Charging the blue brick battery

[makuta]

@Morydees

@Makuta

i too just got the blue brick, and am confused with the charging.. it seems different than what people say ^

Yeah, it’s a bit confusing at first but you’re on the right track if yours is the same as mine.

1. The battery switch must be powered on (and show the red light) in order to charge.

2. The red light on the charger is normal and will always be on, simply indicating it’s plugged into the wall.

3. Charging is done once the green light goes on (meaning both red AND green on the charger).

So my hunch is you’ve been charging yours overnight with the battery switched off, the same mistake I made the first day. Additionally, it DOES take a while to charge that first time (some say up to 12 hours) so be patient and let it go once you get it switched on.

sounds like we have the same setup

i just checked and the battery was off oh well… good thing i am not in a rush to get this charged

now we play the waiting game…(checks wristwatch)…

[Azevedo]

@Makuta

i am guessing the red light is always on, my next guess is that when the charger green light turns on that will mean its done charging?

also since the batt light turns on when charging even when battery is set to off would thins mean i can charge the battery in either the on or off positions?

any thoughts would be helpful

right now i have the battery set to on and is charging, i left it charging overnignt, still no green

The red light will always be on when the battery is being used or charged. When you want to charge the battery you need to turn the battery switch on. This will make the green light appear when it is plugged into the wall. When the green light disappears it is fully charged.

[makuta]

@Azevedo

@Makuta

i am guessing the red light is always on, my next guess is that when the charger green light turns on that will mean its done charging?

also since the batt light turns on when charging even when battery is set to off would thins mean i can charge the battery in either the on or off positions?

any thoughts would be helpful

right now i have the battery set to on and is charging, i left it charging overnignt, still no green

The red light will always be on when the battery is being used or charged. When you want to charge the battery you need to turn the battery switch on. This will make the green light appear when it is plugged into the wall. When the green light disappears it is fully charged.

that doesn’t seem to be the case for my battery

with the batt on, plugged to the charger, and plugged into the wall there is no green.

i think for mine the light will turn green when the batt is fully charged

[Hoot]

@AJ Quick

My supplier is still unable to ship to the US in bulk for some reason.

Have you looked into Canada at all?

[jackdoud]

@Makuta

that doesn’t seem to be the case for my battery

with the batt on, plugged to the charger, and plugged into the wall there is no green.

i think for mine the light will turn green when the batt is fully charged

Are you sure your battery isn’t already full?

[makuta]

@jackdoud

@Makuta

that doesn’t seem to be the case for my battery

with the batt on, plugged to the charger, and plugged into the wall there is no green.

i think for mine the light will turn green when the batt is fully charged

Are you sure your battery isn’t already full?

thats a good point… i assumed the battery wouldn’t be fully charged because most rechargeable battery’s aren’t when bought(like all the RC car batteries i have ever bought)… i guess there isnt any way to tell is there? other than the green light on the charger

[jackdoud]

@Makuta

thats a good point… i assumed the battery wouldn’t be fully charged because most rechargeable battery’s aren’t when bought(like all the RC car batteries i have ever bought)… i guess there isnt any way to tell is there? other than the green light on the charger

Other then plugging it in and running it for a while?

[Azevedo]

@jackdoud

@Makuta

thats a good point… i assumed the battery wouldn’t be fully charged because most rechargeable battery’s aren’t when bought(like all the RC car batteries i have ever bought)… i guess there isnt any way to tell is there? other than the green light on the charger

Other then plugging it in and running it for a while?

lol

[PssdffJay]

Yes, When ever I but something with a battery, if it isn’t completely dead out of the box, I don’t charge it. Use it until it dies and then charge it. I thought that had something to do with the life of rechargeable batteries and was common practice.

[Morydees]

@Azevedo

The red light will always be on when the battery is being used or charged. When you want to charge the battery you need to turn the battery switch on. This will make the green light appear when it is plugged into the wall. When the green light disappears it is fully charged.

Well ■■■■, you are totally right about this and I had the description of mine backward! I’ve only had to charge and I keep forgetting it’s the opposite of what I expected. The light being green DOES actually mean it’s charging and when it goes off it’s done. So if Makuta and I have the same battery, his might actually be fully charged and he didn’t realize it. Time to leave it connected for a few hours and see what happens the next time it’s plugged in. Here’s how it should read:

1. The battery switch must be powered on (and show the red light) in order to charge.

2. The red light on the charger is normal and will always be on, simply indicating it’s plugged into the wall.

3. The battery is charging when the green light is on. Once it goes off, the battery is full.

Bah, I wish I could go back and edit my post. Sorry about that Makuta!

[makuta]

i just got home from a 7 hour shift and let the battery charge the whole time, i will just assume the batt IS charged by now

i am going to wizard world in sacramento next week and i wanted to make sure the battery is ready for the con.

i would love to somehow attach a multimeter to the battery to keep track of the power

does anyone know if i can leave the battery connection to the lights/sounds WHILE i charge the battery?

or could this be bad for the soundboard/lights?

[Morydees]

Now that one I’m not sure about. I specifically put in a switch to be either off or charge and not both at the same time, mostly because I’ve had bad luck with overseas batteries and their so-called “protection” circuits. However, I seem to recall these batteries are often used in CCTV systems under constant pass-through power to cameras, only switching to battery in case of a power interruption. So I guess my answer is…probably?

Perhaps someone who has done that could chime in.

[makuta]

yesterday i let my proton pack run at idle for half the day (awesome light ambiance XD)

and whenm i plugged the battery in to charge sure enough the green light came on.

left it charging overnignt and it was still charging when i left for work

now the green light is off

thanks everyone for helping figure this battery out!

also i (unknowingly) left the connection from the battery to the soundboard/lights and it seems fine, so i think you can have it charging while the pack is running

[Morydees]

Sweet, glad it worked out!

[Giant_Slor-1]

Just got my blue brick in the mail today. Thanks for all the info in this thread, it’s quite helpful.

[Hoot]

Used this to remove the LED. Took two of us…me to do all the work and my wife using pliers to remove rhe led whilst I desoldered. Human helping hands

[thebigone2087]

I’d hate to revive an older thread, but I have a question. I am going to be getting a blue battery and want to wire it to a DPDT switch. I’ll be using the tutorial to take out the battery switch and LED so it only has the normal + and - wires coming out. My question is if I use Wharin’s wiring diagram with a THREE position DPDT switch instead of two… will the middle position kill the power coming from the switch instead of it running all the time?

[Wharin]

If its center off, then yes. Always make sure you look before hand on what position is what; the switch is usually labeled with it, but its always good to be sure.

Edit: on my personal pack, I added an adittional spst switch on the positive wire between the sound board and the dpdt switch (technically two, but the second is for asthetics only) to act as a main pack kill switch.

[YHSCraig]

I have a 12V blue brick and when plugged into the wall the charger shows a green led. When I plug in the battery and switch it on the led turns yellow. I just wanted to make sure that was normal since I hadn’t seen anything about a yellow led.

[Venkmans_Swagger]

@CraigTHEOWL1

I have a 12V blue brick and when plugged into the wall the charger shows a green led. When I plug in the battery and switch it on the led turns yellow. I just wanted to make sure that was normal since I hadn’t seen anything about a yellow led.

Check out noodlemaps build thread. He mentions something similar mate. Think he sorted it too