G4 Battery problem

[GVFD1405]

I just bought a G4 pager from a dealer, our whole Department is making the switch.
The one complaint I already have is even with dimming the backlight and cutting back its duration this pager battery only stays right for 6-7 hours. I don’t have a clue what’s going on but for $600 I was hoping for something a bit better. EVERYONE I k ow that has this model says the same thing, “Nice pager, but the battery sucks”, can anyone relate? Is there a fix, is there a different higher capacity battery I can buy? Need to do something only had this 3 days and I’m over it already. Too bad my Minitor IV won’t do the job anymore I’d go back to that in a hurry.

 

[hill]

Not using my G4 and G5 professionally, but just using them to monitor trunk radio systems in the area.

My battery life is great on both and with having the G4 for over 3 years I did purchase a new battery. Unsure the battery history on the G5 with picking it used last year.

My G% last me all the time I monitor during the day when in my delivery truck. Not on the complete day, but never had an issue with the battery going dead.

Going forward I am very pleased with the pagers and battery life.

 

[K6LEH]

I just bought a G4 pager from a dealer, our whole Department is making the switch.
The one complaint I already have is even with dimming the backlight and cutting back its duration this pager battery only stays right for 6-7 hours. I don’t have a clue what’s going on but for $600 I was hoping for something a bit better. EVERYONE I k ow that has this model says the same thing, “Nice pager, but the battery sucks”, can anyone relate? Is there a fix, is there a different higher capacity battery I can buy? Need to do something only had this 3 days and I’m over it already. Too bad my Minitor IV won’t do the job anymore I’d go back to that in a hurry.

Even though you just purchased it, check the date code on the battery. It should be less than a year old. I find that Bluetooth is a power suck. When I don’t need it, it’s off. Even so, with a fresh battery and Bluetooth on, mine lasts close to 10 hours.

 

[scannerboy02]

I get between 10 and 12 hours on my G4 and G5s. Do you have the backlight set to stay on all the time? I have mine set to 30 seconds and I'm sure the less it's on the better the battery performance would be.

 

[hazrat8990]

I get between 10 and 12 hours on my G4 and G5s. Do you have the backlight set to stay on all the time? I have mine set to 30 seconds and I'm sure the less it's on the better the battery performance would be.

They will last much longer than that if it's set up to only alert when a page is sent. On a relatively quiet system that may only have a dozen or so calls, mine can last as much as 36 hours before giving off low battery alerts.

Given the recommendation to replace the battery once a year, I'm surprised mine still last as long as it does. I purchased my G5 back in 2017, and replaced the battery in 2019 when the new type was introduced. If I use it like a scanner to monitor everything, I can still go for 10-12 hours with a 30 second screen timeout.

 

[GVFD1405]

I get between 10 and 12 hours on my G4 and G5s. Do you have the backlight set to stay on all the time? I have mine set to 30 seconds and I'm sure the less it's on the better the battery performance would be.

Backlight is set to only 8 seconds

 

[GVFD1405]

Everyone I know that owns one here currently (totaling at least a dozen I can count off the top) has this exact complaint. for the money spent on this pager its definitely a let down, Pager works great and is a very nice piece of equipment need more hours out of it without having to worry.
Firmware V2.01 so if there was an issue I would hope it had been addressed.

 

[blackbelter]

As a casual listener, I typically experience between 10-12 hours of use from my G5. The BT has been turned off and the back light is key up activated for few seconds. I also have turned down the screen resolution. My FW is 1.33.
Unication recommends yearly changes of the batteries.

 

[scannerboy02]

Everyone I know that owns one here currently (totaling at least a dozen I can count off the top) has this exact complaint. for the money spent on this pager its definitely a let down, Pager works great and is a very nice piece of equipment need more hours out of it without having to worry.
Firmware V2.01 so if there was an issue I would hope it had been addressed.

Perhaps they had a bad batch of batteries but that is definitely not normal for these devices.

Are all of the devices having this poor battery performance programmed with the same file?

 

[GVFD1405]

Yes all programmed at the same place by the same person.

 

[scannerboy02]

Yes all programmed at the same place by the same person.

I would imagine that something in the programming file is causing the battery issue. It could be worth creating a new/different file and see if that helps fix the issue. Your post is the first one I've ever seen complaining about short battery life so that would seem to indicate that something isn't right with the programming.

 

[krokus]

The battery life is greatly affected by how much radio traffic comes across. Also whether you are scanning, or just using it for alerting.

 

[GVFD1405]

OK, thank you all who replied. updated firmware and had a new profile loaded. Im hoping this helped!

 

[blackbelter]

You might also do a hard reset per the Unication site:

1. Remove the battery for at least 5 minutes.

2. Make sure pager is turned OFF, then replace the battery.

3. Plug pager into the charging cable & power supply for at least 2-3 minutes (use the micro-USB power cable & power supply included with each G4/G5).

4. Turn pager ON and then back OFF.

5. Once the pager has been in the off position for a few minutes, you should be able to press the center joystick button and see the charging indicator once again.

6. Allow pager to continue charging until battery shows full charge of 100%.

 

[hummin24]

One thing is to make sure the battery is COMPLETELY charged. They charge so slow its pathetic. I prefer to charge in the amp speaker and it takes hours. Usually only good for about 8/9 hours depending on how busy your system is.