CTX-3030 Battery Repair/Replace

Ra1der5

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My CTX battery failed after seven months. Although the warranty on the battery is just six months, Minelab replaced it. But, what about next time?

This video just came out. I haven't tried it. Enjoy!



I think an easier and cleaner way to take the metal strips off the original battery would be to just heat the solder and pull it off. Am I missing something?

And here's how to solder batteries.



Raider Regards,

R5
 
Great info :good:

2vj9c20.jpg


:stop:
These batteries are unprotected Li-Ion type batteries and Li-ion batteries may explode if not handled properly.
User must understand the safe handling of Li-ion batteries.

NEVER SHORT CIRCUIT.
 
I’ve repaired two by replacing the cells in them. I’ve only used mine a couple of times since but it worked like it should. I did the other for Airforcemike here on the forum. I will have to see how his is holding up. Both of our original batteries were showing full bars then they would just go dead randomly. You couldn’t hunt for more then ten minutes between shut downs. There is a circuit board in the battery that monitors the voltage and shuts the MD off if the voltage gets too low. Ours had a bad cell in them and it would make the voltage dip and cause a shut down. The board going bad could cause issues for some people and if they replace the cells it still doesn’t work properly.
 
I think an easier and cleaner way to take the metal strips off the original battery would be to just heat the solder and pull it off.

R5

The strips on the ctx battery are spot welded on. It is almost impossible to get them off in one piece. I ended up just using solderwick since it’s basically flat copper wire to join the batteries when I did it.
 
Everyone, thanks for responses.

The strips on the ctx battery are spot welded on. It is almost impossible to get them off in one piece. I ended up just using solderwick since it’s basically flat copper wire to join the batteries when I did it.

CC... You inspired me to looking into spot welding vs, solder. Thx.

R5
 
Everyone, thanks for responses.



CC... You inspired me to looking into spot welding vs, solder. Thx.

R5

The existing tabs are spot welded. I soldered when I redid the packs. Some places like batteries plus might spot weld the packs for you though. I was just saying the existing spot welded tabs on the pack make it real tough to remove the tabs in one piece. I just focused on saving the tabs that come off the board to the pack.
 
Man o man what a awesome job Coin. I only used it for the second half of the year but I bet I get almost 1.5 times the battery length now. Did a few 8 hours trips hunting with the battery indicator barely moving. Best battery I own now and it’s the original battery when the 3030 was released.


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Just did mine too.

Got my CTX used from a member of this forum and the pack would never go to solid green. Recently, it wouldn’t hold much charge at all and I stumbled across that same video and ordered the same cells and did the job too.

As for the spot welds on the straps, just go slowly and support the strap so that it can’t bend with the prying force.

I ran my detector for about 4 hours the other day and the screen still showed full charge. I just recharged my pack and it took all of 20 minutes or so to get solid green again.

I’ll do the same with the WM10 when its battery finally gives out.

As was mentioned, you could also use solder wick if the straps become too damaged.

Heck of a deal for $15 to get decent cells vs. the junk ML uses.
 
Finding decent cells is the hard part. You have to filter through tons of reviews. There are tons of fake name brand cells out there now too. The people that vape really test the cells and have chargers that can see if they are actually get the full rated mah. Lots of reviews out there for 2500mah cells that only actually produce 1500mah. When I did airforcemikes pack I ended up going name brand with good reviews and they were $30 for four cells off amazon. That’s still way cheaper then replacing the battery pack.
 
When I did airforcemikes pack I ended up going name brand with good reviews and they were $30 for four cells off amazon. That’s still way cheaper then replacing the battery pack.

Link?

R5
 
Well this is disappointing.

My new cells are outputting 8.25 volts to the board, but now the board has no output to the battery terminals. It was working fine. I was chasing a target in my front yard and turned back to find the detector shut off. My AA pack still works so the detector is not the issue. The charger still shows the Lithium pack as fully charged.

I had voltage at the terminals (measuring the solder pads on the back of the connector), but it disappeared and now nothing. Oh well.
 
You have a bad cell or a bad board I assume. The board monitors the battery voltage and shuts it off if the voltage dips too low because lithium batteries can’t be discharged to 0 volts I believe. I don’t remember what voltage the pack should be at off the top of my head but I can test my battery later. Over heating a cell while soldering them can damage them too.
 
You have a bad cell or a bad board I assume. The board monitors the battery voltage and shuts it off if the voltage dips too low because lithium batteries can’t be discharged to 0 volts I believe. I don’t remember what voltage the pack should be at off the top of my head but I can test my battery later. Over heating a cell while soldering them can damage them too.

Cells are supplying 8.25vdc to the board. The center tap on the other side is at 4.12vdc. This thing ran fine for several hours at a local park the other day on its maiden voyage with the replaced cells. Today, it was working fine, then the CTX shut down while I had my back turned, digging a signal in my yard. I opened the pack and plugged it in to the CTX with cover off and CTX powered up so I replaced cover on the pack and went back outside. Sure enough, while I wasn’t looking at the detector sitting on the ground, it shut down again.

I minimized overheating the cells when soldering by pre-tinning the straps and battery cap separately, allowing them to cool and heating just enough to reflow the solder. Not my first rodeo with soldering connections(equipment tech in semiconductor industry was my career). I also used a low wattage iron for the job, not one of those massive soldering guns.

Gonna see if I can glean any IC pinout info from the chips on the board. Gotta be a 7.2 voltage regulator on there somewhere.
 
Cells are supplying 8.25vdc to the board. The center tap on the other side is at 4.12vdc. This thing ran fine for several hours at a local park the other day on its maiden voyage with the replaced cells. Today, it was working fine, then the CTX shut down while I had my back turned, digging a signal in my yard. I opened the pack and plugged it in to the CTX with cover off and CTX powered up so I replaced cover on the pack and went back outside. Sure enough, while I wasn’t looking at the detector sitting on the ground, it shut down again.

I minimized overheating the cells when soldering by pre-tinning the straps and battery cap separately, allowing them to cool and heating just enough to reflow the solder. Not my first rodeo with soldering connections(equipment tech in semiconductor industry was my career). I also used a low wattage iron for the job, not one of those massive soldering guns.

Gonna see if I can glean any IC pinout info from the chips on the board. Gotta be a 7.2 voltage regulator on there somewhere.

Yeah you did it right and obviously know what your doing. I had my solder station cranked to 480 degrees so I could get in and out quick for less heat to build too. Your battery is doing exactly what both mine and airforcemikes packs were doing prior to the cell replacement. They would show full then randomly shut down. I tested each individual old cell after I removed them and they all tested at the rated 3.7 volts. I think one of them had a load issue where when it was put under a load the voltage fell off. I don’t have a way to load test these cells though. From what you described it sounds like a bad cell to me.
 
Yeah you did it right and obviously know what your doing. I had my solder station cranked to 480 degrees so I could get in and out quick for less heat to build too. Your battery is doing exactly what both mine and airforcemikes packs were doing prior to the cell replacement. They would show full then randomly shut down. I tested each individual old cell after I removed them and they all tested at the rated 3.7 volts. I think one of them had a load issue where when it was put under a load the voltage fell off. I don’t have a way to load test these cells though. From what you described it sounds like a bad cell to me.

Interesting. My initial situation before replacing the cells was that it would never go to full charge, the green LED would always remain flashing. It still worked well enough to go out and detect for several hours, but never showed full since the time I bought it used. So after cell replacement, it charged to steady green and worked fine the other day for several hours without issue. At least the replacement ML packs have come down in price and include the updated o-ring, so I may just bite the bullet and go that route.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
 
Interesting. My initial situation before replacing the cells was that it would never go to full charge, the green LED would always remain flashing. It still worked well enough to go out and detect for several hours, but never showed full since the time I bought it used. So after cell replacement, it charged to steady green and worked fine the other day for several hours without issue. At least the replacement ML packs have come down in price and include the updated o-ring, so I may just bite the bullet and go that route.

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Don’t trash the bad pack of you do. I would be interested in testing it further if you just decide your gonna go the new pack route.
 
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