Recondition Failure

[N4GIX]

My XPR7550's battery continues to charge fully, but when checked in the radio it continues to display the red "Recondition Battery" message.

I know for certain it is not the Impress charger because it works just as expected when charging a brand new battery. I've also tried reconditioning
the stubborn battery with another Impress charger.

For my latest attempt I actually allowed the battery to become fully discharged by leaving the 7550 on until it shut itself down due to an exhausted battery.
After going through a fully recondition/recharge cycle, the battery still provides ~12 hours of operation,
yet still displays the same error message "Recondition Battery"...

 

[rescue161]

What color is the LED on the charger when you try to recondition the battery? If it is red, then you should quickly pull the battery out of the charger and quickly reinsert it back into the charger until the LED is amber. It will cycle the battery. One of my XPR7550 batteries did this because I never initialized the battery like that in the beginning. Once I performed that, everything worked fine.

You can drain the battery and charge it four 24 hours and it will still report that it needs to be conditioned. So make sure the charger reconditions the battery as described and you'll be set.

 

[N4GIX]

You can drain the battery and charge it four 24 hours and it will still report that it needs to be conditioned. So make sure the charger reconditions the battery as described and you'll be set.

I have now drained the battery fully six times, and forced the (amber light) reconditioning cycle six times.

It still refuses to "reset" and displays the red "Recondition Battery" message...

I received a brand new battery I had ordered about a week ago, and put it through the same recondition/charge cycle and it displays it's status correctly.

As I wrote earlier though, despite the "Recondition Battery" message, the battery does in fact take a full charge and will last around 12-15 hours of constant usage while scanning all 16 TGs in my primary zone.

 

[rescue161]

Don't drain the battery before hand. Just put in the charger and force the charger to condition the battery. The charger will drain/charge/condition. You're probably not allowing the charger to drain the battery by doing it yourself, which may be causing your problem.

 

[N4GIX]

Don't drain the battery before hand. Just put in the charger and force the charger to condition the battery. The charger will drain/charge/condition. You're probably not allowing the charger to drain the battery by doing it yourself, which may be causing your problem.

The first three tries I did precisely what you've suggested, by forcing a recondition after only a few hours of use. The last three attempts were of the "drain until shutdown" then force a recondition cycle.

I'm going to make another attempt tonight with another (new) Impress charger I have in reserve.

 

[rescue161]

What is the firmware on the chargers that you are using? Latest is 3.110. I updated 1100 chargers due to older firmware not charging batteries correctly.

 

[N4GIX]

What is the firmware on the chargers that you are using? Latest is 3.110. I updated 1100 chargers due to older firmware not charging batteries correctly.

I have no idea whatever. I don't even know how I would find that out.

This charger and battery worked normally, until about two weeks ago.

I've now got the "stubborn battery" on my new charger to see how that turns out.

 

[com501]

What is the date code on the battery? I am assuming it is an OEM Motorola Impres battery and not aftermarket.

 

[rescue161]

If you were close, I'd update the firmware in the charger for you. That would at least eliminate that angle.

 

[riveter]

It sounds like that's just a bad battery. That does happen....

I run into one probably every few hundred batteries.

 

[N4GIX]

What is the date code on the battery? I am assuming it is an OEM Motorola Impres battery and not aftermarket.

Since the IMPRES system won't display the data stored in the battery, that would be difficult to say. As I recall though, the first use date was in 2015.

 

[N4GIX]

What is the firmware on the chargers that you are using? Latest is 3.110. I updated 1100 chargers due to older firmware not charging batteries correctly.

Well, that really the point isn't it? The battery does charge fully, and discharges at the same rate as my brand new and "properly operating" battery.

To say I'm not terribly impressed with IMPRESS would be a massive understatement. :roll:

In any event, after undergoing the full recondition/charge cycle on my new IMPRESS charger, it still stubbornly has refused to 'reset' the battery's internal IMPRESS circuits.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I'll just continue to use my old battery until it fails the charge/discharge performance expected.

 

[rescue161]

Nevermind then. You already have it set in your mind that it isn't the charger. Buy another battery and be done with it.

 

[com501]

-And it's IMPRES with a single S. It's not IMPRESSIVE, it's Motorola.

 

[N4GIX]

Nevermind then. You already have it set in your mind that it isn't the charger. Buy another battery and be done with it.

Please re-read what I've written more closely Jerry, as all of the information has been provided. What I was asking is if anyone has ever had something like this occur to them, and if so how they solved the problem.

1. I have a new battery I purchased last week
2. The new battery initialized perfectly with my original charger. Radio displays "First Used: 8 Feb 2017" (see picture below)
3. I have a brand new charger (less than a month old).
4. The new charger will not "re-initialize/recondition my old battery.
5. The old charger will not "re-initialize/recondition my old battery.
6. The old battery will accept and deliver a full charge from either charger, despite not resetting the IMPRES "system."

Given that a brand new charger doesn't make any difference in the end result, what else can I reasonably conclude Jerry?

New Battery:

Old battery:

 

[N4GIX]

-And it's IMPRES with a single S. It's not IMPRESSIVE, it's Motorola.

I had it correct in post #11, but mistyped thrice in post #12. Either way, thank you for focusing on the trivial. :lol:

 

[N4KVE]

Nevermind then. You already have it set in your mind that it isn't the charger. Buy another battery and be done with it.

No way. While the gas gage does not work with that battery, it will still take the OP through a 12-15 hour day. I would not get rid of that battery. Just live with it. How many decades did we survive w/o a gas gage on our battery.

 

[rescue161]

I understand your situation. I had the exact same thing happen to one of my batteries. Once I updated my firmware on the charger, the problem went away. Even brand new chargers can have old firmware. There have been instances of brand new batteries being messed up by chargers with older firmware. We had units that were buying new batteries and they were not initializing due to the chargers with old firmware. I had to update the chargers to enable the chargers to charge batteries correctly.

I mentioned that I would update your charger to the newest firmware and I got a snarky response from you. So with that said, either 1) live with the message/battery, 2) pay someone to update the firmware in your chargers or 3) buy another battery. It is as simple as that. I tried to be nice and offered to do it for free, but seeing as how you didn't like the suggestion I gave, you can pay someone else to do it for you.

 

[GTR8000]

Look at the label underneath the charger. Right above the barcode it will show the model # WPLN4232A followed by the firmware version V3.xx

If you have V3.90 or later, charger firmware is likely not your issue. Sounds like the chip inside the battery is just acting up, although it's interesting that when you drop that battery in the charger, it's not going right into recondition mode (yellow LED) on its own. One would assume that if the radio is sensing that it needs to be reconditioned, so should the charger.

Is the firmware in the radio itself up to date? That would be something to look at also.

 

[N4GIX]

I mentioned that I would update your charger to the newest firmware and I got a snarky response from you. So with that said, either 1) live with the message/battery, 2) pay someone to update the firmware in your chargers or 3) buy another battery. It is as simple as that. I tried to be nice and offered to do it for free, but seeing as how you didn't like the suggestion I gave, you can pay someone else to do it for you.

Actually, having reread the entire thread, I note that I made no reply -snarky or otherwise- to your offer, having noticed that you live in NC and I live in far Northwest Indiana (near Chicago) it wasn't as though I could just swing by one afternoon. :lol:

Having found on batboard that the shipping firmware version may be found on the bottom label, I see that the "old" charger shipped with version 3.11...

...and the new charger's version is v3.90, which appears to be the newest as far as I can find.

In any case the "old" charger initialized a new OEM battery without error, and up until two weeks ago was successfully reconditioning my original "old" battery.

I do appreciate the offer and if you would be kind enough to PM me a shipping address I'll send the old one down to NC for a vacation. I'll gladly pay postage both ways. This won't be an inconvenience since I do have the v3.9 charger available to use in the meantime.

73 de N4GIX - Bill