R30 Firmware for R30 1.11 10-16-2020

[kruser]

It's a shame that the firmware update doesn't fix the battery health warning in my receiver that shows up after every charge, unless I completely drain the battery, then charge it on the cradle. Unfortunately, after the problem is temporarily fixed, it appears again after the next charge, unless I do the full drain and cradle charge again. I'll have to give up on it and just live with it, but it's disappointing that they didn't calibrate the battery before shipping the product.

It is calibrated from the factory but the radio has no way of knowing what the charge level should be when you pop a cell in that may have been sitting for several months. When you use USB to charge and then switch back to the cradle or visa-versa, that seems to be when it forgets and displays the health warning but only some of the time. At least that's how I read it from others that saw the same warning as well as when I had the warning when the radio was still fairly new to me.
It also seems to forget and will display the warning pretty much every time if you swap in a spare battery. I learned that very fast after buying a spare battery!

Something else may be going on with your R30 if it displays the health warning after every drain and recharge in the cradle that you do. I think you are the only one to say it does this all the time.
I usually only use the cradle for charging as I don't trust not breaking the fragile USB ports and I rarely see the health warning. In fact, since I started charging in the cradle only, I've only ever seen the warning again if I swap in the spare cell.

 

[Hit_Factor]

I see the warning (sometimes) when I use the USB port for charging. The cradle usually clears it.

When the battery stops holding a charge, I'll buy a new one. Just like I would for any other device. I'm still on my first battery and I bought the R-30 when it was released for sale.

 

[kruser]

I see the warning (sometimes) when I use the USB port for charging. The cradle usually clears it.

When the battery stops holding a charge, I'll buy a new one. Just like I would for any other device. I'm still on my first battery and I bought the R-30 when it was released for sale.

Out of curiosity, how many cycles does the radio show your cell has been recharged when you look at the info screen?
I remember you saying you bought an R-30 when they were released. Mine is not much older. I think they were out about a month before I bought mine. Best portable I ever bought also. Very glad I bought it!

I'm still well under 300 charge cycles but mine does sit in the cradle much of the time I use it. And if I do use it off the cradle, I may only use 10% of the charge before sticking it back in the cradle to get topped off. Those small charge cycles do not count as a charge cycle. It takes almost 10 charge cycles from 90% charged back to 100% before a charge cycle is added to to info page cycle count. So the R-30 must have some kind of smarts about the battery cell as long as you don't swap it with another cell or charge it with USB.

When I bought the spare cell just about 1 or 2 months ago, the radio reported the cell only had 2% charge in it! Of course it also gave the health warning and then it promptly shut down until I charged it. When I did, it ran fine and I ran it down to about 40% charge for storage. When I popped the original cell back on, it surprised me when it gave me the health warning even though it was fully charged when I'd swapped to the new battery.

The R-30 cells seem like they have a charge counter of some sort in them but they must not have a serial number or if they do, the R-30 is not smart enough to use it. It just throws the health warning message instead.
Bug? I don't know but at least we know how to work around it.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Out of curiosity, how many cycles does the radio show your cell has been recharged when you look at the info screen?

45 cycles, I rarely use it on battery.

 

[KM4OBL]

I guess I should have been more clear about my experience, and what happened after I followed the advice I received from Icom. I normally charge the receiver via USB, because I bought a clear case for it to protect the printing on the buttons. The cradle charging contacts are normally covered by the case. I only have the original battery for the receiver. I do not swap batteries. Icom told me that the battery would be correctly calibrated if I drained it fully, then charged it on the cradle one time. That is obviously not what happened with my IC-R30.

It continues to give me the battery warning every time I turn it on, unless I let all the power drain out of it, then charge it fully on the cradle. I have tried the fix recommended by Icom more than once, with the same result. I will either ignore the battery warning, as the radio seems to function normally, or I will remove the cover and charge it only in the cradle after a full drain of the battery. I haven't decided which way to go yet.

 

[Hit_Factor]

...I will either ignore the battery warning, as the radio seems to function normally...

I think that's what we all do.

 

[racingfan360]

Also a shame that the NXDN fast unmute function is yet to be fixed. Its odd they advertise this function and yet it seems to have never worked at any stage.

 

[DudleyG]

The status (charge and cycles) of the battery is actually kept in the battery and not the receiver. The receiver simply reads whatever the battery says about itself. What is likely happening is the receiver "detects or reads" the battery needs to be calibrated based on what the battery is telling the receiver and thus the receiver sets a "status bit" somewhere in the receiver to "remember" that plus it issues the warning message. When you recalibrated the battery in the charger, the battery turns on a bit in the battery to say "I just got calibrated". The receiver is sitting there waiting to see that "just calibrated status". When you put a different battery on the receiver or power the receiver thru the USB port, the "battery status bit" in the receiver is not "reset" because the different battery wasn't just calibrated and thus doesn't have the "just calibrated bit setting". I guess the receiver maybe should say "so what, I will assume the battery is ok and reset the battery status bit in the receiver" and thus not issue the message, but it apparently doesn't do that. Maybe the receiver doesn't trust its owner.

Have you tried calibrating the battery in the charger and not turning on or using the receiver at all until you put the recalibrated battery back on it? Obviously, you have to completely run the battery down until the receiver shuts off and then put the battery in the charger. Recharging a battery that is complete run down doesn't calibrate the battery.

 

[DudleyG]

Too late to edit my above post .... last sentence should read ---> Recharging a battery that is NOT completely run down doesn't calibrate the battery.

 

[KM4OBL]

Have you tried calibrating the battery in the charger and not turning on or using the receiver at all until you put the recalibrated battery back on it? Obviously, you have to completely run the battery down until the receiver shuts off and then put the battery in the charger. Recharging a battery that is complete run down doesn't calibrate the battery.

No, I have not tried that yet. I'll try it and see what happens, thanks.