tic battery problems

[KevinFFVFD]

hey everyone. i cant recall right off hand what kind of thermal image camera we use, but recently we have been having problems with our batteries keeping a charge. we will fully charge a battery and place it in the camera. we will then check it about an hour later and it will only have a half charge without even being used. keep it in there for a day and when you turn it on it will display a low battery. what could be causing these problems? i would really appreciate any info on this because it is starting to become a real problem. thanks everyone, stay safe.

[FF41230]

We use an MSA Evolution 5000. We recently experience this problem, put the battery on charge and it would show fully charged in about 20 minutes, stick it in the camera and try to use it the battery indicator would flash dead. We went ahead and ordered 2 more batteries and when they came in I took the original batteries to a battery terminal place, that rebuilds and sells batteries. They put the batteries through a tester they had and said that the batteries were perfectly fine other then just being old. They told me that the Lithium rechargeable batteries like that normally hold up good for about a year and half to two years. There was an expiration date printed on the batteries of march 2006. So we got about 3 years out of ours. I would say more then likely thats probably the problem with your TIC batteries, they are just old and need replaced.

[jonnyirons2]

Kevin, the problem you presented is a dead battery, or better yet, a battery that has no more charge cycles left in it. Of all the batteries out there, Li-Ion is the best for giving the most amount of charge cycles. Li also is the lightest and holds voltage longer, but only in low draw conditions. ive used the Bullard cameras, and they use basically a motorola MT-1000 handie talkie battery for power. These batteries like ALL batteries that are of new materials are not made to be charged constantly, once they are full, they should be taken off the charger. Just ask someone who always has a cell phone that goes dead if they constantly charge it every night. All batteries have a life cycle that is practically dependent on the amount of charges it can take. Once you reach that limit regardless of age it is no good anymore.

[FrFtr28]

We were experiencing the same problem with the batteries for our Argus TIC. We found that the batteries had to be discharged completely before charging. There is a button on the battery charger marked "discharge", pressing this while the battery is on the charger will discharge it and then start charging the battery automatically. Now the batteries seem to be holding a charge.

[dday05]

We have a Bullard, we switch the battery every week and have had no problems with it what so ever . (except submerging it in a bathtub at a fire)Which it had to go out for repairs, but it still worked .It was just on all the time so we had to take the battery out when not in use.

[BFDLT32]

Batteries will not last forever. We replace our TIC battereis every year. It is the recommendations of the manufacture. Yea it cost us some money but we have a working piece of equipment when we need it.

[resQengine]

Bullard

We also use a bullard, and jonnyirons pretty much summed up our issue. The batteries need to be used, in our case they are not used enough. We too rotate the batteries through, but I think they need to be drained and then recharged.

[Jonathan Bastian]

For some maintenance tips, see the following articles:

http://www.bullard.com/Thermalimager/Get_The_Picture/GTP_1105.pdf

http://www.bullard.com/Thermalimager/Get_The_Picture/GTPSpring2004.pdf

http://www.bullard.com/Thermalimager/Training/firehouse_january_06.shtml

or http://cms.firehouse.com/content/mag...le.jsp?id=2127

http://www.bullard.com/Thermalimager/Training/firehouse_august_04.shtml

Some of this is duplicate info, but it should help with general maintenance as well as battery issues.

[kprsn1]

We have a MSA Evolution 4000 and we found out early on that for some reason the battery would go dead in the camera without use after being fully charged. We started storing the batteries in the case instead of in the camera and it helped quite a bit. Only takes a second to pop them in the camera and I'd rather take a second than have a dead camera.

[doughesson]

We also use a bullard, and jonnyirons pretty much summed up our issue. The batteries need to be used, in our case they are not used enough. We too rotate the batteries through, but I think they need to be drained and then recharged.

NiCads are bad about needing to be completely drained before recharging.Otherwise they'd only work until the charge reached the lowest level before getting recharged,usually conking out just when the hose team enters the building.
On a somewhat related note,don't use rechargable batteries in your GPS.They drain too fast and when they get low,the timekeeping function screws up and the date/time index is moved until the GPS' brain cannot calculate where the satellites are supposed to be.

[Rescuechief72]

How mcu do the Bukllard batteries cost. Any ballpark figure?

[Weruj1]

we have an MSA 4000...........from 2001 .........and just last month replaced the original set of batteries. So I would say you may need some new ones as well.

[Dickey]

We just ordered batteries for our Scott TIC. Just have to replace them every few years cuz they get old and build up a memory.

[Just a new name]

How mcu do the Bukllard batteries cost. Any ballpark figure?

We sell them for $38.33

[arff17]

Camera Batteries

All batteries have life expectancy. The expectancy is based on the number of charges.
It doesn't matter if the battery is 75% when its put on the charger or 0 %.

The only way to get a long life from the battery is to let it drain before placing it in the charger.

A DC charger is the best way of charging the batteries