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Quixotic Jedi
09-02-2015, 10:17 AM
I started noticing shorter and shorter run times on my saber and I finally had the time to take a closer look at what's going on.

So here's what I got. I have a 7.4V 18500 pack from TCSS installed in my saber. It's been running like a champ since I first pulled the kill key and got that first thrilling boot sound. However, now it seems to charge and discharge almost instantly!!! I'll plug the charger in and it will charge in about 3 minutes. When I check the voltage I get about 7.2V. Pull the plug and I get the boot sound, I can access the font selections of my CF7.5 and power up the saber just fine, but it will only run about 2 or 3 minutes and it's dead again. Voltage reads ZERO after it dies. All of this is real time, no sitting idle or in sleep mode.

So, is my battery pack dead or dying? Or what else might be causing this?

I tried searching for similar things in the forum, but couldn't find anything relevent. If I missed a thread please point me in the right direction. Thanks for any help.
Madcow
09-02-2015, 11:08 AM
You might try a different charger. But it sounds like your battery pack is dying. How long have you had it?

When a 7.4v pack is fully charged, it should read about 8.1 volts.
Quixotic Jedi
09-02-2015, 11:49 AM
You might try a different charger. But it sounds like your battery pack is dying. How long have you had it?

When a 7.4v pack is fully charged, it should read about 8.1 volts.


I got in February and completed the saber in April, so about 7 months. All I have is the charger I bought from TCSS.

Rebuilding is gonna be a challenge, but then again so was building it in the first place.
Madcow
09-02-2015, 12:13 PM
Sounds odd because those battery packs generally last a really long time.
Strydur
09-02-2015, 12:18 PM
It definitely will not charge in 3 minutes so if the green light is coming on after 3 minutes then I would first try just leaving it plugged in longer.
Quixotic Jedi
09-02-2015, 12:54 PM
It definitely will not charge in 3 minutes so if the green light is coming on after 3 minutes then I would first try just leaving it plugged in longer.

How much longer? From what I recall it never took longer than about 30 or 40 minutes for a full charge.
Strydur
09-02-2015, 01:21 PM
Try 30 minutes and see how it works then
Quixotic Jedi
09-02-2015, 02:44 PM
Try 30 minutes and see how it works then

I set a timer but got sidetracked, even after nearly an hour, after the green light came on right away, it only shows 7.16V.

I checked the output of the charger and it hit 8.22V on the 7.4V setting. I don't know which way to look now.

Could there be something wrong with the charger? Because it goes from red to green right before my eyes as soon as I plug it in.
Strydur
09-02-2015, 04:27 PM
8.22v sounds correct. It could be the charger or the battery. Without another battery or charger it will be hard to narrow it down.
Quixotic Jedi
10-06-2015, 06:37 PM
Update on my battery pack drama. I got another charger from TCSS and it does the same thing as the first. I get a red light for all of about 45 seconds and it goes to green. So, as an experiment I isolated the battery from the internal wiring by connecting a jack and charging using the aligator clips. Same thing from both chargers again, 45 seconds of red and then a green light. I let each charger run for 30 minutes and tested the battery's voltage. After the first charger's cycle it read 6.71 volts so I ran the same thing on the second charger and it read 6.99 volts. I powered up the saber and it ran for all of 5 seconds. So I'm pretty confident it's a dead battery pack.