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Need help on reviving a Sovereign GT Battery

B

Brawler_7

New member
Hi Guys,

I drained this battery a few months ago and had it sitting in my cupboard since then, went to charge it yesterday and it would not charge. Meaning that the light would not come on, and even after I left it connected for a day and plugged it in to the detector, the detector was giving me the dead battery sound from the very beginning.

Any ideas of how i can revive it. Can I use a 9 volt battery to do it? That's pretty much the only equipment I own, don't have a charger or anything.

I would really appreciate your advice.

Thanks
 
Nobody knows? I know critterhunter and a few other battery experts like kered on here have posted about rechargeable batteries before in great detail.


Why no love?
 
I have no idea myself but you can always PM those who you think could help you, probably get a quicker answer.
 
The easiest thing to do would be find a Batteries Plus and have them rebuild the pack. It's a lot cheaper than buying a new one and you won't have to mess with a soldering iron.
 
You may not be able to save this battery as i seen one like this on the GT before. What has happened is if you drain the battery one of the cells may have went completely dead and will not recharge and this is why the light also will not come on.
I had a guy send me his as he did the same thing and I thought with my Sun Ray charger and battery station for the GT battery I could charge it from the clips on the battery pack and not going though the charging port as this is what I use for my GT and works great. It still would not take a charge so I opened up the pack and seen the factory charge port has a small circuit board before it goes to the battery to charge, but knew this was not the problem as i had by passed it with the Sun Ray charger so I knew it had to be the batteries and tested them and found one that had completely went dead. I ordered in a new set of 10 cells that were 2600 Mha (these are short fat cells) that had the solder tabs on them to try to replace them and charged them and seem to work fine until I tried to put the cover back on the pack and being a tight fit some of the tabs touched together and shorted out and I will tell you it gets hot fast and catches on fire fast too while melting the case.
This is why it is recommended to charge the battery and take it out before storing the detector, I even will charge it up again if it sits more then 3 months so it will never go completely dead as these do lose a little charge from sitting.
You can try a battery plus or a Interstate Battery and see if they can rebuild it as they may have a pack that will fit it or make one up, but I had no luck with the one I did.

Rick
 
Brawler 7,if the light didn't come on your charger it wasn't getting power from the wall plug.I would suggest check the charger and battery with an ohm meter.I'm,not sure what the use of a nine volt battery would be to revive your battery pack? Good Luck
 
Many junk chargers can't charge a very dead pack. For instance, several friends drill chargers wouldn't charge their packs but i could charge them with my accucel 6. You need to blast charge that pack at like 1 to 3 amps the first time, then drain/charge it slower like a 4 hour or more charge rate which is about 250ma. drain with a car light bulb. charge/drain via main battery leads, not the charge port.
 
Thanks everyone. When I meant that the light does not come on I was talking about the light on the battery pack. Yes, I had a feeling that I might have to invest into a fancy charger. That's how I got in trouble in the first place, draining the battery to low by leaving the detector on until it was quite, and then waiting too long before trying to recharge it again.
I thought maybe I can "jump start" the battery pack using a 9v battery, but it was more of a wishful thinking concept.

So does anyone have a similar story with their pack?
 
My pack on my Sov Elite died, wouldn't hold longer then 2 hours worth of charge. Took it to Batteries Plus and they rebuilt it for about $40. Works perfectly and I couldn't be happier, saved money and now gets about 25 hours to a charge.
 
Thanks Citterhunter for chiming in- that is the best way to try first. If he does not want to wait or will not wait for a modern charger and understand the latest technology about lipo types-Battery plus is the other good option. They have the latest NMH and will have the adapter and will get it faster. I did the search function[And will again on same subject] on this website long ago and you and kerred [plus others] helped pioneered the batt problems and solutions -it should have been a Sticky type thread long ago. HHH sam in ms.
 
Here is the scoop on Ni-Cad battery's ...

The worst thing you can do is drain the battery before you put it in storage.
A Ni-Cad cell that is totally discharged has the tendency to develop hair like shorts between the plates rendering the cell useless.

If you can open the pack and get to each individual cell you have a chance of healing the defective cells.

Try to find the cells that are totaly dead ... zero volts ... good cells will uasualy read something on a volt meter.
Use a large capacity 12 volt battery like a car battery or a Gel cell and JOLT each bad cell with the current.
Use + to + and - to - when doing this.
What you are trying to do is blow those little hair like shorts out like a fuse.
If you are successful the cell will take a charge and become usable once more.
I use a set of test leads connected to the big battery and just tap the cells with the leads making a spark.
It only takes a second to do this and the bad cell will immediately have a positive charge and will show some voltage on the meter.
The cell will lose a slight amount of capacity but it will take a charge and work once more.

Hope this helps save you a few bucks.

Willee
 
Sorry willie but your 100% off base there, the best way to store nicd is fully discharged and even shorted, nimh is a different story, maybe your mixing them up.
just one of the many pages for info google nicd storage and you'll see
 
n/t
 
RICK, SORRY IT BURNT YOUR FINGERS. I KNOW THAT WASN'T ANY GOOD. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR TROUBLE. YOU ARE THE BEST AND ALWAYS HELPING EVERYBODY. MARK
 
People need to be sure to store the regular and rechargeable battery holders in a safe place too. If the two main battery leads come in contact with metal it's explosion or fire city. I've taken to putting mine in a zip lock bag when not plugged into the GT.
 
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