Hey all, I have a Movi M5 battery that won't charge. I plug it into the charger and the charger flashes green. The battery is very much dead. I know the light is a solid green when charged and solid red when charging. What does flashing green mean? Can I get this replaced?
Ryan: Do you have a LiPo tester so that you can see what is wrong with the LiPo? Also, at what voltage have you been storing it between uses? Andy.
I do not, I've only been using what Freefly has supplied with the Movi. Not sure what voltage I've been storing at, I usually fully charge it before every shoot. Why would this matter? It's kind of upsetting to lose a battery, especially with the price tag attached to them
Lithium Polymer batteries tend fail if you store them fully charged, I'm afraid, Ryan. Each cell in the battery, when fully charged is at 4.2 volts. The minimum voltage is 3.0v -- you will damage the battery if you let the cells drop below this voltage. The "storage" voltage is around the mid-point, typically 3.6 - 3.8 volts. I suspect what may have happened is that you have accidentally kept the battery fully charged and thus it has failed. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Andy.
Thanks Andy, that makes sense. Is there anything Freefly can do to rectify this? It seems they should have provided more accessories for caring for the batteries. If this happened with all the batteries we would be out hundreds of dollars. Moving forward, do you recommend any testing accessories? Or anything else I should know about these batteries?
You'll have to email to support@freeflysystems.com regarding your question to FF -- Gary and I are just volunteer moderators. I'd recommend that you get a LiPo battery tester/monitor. For example http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tester-Voltage-Buzzer-Alarm/dp/B005GJCJOA (just Google for: lipo tester). You might not want want with an audible alarm as they can go off and ruin a take. Hope this helps Andy
Andy, I got it all taken care of. Thank you very much for your help! Also thank you Darek at Freefly for being so helpful.
Hey Ryan, curious what "got it all taken care of" looked like? My charger is doing the same thing, even without the battery plugged in. And I think that I would have only done this to one battery (over-charging) so I can't figure out why both would be bad. Or even if they're both bad why is the light blinking green before I even plug them in?