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Movi M5 Batteries

Discussion in 'MōVI M5' started by William Bartlett, Jul 28, 2014.

  1. William Bartlett

    William Bartlett New Member

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    Hello,

    When using the Movi M5 with the Movi M5 battery, am I only suppose to use the battery until the 3 lights change to 2 green lights on the back of the Movi? I must be doing something wrong here because now another battery seems to not want to charge..

    I have 4 batteries, 1 stopped working last week (flashes green on and off every 3 seconds when connected to the charger)… Now another battery is doing the same thing..

    The procedure for charging:
    These batteries have been used each maybe twice.. The charger is set to LiPo and 1A.. I connect the charger to the wall, the red and black cable to the charger, then connect the battery to the 2plug cable and then the white 5 pin cable to the side of the charger. Once the battery goes green I disconnect it within a few minutes of noticing it's green. I would say no longer than 15 mins over charging past green.

    What am I doing wrong here? Why is my 2nd battery now not accepting a charge?

    Thanks,

    William
     
  2. Tristan Twisselman

    Tristan Twisselman Active Member

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    I change mine after the 2nd light goes out on the movi leaving only 1 green light. No issues thus far and I use the same procedure. Charger to wall, battery to charger, 1a lipo
     
  3. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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  4. William Bartlett

    William Bartlett New Member

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    Thank you for the reply. I will purchase the voltage checker to hopefully prevent any further issues..

    These batteries are basically brand new, barely used, I wonder what's going on..

    Strange.. Anyone else having any issues like me?

    William
     
  5. Nicolas T

    Nicolas T Member

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    You do need to make sure they are not stored for very long fully charged. The manual and the web empahsize that the batteries should be stored at about 3.8 v per cell. I grabbed a cheap discharge device off of Amazon that I use to discharge them and also check for voltages. So far works quite well. That being said I have accidentally stored a battery or 2 for almost a week fully charged and so far no real issue.

    I had picked up http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ZKM0M8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    So far none of my batteries have given me issues and I have run them down to at least one light a few times.
     
  6. William Bartlett

    William Bartlett New Member

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    Thank you for the info you provided!
     
  7. William Bartlett

    William Bartlett New Member

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    Besides the issue of 2 of my batteries failing to charge, sometimes we will get a job that has to be shot that very night, or as soon as possible. That's the nature of freelance or contract work, you have to be ready for whenever your client wants to shoot. With the M5 batteries or any LiPo battery, not being able to keep a fully charged battery ready to go if a shoot comes up is not ideal. It would be great to have a battery solution that doesn't over charge, that can be kept fully charged, that doesn't need to be discharged from time to time and also doesn't need a voltage checker to make sure the battery will not be damaged.

    Every shoot I'm on, I worry if another battery will go.. or if a shoot comes up for the same day, if I can get a battery charged in time. I still have no clue why exactly my 2 other batteries died.. I can only guess that it was because I stored a fully charged battery for too long, or I over charged it for too long, or the voltage went too low, or I kept it connected to the Movi and put it in storage.. All of these are possibilities, but with any of my other camera batteries, monitor batteries, portable light batteries etc.. None of these are issues.

    Freeflys customer support is fantastic, but I don't have confidence in their batteries.. I might have to add on the extra weight and use Anton or V-lock if the the batteries keep dying on me

    William
     
  8. Nicolas T

    Nicolas T Member

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    Unfortunately, from everything I have read this is the nature of the devices. Lipo's offer the high voltage, low weight to power ratio needed by the device and other batteries would either be too heavy or not provide all the power needs of the device.
     
  9. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    One alternative would be to see if you can find 16 volt Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (otherwise known as LiFePO4). They have pretty good energy densities, but you might end up putting one of them in a fanny pack and running a power cord over to the MōVI. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery -- their cell voltage is only 3.2 volts, so you'd need five cells to get to 16 volts.

    I've used them for several years for powering various monitors, etc. for my multi-rotor base stations, but only the 12.8 volt variety at 55 watt/hours. These are the size of a sealed lead acid gel cell, but weigh just a little over 970 grams (that's a coupla pounds to the Imperial folks).

    Andy.
     
  10. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    William think about getting a 'better' charger like the Hyperion 720iDUO. That would give you a quicker charge time if you use a 2C rate instead of 1C and you can discharge to storage voltage as needed. The admonishment for keeping at storage charge is usually for long term (think weeks and months) not a few days between shoots. Charge from half full shouldn't take that long.
     
  11. William Bartlett

    William Bartlett New Member

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    Thank you all for the replies. I will check out the Hyperion battery charger Gary. Thanks
     

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