HELP! Battery Change for Trimble 5600 Total Station

Did you try charging the battery?

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I've only used lawn and garden 12v batteries that cost $40 and last a long time and at least couple of years before replacing. When reading up on motorcycle batteries, they need an additive to them. Do some google searches on them.?ÿ Plus the collector won't be able to get a true reading on the battery level of non Trimble made batteries.

@robertusa

So I just endure the "Battery Low" verbal message?    Scary.

This may be a little too late, but have you tried to get the originals re-celled? I'm sure you could improve them by also switching battery chemistries. Not sure if Li-ion are available, but a NiMH re-cell would certainly be an improvement. It's also very likely you could use the same battery charger.

@beartow
yeah, it's a little too late.  Plus, I switched because, eventually, Trimble did also.  The NiMH batteries just weren't a good fit.   I just need the system to recognize the battery so:
1 - I can get an accurate reading of my battery life

2- Trimble Access will stop complaining about he low battery.

The Trimble cowbells contain a 12v 7ah NiCd battery commonly used in emergency lighting systems.?ÿ $22 delivered from Amazon and available at any battery store.

@jim-frame

Thanks Jim, 
I went to batteries plus and picked up a little more powerful 12v 18Ah model.  My gun runs ... but just shows as "Low Battery".   I was just wondering if I was gonna have to disregard the false reading and keep driving on? (Like I do with my broken gas gauge)

I use a C-PAP battery I got on Amazon. The thing lasts a couple days.?ÿ

Don't take this as sound/safe technical advice, but you could add in a little (cheap) electronic gizzmo that boosts the battery voltage so that the power to the instrument is say a constant 12.8V, thus tricking the controller.

In my homebrew Geodimeter 600 robotic setup I have a 12V car battery to the instrument but also off that same battery I run the Parani LR BT radio, and for that I have a step down gizzmo that cuts the voltage to 5.6V, and this particular gizzmo has a LED display that alternates between showing the battery voltage and the output voltage.

@richard-imrie

Can you tell me more about this gizzmo?  ....Like what it is and where I may purchase one.

@firestix

It's one of these. You can get all sorts of variations. I think the one I have can do step up and step down, as long as the voltage difference is more than 1V between input and output.

Here it is on my instrument radio - it's buried under the Parani. It is step down 12V car battery to 5.6V for the Parani. This one, like the one in the eBay image has a small black button to the right of the display that you can press to toggle what is displayed. It also turns the output on/off and while most of the time this one stays at the last setting (on) it sometimes goes off between sessions, hence the small hole drilled in the top of the case so that I can insert a small screwdriver to press the button.

These things are not reverse polarity protected, and I can verify if you get it wrong they go pop, so I have a couple of spares.

Don't be fooled by the "12V" label - the instruments actually need 13+V and die when the voltage drops to around 12.2V. When fully charged new Trimble batteries show just under 14V. A 12V car battery also puts out around 14V. The instrument appears to have an internal voltage regulator (essential since Trimble provide a simple car battery connection lead) so iit can cope with the slightly higher than normal input voltage.

I've re-celled the small Trimble batteries which are used for both instrument and for the remote radio/keyboard configuaration using 14.8V x 2600mAh Li-on cells. I've also made separate instrument batteries using 14.8V x 6200mAh Li-on cells and those last around three days of continuous use - they were made some ten years ago and are still going strong.

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Posted by: @jim-frame

The Trimble cowbells contain a 12v 7ah NiCd battery

Did you state that wrong??ÿ They used to be that size of Sealed Lead Acid (SLA), which is what your link gives.

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@bill93

I think he did - I've re-celled those with replacement SLA's. My own version with Li-On is much, much lighter but the SLA are much, much cheaper.

Yep, I was thinking SLA but writing NiCd.  I've recelled at least 3 of them, and all were SLA.

@richard-imrie  The instrument uses only around 1 amp while working, but, I found that a 2 amp regulator is needed to make sure that it starts correctly (shown is 4amp)  The instrument needs at least 12.6v to keep from chirping at you.  Richard, I have had issues with the Parani's at 5.6v and I am thinking that might be a bit aggressive from my testing.  The instruments are fine up to at least 14.8v (full NiMh) that I have observed, but, that was on Geodimeter's and not the Trimble's

@norm-larson

I got the impression from the Parani manual that its voltage range is 5-9V (presumably because it is RS232?), which sort of made it a bit tricky because USB power supplies are 5V while the car battery is 12V so both are outside the range, which is why I put in the step down regulator on the 12V car battery - not sure why I set it at 5.6V.

My experience with car batteries is that while they might be 13.8 on the charger or when the car is running, they drop to 12.6 ish as soon as they are taken off, so the instrument battery indicator never shows a full charge.

@richard-imrie  You are right, I got it confused with the the top limit.  Parani's do not like over 12.0 volts.  My bad, sorry it has been a few years since I went through it

@jim-frame Thank you Jim, very helpful info!