Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Canada
Posts: 4

Well my Visor has died. It has been eating batteries like there is no tommorow.

Details:
Graphite Visor Delux.
Age: 2 months
Batteries: Both NEXcell NiMH and cheap Alkaline.
Hacks/Programs: None. After the second set of batteries were consumed I did not re-install anything and left it stock except I turned beam recieve off.

The problem:
It was draining brand new alkalines' or fresh charged NiMH batteries in 6-8 hrs with the unit OFF. I mean I would put in a fresh set at 11:00pm before bed and by 6:00am they were dead. Unit was off and out of the cradle.

I called tech support and they told me to do a hard reset and then leave the batteries out for 24 hrs. I did so but no change, the batteries still died. I called back and they sent me a new unit right away and it just arrived today. I am worried that perhaps my NiMH batteries were the cause of this problem, is that possible? They are NEXcell batteries charged with a MAHA-C124S charger from Thomas-Distributing. One thing I noticed right away when I got the charger was that the batteries and the charger got really HOT during charging. To the extent that the batteries were nearly too hot to handle when I wanted to put them in my Visor. Could this have burned out the unit? Do your batteries get hot when charging?

Trevor

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 99

Geez, battery burnout in 6 hours with the unit switched off? A set of batteries would probably last 6 hours turned on continuously, with it off there should've been no appreciable drain at all. IMHO, you just got a bad unit, bad ones slip thru quality control sometimes. That's why cars occasionally get recalled .

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 99

OOPS, I just noticed I didn't say anything about the charger questions. Unfortunately I don't use that particular equipment, but a lot of Visorcentral members do so you should be getting advice when they read your post. Till then I recommend just using alkalines, at least you'll know if your new replacement Visor is working OK or not. FWIW, alkalines should last somewhere between 9 to 25 hours of powered on time, depending on how often you use backlighting, how often you hotsynch, freshness of batteries, and assorted other stuff.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 27

AAAAAAAAAhhhhh!!!!! Your battery charger should NOT be that exothermic. I'm using the same setup (batteries, charger and Visor) and I have the charger going all the time with a fresh set of batteries. I just changed them this morning (right on my 8 day schedule) and I've NEVER noticed anything other than ambient temperature coming from the unit or the batteries. I can't comment on the situation with the alkaline batteries also failing. Dare I ask if the batteries were in the wrong alignment while in the charger or Visor (sorry, troubleshooting 101 requires asking some square 1 questions)? Unplug that thing before you set the room on fire!

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 42

I have to agree with bjornsen. I also use NiMH batteries in my Visor and have never had a problem. Granted, they don't last as long as alkalines, but I get about 2 weeks out of them. I just use RadioShack NiMH with a RadioShack charger, and the charger my get slightly warm (very slightly) but my batteries never get HOT. I would check the charger and batteries before you attempt to use them in your Visor again. Sound like something is wrong with one or the other. Not to mention, heat is a big killer of batteries.