as per some recommendations regarding the proper battery charger to use with the lithium ion battery on my shutter control, I purchased the the C-TEK lithium ion battery charger. In charging the Dakota lithium battery, the charge would appear fine, but after reaching the pulse (maintenance) level the charger would go to the fault indicator. I assumed that the battery was bad as it has full discharged previously. The battery was actually bad as it became full discharged after raising the shutter.
I then purchased a new lithium battery, hoping that this would solve the problem. After reaching a full charge, the same thing happened, with the charger going to the same fault. C-Tek said it must be a faulty battery and Dakota Lithium was kind enough to provide a replacement battery.
Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem, as the new battery had the same failure. Accordingly, I have a couple of questions.
1) Has anyone else has similar problems with the c-tek battery charger? 2) will the original Black & Decker that came with the shutter damage the lithium battery?
3) there are a number of “bare bones” battery lithium battery chargers from Dakota lithium, Batteries plus Bulbs, etc. each of these are around $30. Are these sufficient? 4) Does anyone have other recommendations.
I still have a warranty question out there with c-tek, but I just want a system that operates properly, with no more dead batteries.
thank you for any responses.
Bill Hansen
im having the same issue, ive sent a email to Babak and Eva hopefully I can get this fixed, this is a replacement motor with the beaver card in it, possibly the battery is bad or the NOCO charger is bad , its all new thought it seems to connect and the red and green lights alternates and a blue light flashes, but it only does this for a few minutes and then a small red light stays on, but the red light on the shutter motor is a steady blinking
Dakota battery sent a new battery. I could not bring the battery up to charge with the Ctek charger. The Black and Decker charger kept switching back and forth between charged and charging. I ended up connecting my 2 amp craftsman charger and am able to maintain the battery at 13.1 volts.
Ctek is sending a replacement charger. Hopefully it will fix the situation.
Babak is assisting with this unit.
Bill, how has the replacement charger been working?
I talked to Dakota Lithium awhile back, they say the battery should last years when properly held on a maintenance charge. If you have spare batteries like I do they say to put them back on the charger every two or three months to keep them conditioned.
Looking forward to hearing how your system worked out.
Steven
I see how the new charger goes. The meter is an excellent idea.
Well that sucks. I'll put funny money that the charger is tripping something in the battery. Does the battery recover when you do the reset?
About the resting voltage. When charging I've seen the meter display 14.4 volts but when it goes into trickle charge my meter displays 13.5 volts while on the charger. I started to add small volt meters to the battery, so I can see the voltage at all times during use. I've gotten mine from Amazon at https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HQ7MGHK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Steven
Thanks Steven,
i tried to revive my old lithium battery and I thought that it worked. However, I was able to raise the shutter, start the session, and then the battery went dead with the shutter in the up position, which then becomes a pain in the neck to get it closed.
CTec is sending me a new charger and I will see how that works. If not, I may do like you did and go with the B&D charger, knowing that the battery won’t last as long. I may also purchase another charger, that has both lead acid or lithium.
I will see how it goes.
the ctec charger shows that the battery tops out at 13.14 volts. Is that normal, as the charger specs state 14.4 volts topping out?
thanks again
Bill
Bill, for some reason I haven't been getting notified of new posts on the forum. I've gone back in and am now following every topic.
In response to your battery charger question I use the Black and Decker charger sent with the shutter kit. It seems to work well. I did buy a 4.5 amp BatteryTender charger from Costco, https://www.costco.com/battery-tender-4amp-smart-battery-charger-and-maintainer.product.100519712.html, for keeping my spare Li-ion batteries ready to go should one fail. It has the Li-ion selector button to choose between regular and li-ion. I have a couple of places where I've switched from Lead Acid to Li-ion. I actually found it cheaper inside Costco for ~$37.
Your batteries may not be dead, so I recommend following the instructions in this Dakota Lithium video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cd-86MrP3c From my experience it takes a couple of tries to reset the battery. If that doesn't work then it's time to invoke the warranty.
If you continue to suffer from the full charge to fault conditions it may be the charger.
I hope this helps. Please report back on your progress.
Steven