Section 2: Description of Charging System
9
Charger Controls and Display
There are three user-selectable control buttons:
• Discharge – The Discharge button starts a discharge cycle, in which the
battery pack is discharged across a 2-ohm shunt, leaving the battery pack
with (nominally) no energy. Discharge continues until the battery voltage
drops to 0.9 volts per cell. During the Discharge cycle the charger displays
the elapsed time, battery pack voltage, battery pack temperature, current
being removed from the battery pack, and total energy discharged from
the battery.
The discharge cycle takes approximately 75 minutes for a fully charged
12-cell battery pack, 110 minutes for a 9-cell pack, and 140 minutes for a
6-cell pack.
Sea-Bird recommends that you discharge the battery pack before each
recharge, for the following reasons:
- The charge cycle display shows the total energy added to the battery
pack during the charge. If you charge a partially charged battery pack, you
know only the amount of energy added to the pack, not the total energy in
the pack. By first discharging the battery pack, the amount of energy
added to the pack is the total energy in the pack, since the discharge
leaves the pack at nominally 0 KJ.
- Discharging the battery pack prevents voltage droop, which can affect
battery capacity in the long term. See Battery Conditioning and Voltage
Droop in Section 5: Battery Characteristics and Handling.
• Charge – The Charge button starts a charge cycle. During the charge
cycle the charger displays the elapsed time, battery pack voltage, battery
pack temperature, current being delivered to the battery pack, and total
energy delivered to the battery. Depending on temperature, amount of
remaining charge in the battery pack, and condition of the battery pack,
the charge cycle may consist of a warm-up charge, refill charge, fast
charge, and/or top off charge.
The charge cycle duration depends on the battery temperature; in general,
cooler batteries charge faster. Typical charge time is 2 hours.
• Reset – The Reset button cancels any in-progress activity (such as battery
charging or discharging), resets the device, and clears any errors.
There are two display indicators:
• Charger Active lamp - bright yellow LED. If the lamp is on, do not
disconnect the battery pack. Disconnecting the battery while the lamp is
on may cause a small spark. The user may feel a small shock, especially
if the connector is damp.
Use the Reset button to interrupt the charger’s discharge or recharge cycle
before disconnecting the battery. After you press the Reset button, the
lamp will turn off, indicating it is safe to disconnect the battery.
• LCD display - 2-line by 20-character backlit LCD. The display changes
with the operational mode. If a recognized battery is connected, the
bottom line of the display shows the battery voltage. If no battery is
connected, the display shows NO BATTERY.
Typical LCD display messages are detailed below.
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