Wireless hand controller does not work after idle for months

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Wireless hand controller does not work after idle for months

Postby Richkim » Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:15 am

I have not used the wireless hand controller for about 3 1/2 months and obviously the battery needs to be charged. I plugged it into the USB wall charger overnight but the wireless hand controller does not work. I press a button but the lights do not respond. I tried a second charger connected to the hand controller and left it charging for about 4 hours. Same result.

Does the internal battery need replacing? How can I get the hand controller working again? Our event is in two weeks.
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Re: Wireless hand controller does not work after idle for mo

Postby raceamerica » Sun Mar 08, 2020 2:11 pm

Richkim wrote:Does the internal battery need replacing? How can I get the hand controller working again?


The battery does not need replacing. Lithium-Ion batteries have a protection circuit to limit charging rates and limit how low the battery can be drained. When the hand controller sits idle for extended periods of time, the standby circuit keeps the hand controller alive until the battery protection circuit cuts power to protect the battery. The battery enters into a wake up protection mode.

Normal charge rates for the hand controller battery varies from 750mA to 600mA depending on age of battery and version of charge circuitry. When the battery level is very low after sitting idle for an extended period of time, the charging circuit protects the battery from an initial high charge rate by limiting the charge rate to 15-20mA. This means the hand controller could take several days to charge.

To get the charge circuit out of its overly protective mode, do the following. Plug the hand controller into the charger for about 10 minutes. This will raise the battery voltage with a very small charge rate. After 10 minutes, unplug the USB cable and plug it back in immediately. The charge circuit measures the battery voltage and charge current and raises the charge rate to about 60mA. Wait 5 minutes and unplug the USB cable and plug back in immediately. By plugging the USB cable back into the charger, the battery level does not have time to settle back down to a minimum level fooling the charge circuit. The charge circuit does the same measurements and raises the charge rate to 300mA. At this point the battery will fully charge in about 6-8 hours. Unplug and plug in the USB cable again after 5 minutes and the charge rate will elevate to its normal charge rate. Let the hand controller fully charge for about 3-4 hours. At this point the hand controller battery is fully charged and ready for 140-180 hours of use.

It is a good idea to charge the hand controller once a week to keep the battery from entering the wake up protection mode. This procedure does not harm the battery as long as you wait the 10 minutes initially before the unplug/plug and the 5 minute wait between unplug/plug thereafter.
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Re: Wireless hand controller does not work after idle for mo

Postby Richkim » Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:31 am

I followed your recharging procedure but did not expect it to work. Left the hand controller on charge for a few hours and now it works! Checked the battery charge level with the safety light and the battery is at full charge. It appears to be holding the charge since it has been several hours of use with no problems.

Thank you for the step by step recovery procedure. It works!
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Re: Wireless hand controller does not work after idle for mo

Postby Dakimmer » Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:37 am

I did not use my hand controller for about 3 months and had the same issue of not able to charge. I followed the steps and my hand controller is back in action. I tried this charge technique with a lithium based power battery pack I use to charge my phone and it is back working too.
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Re: Wireless hand controller does not work after idle for mo

Postby raceamerica » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:59 am

Yes, this is a pretty common industry technique with Lithium-Ion based power storage cells. This is a necessary industry procedure due to the nature of the charging and protection circuitry used in most power storage devices.
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