USB emitter turns off after less than a minute

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USB emitter turns off after less than a minute

Postby samiam » Wed Jul 04, 2018 11:36 am

One of our new 5040C emiiters with the USB battery seems to intermittently turn off in less than a minute of plugging the battery in. The battery is fully cherged with the green light glowing. I plug the battery in, then pull the battery out to check it and it is still showing green. Plug the battery back in and the emitter turns off after a minute. Any idea what is happening? Should I send it in for repair?
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Re: USB emitter turns off after less than a minute

Postby raceamerica » Wed Jul 04, 2018 12:10 pm

Every USB battery pack has a built-in protection circuit to prevent damage to the battey inside. When the battery is first plugged in, there is a small power surge when the battery energizes the emitter circuitry. If the battery is unplugged, then plugged back in, the battery may not detect the initial power surge and go into the protection mode. During the next 30-40 seconds, the protection circuit decides something is wrong and shuts off the battery pack.

At this point, leave the USB battery out until it shuts off. Best practice is to press the LED on the battery pack to turn the battery ON then insert into the emitter. Do not remove the battery and replug it back in to avoid the above scenario. If you do unplug the battery, wait for the LED on the battery to go out before using the battery. Also, the wait time gives the emitter circuitry time to drain the initial charge and everything is back to square one. This is different from the AA style batteries. The repeated power up of the AA batteries actually resulted in shorter battery life.
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Re: USB emitter turns off after less than a minute

Postby samiam » Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:56 am

I thought I had a battery problem but I did what you said and it works everytime. my bad. I was so used to replacing the AA's as a first troubleshooting step when something went wrong. I need to trust its not the batteries right off the bat.
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Re: USB emitter turns off after less than a minute

Postby raceamerica » Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:34 pm

The very first shipments of 5040C with USB Battery were shipped to a limited number of customers. Shortly after shipment, RaceAmerica found a questionable part supplied by one of our vendors had been installed during the assembly process. This was the root cause of the USB Battery turning off prematurely. A recall was initiated and all customers receiving those initial shipments were contacted for replacement or update. Since this incident, the USB Battery powered emitters have not had any failures of that kind.
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