Charging The Axiom

[CarsonChris]

I've been charging the Axiom for about 10/11 hours. It's still flashing. If I unplug it and turn it on it shows a full charge. If I plug it back on the charger it flashes. It did this the first time I charged it also. The second and third time no issue. 
 

should I just unplug it? 

[Steve Herschbach]

Seems like mine has had times when it never stopped flashing, so I'd unplug it and plug it back in and then it quit. Not paid much attention to it though, when it's charged it's charged. It's like the "I'm full" trigger does not go off sometimes. My rechargeable computer mouse does the same thing every time, never stops flashing even though it is fully charged. Maybe the batteries come up fractionally short of being a full charge? Don't know, but it's never been an actual problem for me.

[phrunt]

Yep, doesn't reach expected full charge, Common problem, nothing to worry about and it can be a miniscule difference between full and not full and even full isn't really full, happens all the time with all sorts of stuff.  Sometimes if you unplug it, plug it in and let it charge a bit more, it might make it, or do that a few times, either way, doesn't make a difference other than its better for your battery to not be full so just unplug it and use it. 

I think the people that make some products resolve this problem in firmware, some even make firmware updates to "fix" this problem, when really, they're not fixing it, they're just hiding that it happens.   I've got new headphones from another detector manufacturer that have never once finished charging since new, they flash forever yet they still work the expected amount of time.  If they see enough complaints about it, they may do a firmware update to hide it happens.  If it should be charged, just start using it, don't try to unplug and plug it in and force that extra bit into it, it may satisfy you but it's not great for your battery.

An annoyance but unless you notice a run down in time it operates from what is expected, I wouldn't worry.

Some interesting reading.

Even when your battery is at 100 percent, there’s still room for some more charge

True

There is more juice in your smartphone battery than the percentage displayed suggests, but if you used that juice you’d end up dramatically reducing the overall lifespan of the battery. At the crux of this problem is a delicate trade-off played by manufacturers. Increasing the available charge within a battery reduces the number of times that battery can be charged and discharged without being damaged internally. To make batteries last for hundreds or thousands of charge cycles, manufacturers place limits on the amount of juice that batteries can discharge.

To understand why, you need to know a little about how batteries work. The guts of most lithium-ion batteries, like the ones in smartphones, laptops, and electric cars, are made of two layers: one made of lithium cobalt oxide and the other of graphite. Energy is released when lithium ions move from the graphite layer to the lithium cobalt oxide layer. When you charge up a battery, you’re simply shifting those lithium ions back the other way—out of the lithium cobalt oxide layer and back to the graphite.

This is where we get to the problem with battery life and charge cycles. Shift too many of those lithium ions out of the lithium cobalt oxide layer, and the whole structure of the layer messes up. “The atomic structure of the material actually falls apart if you remove all that lithium,” says Kent Griffith, an assistant professor specializing in energy storage at the UC San Diego.

So while it is possible to charge a battery beyond 100 per cent, the only way to do that is to pull out more of those crucial lithium ions. “It’d be like pulling all of the supports out of the floor of a building,” Griffith says. You could get the lithium ions out, but good luck putting them back once you’ve messed up that internal structure.

That’s why manufacturers set limits on the amount of charge in their batteries. Most of the time, they’re set so only around half of the lithium in the lithium cobalt oxide layer is removed during one full charge. “Your battery could give you more charge if you went beyond removing half of the lithium, but you wouldn’t be able to do that very many times.”

 

[abenson]

I've had the same experience with mine. Left it charging all night and half the next day and it was still flashing. Unplugged it and turned it on and it showed the battery fully charged.