain it being around 1.5V below what it should be.

Stick a multimeter probe through the shrink sleeve under the opposite end of the pack to the connecting wires - there should be a sideways bridge connection between cells 5 & 6 there.

Read the voltage from that to the + and - wires? If all the cells are OK, it should be near equal, with five cells in each half.

 

[jazjaz]

Again thanks very much everyone for all the information you all supplied!
One more thing please?
As the meter was purchased 2nd hand and obviously problems with new battery pack,
I have decided to attempt to build my own battery pack and follow how the old original pack was set up, please see photos.
I any info please on the (I think it's a) orange resistor connected between the white wires please?
I have ordered 10x 1.2v 2600 batteries, I will check each battery voltage individually before commencing/begging the build.
I am awaiting all components which could take up to 3 weeks for everything to arrive?
Thank you all again.
My best regards to all.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The orange device is probably a diode, used as a temperature sensor - reuse the existing one (just leave it connected to the white wires as it is) as you've no idea what type of diode it is (and no way to find out). There's also a fuse connected between two of the batteries, you can either carefully remove it and reuse it, or you can buy replacements from RS, Digikey etc.

We make up LOT'S of battery packs at work, so have a spot welder to assemble them, we also keep various values of fuses in stock to avoid using the old ones. We also keep various temperature sensors and connectors (so we can make certain new packs from scratch), but it relies on been able to identify exactly what the temperature sensor actually is.

We also keep multiple sizes of heatshrink, to professionally finish the pack - you can buy pretty well everything from Cellpack Solutions - worth a google.

 

[jazjaz]

Thank you one and all for all the info/help you provided me with I truly appreciate all the input
My best regards to all