To Recap: The units wouldn't charge. The light just blinked red no matter how long they stayed plugged in. I sought sources for batteries here and bought a set. We put them in- same thing- just blinks red. So.... it's obviously not a battery problem. It must be a board or something else. Before I send it to the repair shop any of you do-it-yourselfers ever run across this? Is there anything else I can check or do?
Thanks
I do not remember what the lights on the MINTER were doing when I replaced mine. However, the batteries were not initially being recognized for charging.
I had to go through the PC-CDU software and change/check the battery charging settings. It has been a while, but it seems like I had to select one battery for charging. After it was charged, I selected the other battery for charging. After both were fully charged, I was able to reset the option for automatically charging both batteries.
Since that first time, charging has worked just as it always did.
I don't have a charger right now but when one comes back to the office I will hook it up and try it.
Thanks
If they are just blinking red, that means they are not picking up satellites correct? It is unlikely, but possible the antenna connection is loose between the actual antenna, and the receiver board. I am pretty sure those are seperate things in the Hiper, but it has been quite a while since I had mine apart. In you are into tearing them apart and it is a last resort, I whould unplug the antenna clean the connection and put it back together, with a dob of hot-glue after.
My chargers are a black box with two wires, one in from the wall, one out to the Hiper.
The wire from the wall that would "plug" into the "box" wasn't pushed all the way in. It looked OK, but it did exactly what you describe.
Once the plug was fully seated, the units would charge again.
Just another thing to check.
I don't think that is it as I swapped chargers to make sure that it wasn't a bad charging unit but I will double check that also.
Just got back in (seconds before the rain).
Just in case I was not clear in my prior description, here is a screen capture of the setting I needed to change:
The value in red is usually set to "AUTO". For some reason, I had to set this option to charge each battery individually. After charging each battery with the options of "CHARGE A" and "CHARGE B", I was able to reset the default to "AUTO" and have had no issues since.
At the time, I wondered if the charging method was switching between the batteries and was putting just enough charge into Battery A then switching to try and charge Battery B such that the other battery would run down while one was getting a small charge built up.
If that doesn't fix the issue, I would pull the batteries out and check them with a multimeter. Even as shipped, there should be some measurable voltage. May be good to just see if you got a bad battery - that can sometimes happen.
I have them hooked up now. I put it on A and it wasn't 10 minutes that it was blinking green. I have it on B now and it is taking longer as it has been a little while now and it is still blinking red. It will let me put them on "Auto". Did I read from your post that you had to charge them individually before it would allow you to set it on auto?
I don't know if I "had" to do it, that is just how it worked out.
Also, I was very nervous about the possibility of having screwed something up, so I waited until they were fully charged before leaving the office. If there was a way to set the units on fire by just changing the batteries, I would be the guy that could have figured out how to do it.
You could probably switch to AUTO and watch the PC-CDU screen to make sure that the second battery is getting a charge - should be able to tell pretty quickly. If so, it would seem safe to leave them on AUTO charge.
We have Hiper + receivers. I have plugged in the charger and got the red blink or solid red light, I can't remember now witch one. The unit did not charge. I will add that the battery was completely dead. I hit the power button to turn the receiver on, waited a minute and cut the power off. The receiver charged after that.
Hope this might help.
Mike
If you are not successful manually setting the battery to charging using the PC-CDU utility, then I would second the suggestion to check your antenna connections, and also check your board connections.
As you slide the boards out of the housing in order to remove the battery connector, there are a number of connections that can become dislodged. The aftermarket batteries I purchased had leads that were significantly shorter than the OEM Topcon batteries that were replaced. Getting the connection made before re-assembling the receiver was not easy because of this issue.
Also, you might use a voltmeter to test the voltage of each of the batteries manually. If the voltage of both batteries is good, it is likely not a problem with the batteries or charging, and you could focus your efforts on cables and connections. To test the batteries, you'll likely need to insert a paper clip or needle, one into each side of the connector, positive and negative. Then you can attach your voltmeter leads. DON'T CROSS THE LEADS!
Maybe this slideshow of photos could help? I have Topcon Hiper Pro receivers.
