Equinox 800 Suddenly Not Charging

[relicmeister]

So I went to top off the charge in my nox 800 and after connecting the magnetic cable I saw that the charging indicator light wasn't on or flashing. So I brushed off potential debris that might be keeping the cable from making connection and tried again. Same thing. I checked on my wm08 module and it started charging. I tried my other cable and same thing also. I checked the contacts and  surfaces on the cable and the detector and looks fine, just not working. So I did a factory reset- that didn't fix it either.    Has this happened to anyone? Am I missing something? I've already emailed customer service 

i last had 2 of 3 bars on my charge level so I'm leaving it connected to the charger overnight and will check if it's still 2 bars. 

Quite an annoying situation, but it is the first issue I've had with it to date. 

[Guest Tnsharpshooter]

Do a reset on detector.

Might help.

[Mark Gillespie]

 to say the least

[relicmeister]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

Sounds like your battery is kaput, it can happen to any lithium battery at any time.... even brand new ones.  Looks like you'll be getting a new nox ?

 

 

Fine with me, but I kind of still consider mine a new nox.  100 light hours in prime conditions, and meticulous about how I treat her. Anxious to talk to the service department which is in PA where I am ( not that it matters)

[Chase Goldman]

The battery is a standard 3rd party 26550 LiIon 3.8V cell. ML did not design a custom battery, so if the battery suffers a premature failure (through no fault of your own or Minelabs'), which they sometimes do, that is a tough break but not something ML can do anything about other than honor their warranty to you.  If It has something to do with the electonic charge circuit, however, then that is something ML should look into to ensure there is not a design or component reliability issue on their end unless they also "borrowed" an existing design charge circuit.

Hard to tell the root cause at this point but it looks like you appropriately  ruled out everything external to the detector as the cause although it would be interesting to know what you were using as the ultimate charging power source (wall wart or high capacity battery including maximum charge current rating).

Get ML to do the right thing, hopefully quickly.

PS, Ft. Bedford (the official US ML legacy detector repair facility) is not servicing Equinox detectors at this point.  They are being sent back to the US ML distribution center in Illinois  for repair/replacement to hasten turnaround time using their on-hand stock of spare replacement units and to proved a centralized clearinghouse to consolidate documentation of Equinox failures.

Good luck. Hope it gets resolved soonest so you can get back to detecting and thanks for letting us know about it.  Something to watch out for.

[relicmeister]

3 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

The battery is a standard 3rd party 26550 LiIon 3.8V cell. ML did not design a custom battery, so if the battery suffers a premature failure (through no fault of your own or Minelabs'), which they sometimes do, that is a tough break but not something ML can do anything about other than honor their warranty to you.  If It has something to do with the electonic charge circuit, however, then that is something ML should look into to ensure there is not a design or component reliability issue on their end unless they also "borrowed" an existing design charge circuit.

Hard to tell the root cause at this point but it looks like you appropriately  ruled out everything external to the detector as the cause although it would be interesting to know what you were using as the ultimate charging power source (wall wart or high capacity battery including maximum charge current rating).

Get ML to do the right thing, hopefully quickly.

PS, Ft. Bedford (the official US ML legacy detector repair facility) is not servicing Equinox detectors at this point.  They are being sent back to the US ML distribution center in Illinois  for repair/replacement to hasten turnaround time using their on-hand stock of spare replacement units and to proved a centralized clearinghouse to consolidate documentation of Equinox failures.

Good luck. Hope it gets resolved soonest so you can get back to detecting and thanks for letting us know about it.  Something to watch out for.

Thanks for your thoughts about this. 

    I am using a Belkin F8J052

    2.1 amp  power adapter  single USB port

Input 100-240V AC 0.5A 50-60 HZ.  

Output D.C. 5V  2.1A

I used the detector today for 3 hours at a farm site with no problems. Still 2 bars on battery. Tried to charge again but no dice. No reply from Minelab yet

via email or phone 

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, relicmeister said:

Thanks for your thoughts about this. 

    I am using a Belkin F8J052

    2.1 amp  power adapter  single USB port

Input 100-240V AC 0.5A 50-60 HZ.  

Output D.C. 5V  2.1A

I used the detector today for 3 hours at a farm site with no problems. Still 2 bars on battery. Tried to charge again but no dice. No reply from Minelab yet

via email or phone 

Yeah, the charger you are using  is just fine.  While you are waiting for ML to get back to you, you might try a different usb charge adapter or backup battery phone charger other than the Belkin just to make sure it is not the Belkin (even though it charged the WM08, not sure the WM08 draws the same amount of current as the detector battery when charging).  Grasping here, but you never know.  You've done just about everything else you can.  Again, hope you get it resolved quickly.  Let us know how it goes with ML customer service.

[dewcon4414]

Lith Smart chargers can be odd too.   If the battery gets low or there is one weak cell sometimes they dont recognize the battery...... then you have to slow charge them......... i agree try a cell phone charger see what happens.   BUT........ id let ML deal with it thats what warranties are for..... use it.  Nothing more frustration than trying to figure out WHY....... get er fixed.

[Mark Gillespie]

Has anyone saw a picture of the internal battery location and connections?

 

[Sinclair]