I have two grey batteries for my S3 total station. I have the two slot grey charger (trimble 53018010). When I charge one of the batteries the red light flashes signalling that the battery needs conditioning. I can't find any documentation on how or if you can condition a battery with this charger. I know some of the other chargers have a condition button on the back. This charger does not appear to have one. Any ideas?
I believe conditioning of the battery is a process of charing the battery to full capacity, then letting it discharge at a slow constant rate until flat, then a re charge, maybe run 2 or 3 times .
I have both chargers and see what you say about the one charger not having the re condition battery at the back, I would charge the battery full, and then let it run in your S3 constantly tracking a stationary prism in tracking mode until it gets to about 5% of capacity , then re charge.
I used to run flat Ni Mh batteries by shorting the terminals with two wires and a 12V car parking light bulb. The old Ni MH batteries used to suffer memory loss issues if you did not run them flat, but I don't believe this is a good idea with Li Ion batteries.
I read quite a lot contradictory information on how to look after the various rechargeable batteries you get.
My 3 No S6 batteries are 8 years old, been used daily for that all time, between 1-3 hours a day and are still going strong. I think I have only ever re conditioned them less than 10 times in that period.
Were as the trimble LI Ion batteries in my GNSS rovers die after about 4 years and get replaced. The cheapies I once bought off Ebay lasted less than 6 months and I would not recommend them , they may come from the same factory, but must be the rejects that don't meet the quality controls or specs of the Trimble OEM ones.