Pila battery suddenly flat

[Impyboy]

Last night, I went to play with my GL3R as i do everynight, but this time it didn't come on.
after panicking for a while, i went to check out what was wrong. i found that the battery closest to the LA was pretty much 0V, but the other battery still had 3.9V.

It seems similar to the surefire 123 battery problem where the battery just suddenly dies.

Has anyone had any similar experiences like this? It definitely seems strange that they both didn't discharge at the same rate.

thanks

 

[Deleted member 684]

0 volts means the battery is dead, for good. Did you try charging it up again and see what happens? The case of the 2 batteries not discharging at the same rate happens for all lights that uses more than 1 battery. And if I didn't remember wrongly, in another post, Klaus did say that the one closes to the LA always dies first? Strange huh?

 

[jayflash]

Try testing the dead cell with an ohm meter. If it reads zero ohms it's probably shot. As suggested, you may try recharging but that cell will most likely die first.

 

[Floating Spots]

Hmm. I'm not sure we have all the info.
Its a Pila flashlight, but was it using the Pila batts or 123s?
I'm not sure after the cell protection kicks in whether there is any voltage present (with the light load of a DVM) or not. I'll have to check next time.

 

[jones]

as far as i know rechargeable lithiums have an internal circut which cuts power after the voltage of the cell drops past a certain point because lithiums are very vulnerable to deep discharges
but i dont know if the pila batteries have this protection

 

[Impyboy]

Yeah, I almost had a heart attack when it showed 0 V.
i tried charging the batt, and it charged ok, so hopefully the discharge protection circuit kicked in.

sorry about the confusion, but yes, I'm using the PILA 150s rechargable batteries, and not 123's.

I'm just worried that it may be a faulty battery and continue to have the same problem. i've only had it for 2 months /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I was expecting the light to dim first, or at least have enough power to light the LEDs.

does anyone know the protection circuit on the battery works?
does it just protect it from total discharge, or does it hit a certain voltage and then completely blocks the voltage output to prevent it discharging any further?

 

[Christoph]

When the pila is discharged to its lowest point the controller disconnects and you will read no voltage My own observation on the two times I ran them flat only one in the pair shut down in single use the same thing happens. starting the charge cycle closes a switch and allows voltage to flow again. Verify by putting in charger for a few seconds take it out and check for voltage.(added)The circuit does disconnect (unlatch).
Chris:)

 

[Impyboy]

Yeah, you're right christoph.

after i finished playing with my pila last night, i checked the voltage of that battery. the one that went flat still read 4.1 volts, the other one was 3.7

i went to bed 5 min later, and went to use it and it didn't turn on again.

i checked the battery voltage again, but this time, it was the second batter that went dead

so it seems as tho the protection circuit kicks in when the voltage drops to about 3.7 volts....which seems weird as the battery is rated at 3.7 volts.

i guess i can breath again, knowing this is the normal operation. i just wished they told me what to expect when the protection circuit kicks in.. that would have saved myself the panick attacks. hehe

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JonSidneyB]

how much runtime are you getting before the protection is kicking in with you particular light. I am wondering if you are getting full runtime or not.

 

[Impyboy]

that's really hard to say. i don't really keep track of how long the batteries last for.

i've had the torch for 2months now.
so i'm not even sure if they were fully charged when i got them.

i play with the torch everynight without fail.. so the on time varies from a few seconds, to a few mins. I also alternate between the xenon bulb and the LED, LED gettting more useage than the bulb.

but i'm happy that it's lasted this long without recharging.

but being the first time i'm charging, i really don't know what to expect.

i've taken the batteries out of the charger now.. it's been about 5 hours. i'll test it out and see how it goes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif