Olight Battery Charging Problem

[hivoltage]

My battery charger keeps a green light whan I plug it in...even though the battery is down to 2 lights on the battery indicator. The green light means it is done charging. Anybody else had this problem? Not too happy since I paid big bucks for this light and I cant get the battery pack charged.

 

[DM51]

You don't give much detail here, and it would probably help if you gave more.

I'll move your thread to the Batteries section.

 

[VidPro]

yes more detail,

scratch the rest of that.

 

[hivoltage]

OK, sorry I was in a hurry. The battery is half dead as indicated by the status lights on the back of the light, plus I have had it on for quite a bit.

When I plug my charger in to charge the light, the charge indicator on the charger is green, meaning no charge is happening as if it had just finished charging.

 

[Russel]

You are refering to the Olight SR90?

 

[VidPro]

i suspect that is the one he is refering to, still not enough info

and i cant speculate what charging or BALANCINg they would put in a $500 gem such as that, but it is possible they left out balancing out of the charging internals.
which cell items would also make a big difference IF balancing was left out of the charging.

i speculate such things because still today they sell many things which have proper protection but lack good quality cell items, or balancing. the protection will properly cut off, and the charge will not be 100% fully complete, just because of an imbalance of the cells.

i dont see where at $500 and with such a new light your given any other choice than to talk to the manufacture, do whatever things they ask you to do to test things, and have them analise the problem or repair it as nessisary. once they see why the whole pack is acting in that manner, the least of thier repairs would have it working "ok" for more than a year, even if it was deficient. so it is an all around good choice to have them fix it, If it is really a battery issue.

Know anybody who has done a full dissasembly on one yet?

 

[Russel]

... it is possible they left out balancing out of the charging internals. ...

I think you may be right. While this review doesn't provide very much detail about the charger for the SR90, it certainly doesn't seem it is a balancing charger. I wonder if the battery pack contains balancing circuitry.

Olight SR90 Intimidator Review

 

[Zivman]

double check your connections. Make sure all cables/connections are seated.

 

[hivoltage]

Yes, it is the SR90. I may just call where I bought it from and see if they have had any similar problems.

 

[DubyaR]

I hate to revive a thread over two years old (especially with my first post)...but I am having the exact same issue with my sr-90 as hivoltage. I've had the light for about two years now, and have had no problems until about two weeks ago. Now the charge meter lights on the light say it is only 3/4 charged but when I plug it into the charger the light on the charger turns red (meaning it is charging), but will turn to green (meaning it is not charging) after only a few seconds.
I am curious to know what ended up happening with your light hivoltage before I contact the company, and I'm also curious to see if this problem has been more widespread in the intervening two years since the original post.
Again, I'm sorry to bring back an old thread right out of the gate. I've browsed the forum for years as a guest, but it took this happening to my costly light for me to take the plunge and join.

 

[jtrucktools34]

DubyaR,

You are not alone. I have two packs that have self discharged completely. Neither will take a charge anymore. I really didn't use them much and charged them every three months as the manual dictates. I am assuming the cells just deteriorated over time which leaves "us" with giant paper weights. I have thought about rebuilding the packs but with the cost of 6 new cells I don't think that would be cost effective. The new replacement handle/packs are reasonably priced. With all this said it still stinks that I probably have less than 10 hours of run time on these packs and they are junk. Use is or loose it seems to be the motto.

:shrug:

Jtruck

 

[TEEJ]

It SOUNDS like the packs are worn out. Mines used a lot, and I got it used...and it still doing full charges with no trouble, and has a really long runtime, etc...but packs, like 18650's, etc, eventually get used up....hence the market for spare packs, etc.

If the pack is new, no excuse, they owe you a new one. If its an old pack that has already done 500-1000 cycles or whatever...well, expectations should be adjusted accordingly.

There's an SR90 in CPFM right now for $185...it comes with a pack.

 

[jtrucktools34]

Hey TEEJ,

I agree. I thought about posting this to O-light since I have no where near 500 cycles on these packs but I'm not sure what leg I have to stand on since both packs are about 3 years old. I have one other light that experienced a "self discharge" like this but the pack was recoverable by a charge, full discharge, recharge cycle. About two months ago I pulled my SR90 out and one pack was discharged so there were no lights on the charge indicator. I charged it and all seemed fine but I then monitored it over about a week and it self discharged to nothing again. I repeated the process about 3 more times and now the pack won't take a charge at all anymore. The other pack died in a similar fashion but much quicker. Funny they "died" at almost the same time. Kind of like O-light has a built in timed "self destruct" feature in the pack! HA HA!

Jtuck.

 

[TEEJ]

IIRC, there's a bunch of 18650's (6?) inside the pack.

For all I know, you could replace them with new 3400 mah 18650's, and keep going.



six (3400 mah) 18650's are ~ $18 each....so $108 for all six.

I think that's more than a new / spare pack (~ $ 85)...but it would probably have more run time (GUESSING that the 18650's in the pack would have been ~ 2600 mah cells).