Motorola Minitor VI Issue

[Toppis98]

I recently dropped my pager in the pool I took it out and immediately put it in rice after removing the battery. It has been about a week. The pager sounds fine, no issue with the speaker. But now every time I turn it on the pager LED flashes red. And the pager has 3 low toned beeps that continuously repeat.
Anyone have any ideas what’s wrong with it or if there is anyway to fix it.

 

[K4EET]

@Toppis98, you've got the pager that I am looking to purchase. I'm sorry that nobody has responded to you. I was going to suggest calling up your local service shop for Motorola equipment and see if they would possibly tell you over the phone what a red flashing LED on startup means (probably some error detected in its self-check during boot-up) and what the continuous triple low-tone beeps indicate (probably that there is an ongoing issue). In any event, the reason they might tell you what those indicators mean is because a self-repair job is probably not possible. You would need some really expensive surface-mount technology repair equipment that you probably do not have and specialized training so that you would not do further damage to the unit. Water damage is bad enough. Please don't make it worse. Let the shop handle it. Trust me on this.

 

[K2NEC]

@Toppis98, you've got the pager that I am looking to purchase. I'm sorry that nobody has responded to you. I was going to suggest calling up your local service shop for Motorola equipment and see if they would possibly tell you over the phone what a red flashing LED on startup means (probably some error detected in its self-check during boot-up) and what the continuous triple low-tone beeps indicate (probably that there is an ongoing issue). In any event, the reason they might tell you what those indicators mean is because a self-repair job is probably not possible. You would need some really expensive surface-mount technology repair equipment that you probably do not have and specialized training so that you would not do further damage to the unit. Water damage is bad enough. Please don't make it worse. Let the shop handle it. Trust me on this.

Seriously? A simple google search told me that the red LED and tones means the battery is low. You don't need to contact a service shop, if it looks like it's working, charge it up and see if you have any problems.

 

[a417]

might be a battery issue after going swimming, the batteries are fairly cheap.

 

[K4EET]

Seriously? A simple google search told me that the red LED and tones means the battery is low. You don't need to contact a service shop, if it looks like it's working, charge it up and see if you have any problems.

Page 13 of the Minitor VI User Guide has this:

Battery Status
At any time, press and release the Reset
button to view the battery status.
• Solid Green - Indicates that the battery
level is high.
• Solid Yellow - Indicates that the battery
level is medium.
• Solid Red - Indicates that the battery
level is low.
• Blinking Red - Indicates that the battery
level is critically low. The red LED and the
battery LED will blink simultaneously
every 2 minutes with a beep to remind
you to charge and/or replace the battery.

@Toppis98 stated "But now every time I turn it on the pager LED flashes red. And the pager has 3 low toned beeps that continuously repeat."

The blinking red LED for a low battery is after you "press and release the Reset button to view the battery status" which is NOT what the OP is doing. The OP is merely turning on the pager and the LED starts blinking red with the three (not a single every two minutes) beeps that repeat continuously. This is different. Something is amiss with the pager I am afraid and I believe that the shop could shed some light on the situation.

<edit> @K2NEC, by the way, as an ex-Motorola engineer I do try to research things out so that I am usually on-target as best as I can be. And yes, I had already Googled the Minitor VI manual.

 

[K2NEC]

The blinking red LED for a low battery is after you "press and release the Reset button to view the battery status" which is NOT what the OP is doing. The OP is merely turning on the pager and the LED starts blinking red with the three (not a single every two minutes) beeps that repeat continuously. This is different. Something is amiss with the pager I am afraid and I believe that the shop could shed some light on the situation.

Wow that's funny considering people agreed with me that it could be a battery problem.
OP, charge the pager and the battery. If it keeps giving you problems, try with a different battery. IF it's still giving you problems, then look into contacting a shop or whoever gave you the pager.

by the way, as an ex-Motorola engineer I do try to research things out so that I am usually on-target as best as I can be. And yes, I had already Googled the Minitor VI manual.

Respectfully sir that doesn't mean anything to me. You could have been an engineer 10 years ago, a lot has changed in 10 years. I'm glad we are on the same page about the manual. Thing is, not everything needs to go to repair for every stupid reason. If you are familiar with electronics you know that batteries and water don't mix. Considering the pager is IP56 rated, I strongly don't think that water broke or damaged the pager.

 

[K4EET]

<snip> Considering the pager is IP56 rated, I strongly don't think that water broke or damaged the pager.

Hopefully by now the OP has charged the Motorola battery, changed the Motorola battery if a spare Motorola style battery is available and might even have the RLN6526 option for the Alkaline Battery Tray to use three AAA batteries to see if the issue can be resolved. That would be a nice outcome to an unfortunate situation.

Should that not resolve the issue and the pager still exhibits the alarm condition, I will mention that the IP56 immersion protection rating does not cover total immersion in water. That requires a higher number in the second digit. Immersion in water between 15 centimeters and 1 meter in depth is a 7 rating. Continuous submersion in water for long periods at a depth of three meters is an 8 rating. Sure there is a chance that the pager survived the drop in the pool. Technically speaking however, it really needs to have an IP57 or IP58 rating for that kind of mishap.

 

[K2NEC]

Should that not resolve the issue and the pager still exhibits the alarm condition, I will mention that the IP56 immersion protection rating does not cover total immersion in water. That requires a higher number in the second digit. Immersion in water between 15 centimeters and 1 meter in depth is a 7 rating. Continuous submersion in water for long periods at a depth of three meters is an 8 rating. Sure there is a chance that the pager survived the drop in the pool. Technically speaking however, it really needs to have an IP57 or IP58 rating for that kind of mishap.

Yes because I too check the IP rating of my pagers before I drop them into the pool

Let's see what update the OP gives us