Equinox charging issue

I would try a different USB charger to rule that out. Then contact Minelab if it still continues.

RustyNickel said:

I would try a different USB charger to rule that out. Then contact Minelab if it still continues.

Click to expand...

X2

RustyNickel said:

I would try a different USB charger to rule that out. Then contact Minelab if it still continues.

Click to expand...

X2

A good 2A USB charger is like 5 bucks or less.

Look on the charger block. They all tell the output so no less than 2A.
Next make sure their isn’t anything stuck to the magnet plug and if their is use blue painters tape to get it off. Debris there can cause problems with charging.
The 600/800 rarely if any have problems with the detector itself.
Also some chargers have two outputs and one is 1A and the other 2A.
Harbor freight has both AC and DC chargers with both having two 2A USB outputs.
Doug

I have some experience with this. The fast flashing green light is not good and *may* eventually kill the battery. Sometimes the machine will charge normally and once its fully charged, it will start flashing intermittently at the end of the charge, this is also bad. Could be a couple of things, but replacing your minelab cord and getting the right charger is the first step. Also, the culprit is often shown by the upper left charging "dot" on the equinox,, it starts to get corroded because of the bad connection. I had my battery replaced by minelab and it worked great for 6 months. Then it started happening again and my charge time went from 8 hours to 5, to 4 and then 3. I ordered a new battery from the UK (ebay) and a new charger and cord, so far so good. No intermittent flashing. Just know that if it starts flashing really fast, disconnect from equinox until you solve the issue. Also, black sand loves to attach itself to the charging cord magnets. If you don't get this off (and its really hard to remove it) it will give you problems.

I checked and cleaned all my connections and they are fine. Sent an email to Minelab yesterday and received a follow up email at 0720 this morning asking for additional information like sn#, date purchased, etc. Just waiting to hear back. Kudo's to their quick reply!

Steve

I have had charging problems since almost day 1. No issues with battery life though. It takes me a good few minutes of wiggling the charging cable onto the nox to get a steady blinking light. Otherwise it immediately is a solid light or quick blinking. I'll try a new charger here shortly and recleaning the connection but I won't be sending it off till I can afford to buy another or it becomes absolutely necessary. Don't want to miss out on anything while its away.

Well, I took it out today for a couple hours, brought it back and it charged as it should. So we will see.

Steve

stetam said:

While charging my Equinox tonight instead of the slow green charge light I am getting a more rapid yellow flashing light. I looked in the manual but found nothing. Anyone experience this or know why it is doing that? I have it less than a year.

Steve

Click to expand...

My 800 did the rapid blinking sometimes too, but it only happened some of the time, and only after the machine was charged. The light blinked faster instead of going solid on when full charge was reached. I was using a good quality, full amperage charger, and the connections were clean and look fine. I could not find any info on this either. Eventually, I sent the control head in for another set of issues. I also explained this exact issue to the service guy on the phone, and he indicated he was not familiar with that. They sent me a new unit(because of the other issues), and I have charged it about 5 times now. Same cord, same charger; no issues yet...knock on wood.

Foragist said:

My 800 did the rapid blinking sometimes too, but it only happened some of the time, and only after the machine was charged. The light blinked faster instead of going solid on when full charge was reached. I was using a good quality, full amperage charger, and the connections were clean and look fine. I could not find any info on this either. Eventually, I sent the control head in for another set of issues. I also explained this exact issue to the service guy on the phone, and he indicated he was not familiar with that. They sent me a new unit(because of the other issues), and I have charged it about 5 times now. Same cord, same charger; no issues yet...knock on wood.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear you got things corrected. Since I only purchased my Nox in January I have lots of warranty left so if it happens again......

Charging Problems

My 800 earphones quit charging, so I mailed them in and got a new set, problem fixed. My 800 was on the charger for probably ten hours and still blinking. I used radioshak cleaner and lubricant, cleaned the contacts, and wala, no problem now. I am afraid to take it in the water, too many bad stories. I have a ATMax for water.
HH everyone

REAL_RAT_FINK said:

Also, black sand loves to attach itself to the charging cord magnets. If you don't get this off (and its really hard to remove it) it will give you problems.

Click to expand...

hikerdude said:

My 800 was on the charger for probably ten hours and still blinking. I used radioshak cleaner and lubricant, cleaned the contacts, and wala, no problem now.

Click to expand...

I had the same issue as hikerdude yesterday - my EQ800 was still blinking green after at least 12 hours on charge. I had my charging station next to my workbench where I occasionally use 0000 steel wool to clean certain finds. Of course, scrubbing with the steel wool creates super fine metal shavings. When I disconnected the magnetic charge cord and inspected the contacts, sure enough, I found little tufts of steel wool shavings sticking all over the magnets.

Needless to say, my charging station now lives elsewhere. Like RRF said about black sand, it was equally a bear to get all the shavings off of the cord magnets, but once I did, all behaved normally again. Overall, it’s definitely worth a quick eyeball on the cord and machine contacts each time you hook the Equinox up to charge.

To add to this old thread, I am reading that fully charging the Li-Ion battery to full charge, isn't advised by the battery-gods. I too have been stubborn about getting a full charge till it cuts off at the detector. I had noticed may times that the battery indicator reaches 4 full bars well before the full charge cut-off, which means. at a minimum, it is 75% charged. An 85% charge on a Li-Ion battery is the ideal. Totally saturated with a full charge is discouraged by the battery industry.

Now, if your stubborn about full charging, it is safer if you use power bank. Banks have an independent regulator once the current gets to a trickle, and it cuts off. I too, saw may hours where the blinking charge light persisted, and once I switched to the power banks, it was done I less than half an hour. It was surely not best for the battery during that "stubborn" mode of continuous charging past cutoff from using an iffy USB wall charger.

Me? I am going to make it a conscious effort to power up the Equinox intermittently during charge, and stop it once I see 4 bars. I've started packing a power bank and charge cable in my gear, just I case, but so far, I haven't ever seen the flashing 1-bar indicating low charge. My body wears out long before my battery gets drained in any single hunt, even with a 75-85% 4-bar charge. I don't know about you but I tend to be concerned about battery lifespan, since these Li-Ion batteries are not the easiest to replace.

There was another Equinox battery thread where I posted the following:
-----
Right, no memory. And the Nox should shut down before the battery gets so low that the battery might get damaged, just like a cellphone. In fact, I'd say treat it like a cellphone. No benefit to "full" discharge, no harm either.

They say these type batteries can be recharged 300-500 times, but that's only to "significant loss" of capacity, 50% maybe? It's not like it just up and dies. Lots of little charges are slightly beneficial over fewer full charges. Keeping charge level between 20% and 90% is slightly beneficial. Tesla cars use similar batteries, and their owners have figured all this out because they don't want to fork out thousands for a new battery. For a Nox, it's not gonna hurt that much. Charge it however works best for you.

Keeping it on the charger vs taking it off when full...depends a lot on the charging circuit. It's probably fine to leave it on there, but since these batteries self-drain so slowly, I take it off. No big deal if I leave it on there a week instead of a day, it'll be fine. I wonder what the manual says...

From the manual:
Battery Maintenance -- Lithium-ion battery performance may degrade if unused for long periods of time. Fully charge the battery at least once every 3–4 months to prevent this from occurring.

It doesn't specifically say but this implies to me DON'T leave it on the charger forever.
-----

You are correct in your findings about optimal charge percents, but I doubt it's going to gain you very much. It is interesting that the charging is different from a power bank rather than a USB port, I have no explanation for that. In any case, I prefer to let the machine work for me, rather than jump through hoops working for the machine, but to each his own.

I have a USB port voltage/current monitor, which I put on my Equinox charger. The machine was fully charged a couple weeks ago, so should be close to full still. It started at ~350mA (the USB charger is capable of 2A) and I watched it slowly decrease over a few minutes. I don't know how long it took to get to full, but when I came back several hours later it was done, solid green, and pulling 30mA. I would not leave it like that indefinitely, but for a few hours or a day even, not a big deal in my opinion.