Radio battery dying in a cold ambulance

[Danny37]

Im a bit concerned but a crew member left a vertex radio with a lithium-ion battery in the ambulance overnight when it was really cold the other night and the radio wouldn't power back on. The battery wasn't dead by any means as the radio had been fully charged the night before and the radio was off. However our onboard motorola xts3000 with a lithium ion battery powered on just fine. Was wondering if extreme temperature has anything to do with it or if we just have a defected battery. The battery is only 4 months old, so it's relatively new.

The radio did eventually power on once we brought it inside and charged it up again.

Your thoughts?

 

[KK4JUG]

Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast. Even in Georgia, I've seen these batteries dramatically drop in voltage even in 40º weather.

The solution? Don't leave the radio in the ambulance.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Im a bit concerned but a crew member left a vertex radio with a lithium-ion battery in the ambulance overnight when it was really cold the other night and the radio wouldn't power back on. The battery wasn't dead by any means as the radio had been fully charged the night before and the radio was off. However our onboard motorola xts3000 with a lithium ion battery powered on just fine. Was wondering if extreme temperature has anything to do with it or if we just have a defected battery. The battery is only 4 months old, so it's relatively new.

The radio did eventually power on once we brought it inside and charged it up again.

Your thoughts?

How cold was it?

Were both radios turned off at the time? Were they stored in exactly same location in the vehicle? Was the XTS in a charger or vehicular adaptor?

The cold really does slow down the chemical reaction in the battery. If the radio had been left on overnight, the small current drain would have kept the chemical reaction going.

It is possible that Motorola is using a better formulation for their lithium ion batteries. A typical operating range (For Radios), is minus 30 Celsius. However it bears looking at the specs for the particular models and batteries used.

All things being equal, the reduced capacity of the battery may have a different result on different radios. If the Vertex draws a large current spike when turned on, it's internal circuitry may fail to operate if the voltage sags, while the Motorola might have a softer turn on surge current, or its microprocessor more resistant to voltage sags.

Check the specs for the equipment, and check the temperature extremes for that night to see if the radio specs were exceeded.

It is common instructions for Artic explorers to store batteries close to their bodies.

Whatever you do, in the future, you should resist charging a battery that is frozen as it can be damaged.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[Danny37]

Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast. Even in Georgia, I've seen these batteries dramatically drop in voltage even in 40º weather.

The solution? Don't leave the radio in the ambulance.

Never had this issue before with the xts radio but it was a rookie mistake. It won't happen again, I hope.

 

[Danny37]

How cold was it?

Were both radios turned off at the time? Were they stored in exactly same location in the vehicle? Was the XTS in a charger or vehicular adaptor?

The cold really does slow down the chemical reaction in the battery. If the radio had been left on overnight, the small current drain would have kept the chemical reaction going.

It is possible that Motorola is using a better formulation for their lithium ion batteries. A typical operating range (For Radios), is minus 30 Celsius. However it bears looking at the specs for the particular models and batteries used.

All things being equal, the reduced capacity of the battery may have a different result on different radios. If the Vertex draws a large current spike when turned on, it's internal circuitry may fail to operate if the voltage sags, while the Motorola might have a softer turn on surge current, or its microprocessor more resistant to voltage sags.

Check the specs for the equipment, and check the temperature extremes for that night to see if the radio specs were exceeded.

It is common instructions for Artic explorers to store batteries close to their bodies.

Whatever you do, in the future, you should resist charging a battery that is frozen as it can be damaged.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

That makes sense, I noticed most vertex radios make a popping sound when powered on. Don't hear it that much on moto radios. The xts stays in the bay but unplugged only if it was used, which it rarely is since it's a spare radio. Both radios were powered off as well.

I left the battery in the office for a few hours until it warmed up and then charged it. It seems to be working fine now.

 

[speedway_navigator]

The xts stays in the bay but unplugged only if it was used, which it rarely is since it's a spare radio. Both radios were powered off as well.

OMG Bob Galvin is turning over in his grave. You use a lowly Vertex as your primary radio and delegate the Motorola to backup status?

 

[Citywide173]

OMG Bob Galvin is turning over in his grave. You use a lowly Vertex as your primary radio and delegate the Motorola to backup status?

depending on the model, they could both be Motorola.......

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Heck yeah, Motorola has owned Vertex for a while.

 

[Danny37]

OMG Bob Galvin is turning over in his grave. You use a lowly Vertex as your primary radio and delegate the Motorola to backup status?

It's a newer model vertex radio that's not beat up like the xts3000. Vertex radios are pretty solid radios.

 

[speedway_navigator]

I was hired to help a shop add a bunch of Vertex radios into a Trbo system. I was told it was a one day job, program the radios, test and leave.

When the sales guy and I got there we found out the client had each user's name in the contact list and there was no way to copy and paste from Trbo CPS to Vertex CPS. They had 240 radios, I forget how many we added.

The sales guy was in a mild panic because he thought only one of us could create a contact list. I had him start with the last name starting with A and I made a second code plug from Z up, we meet in the middle and copied the 2 lists into one code plug, saved a lot of time.

We also had to shorten channel names because the Vertex only did 12 characters, the RSSI indicator blocked the rest of the screen. That took a few hours for the client to create new names.