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HELP! Battery Change for Trimble 5600 Total Station
Posted by firestix on August 1, 2020 at 1:10 amThe two”Cowbell” 12v NiCad batteries that came with my 5600 are toast. The simply don’t hold a charge anymore. I decided to change to a motorcycle battery after the old ones died in the field today. I purchased the battery, came straight back to the field, and hooked it up. It reads 0% and Trimble Access is screaming “Low Battery” at me. What am I doing wrong? here is my set up.
Battery: Duracell Ultra DURA12-18NB 12v 18Ah AGM link is here –> https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/SLAA12=18NB
Battery Connection for power: https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GC017-Adapter-Socket-Battery/dp/B00G8WLX78
Hirose Splitter for Data Collector and Power: https://picclick.co.uk/Trimble-Spectra-Precision-571202204-Total-Station-184199865666.html#&gid=1&pid=1
Hirose Cigarette Power adapter: https://allterracentral.com/power-cord-5600-cigarette-style.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgo_5BRDuARIsADDEntSyqKEENYqhRRcUD8YTzWRCMJGbHC8U9NI-SGZAs2npZIYFt246GAkaAtv3EALw_wcB
Any help would be great …. and thanks in advance!
nico replied 2 years, 2 months ago 10 Members · 18 Replies- 18 Replies
Did you try charging the battery?
I’ve only used lawn and garden 12v batteries that cost $40 and last a long time and at least couple of years before replacing. When reading up on motorcycle batteries, they need an additive to them. Do some google searches on them. Plus the collector won’t be able to get a true reading on the battery level of non Trimble made batteries.
This may be a little too late, but have you tried to get the originals re-celled? I’m sure you could improve them by also switching battery chemistries. Not sure if Li-ion are available, but a NiMH re-cell would certainly be an improvement. It’s also very likely you could use the same battery charger.
@beartow
yeah, it’s a little too late. Plus, I switched because, eventually, Trimble did also. The NiMH batteries just weren’t a good fit. I just need the system to recognize the battery so:
1 – I can get an accurate reading of my battery life2- Trimble Access will stop complaining about he low battery.
@jim-frame
Thanks Jim,
I went to batteries plus and picked up a little more powerful 12v 18Ah model. My gun runs … but just shows as “Low Battery”. I was just wondering if I was gonna have to disregard the false reading and keep driving on? (Like I do with my broken gas gauge)I use a C-PAP battery I got on Amazon. The thing lasts a couple days.
Don’t take this as sound/safe technical advice, but you could add in a little (cheap) electronic gizzmo that boosts the battery voltage so that the power to the instrument is say a constant 12.8V, thus tricking the controller.
In my homebrew Geodimeter 600 robotic setup I have a 12V car battery to the instrument but also off that same battery I run the Parani LR BT radio, and for that I have a step down gizzmo that cuts the voltage to 5.6V, and this particular gizzmo has a LED display that alternates between showing the battery voltage and the output voltage.
Can you tell me more about this gizzmo? ….Like what it is and where I may purchase one.
It’s one of these. You can get all sorts of variations. I think the one I have can do step up and step down, as long as the voltage difference is more than 1V between input and output.
Here it is on my instrument radio – it’s buried under the Parani. It is step down 12V car battery to 5.6V for the Parani. This one, like the one in the eBay image has a small black button to the right of the display that you can press to toggle what is displayed. It also turns the output on/off and while most of the time this one stays at the last setting (on) it sometimes goes off between sessions, hence the small hole drilled in the top of the case so that I can insert a small screwdriver to press the button.
These things are not reverse polarity protected, and I can verify if you get it wrong they go pop, so I have a couple of spares.
Don’t be fooled by the “12V” label – the instruments actually need 13+V and die when the voltage drops to around 12.2V. When fully charged new Trimble batteries show just under 14V. A 12V car battery also puts out around 14V. The instrument appears to have an internal voltage regulator (essential since Trimble provide a simple car battery connection lead) so iit can cope with the slightly higher than normal input voltage.
I’ve re-celled the small Trimble batteries which are used for both instrument and for the remote radio/keyboard configuaration using 14.8V x 2600mAh Li-on cells. I’ve also made separate instrument batteries using 14.8V x 6200mAh Li-on cells and those last around three days of continuous use – they were made some ten years ago and are still going strong.
- Posted by: @jim-frame
The Trimble cowbells contain a 12v 7ah NiCd battery
Did you state that wrong? They used to be that size of Sealed Lead Acid (SLA), which is what your link gives.
. I think he did – I’ve re-celled those with replacement SLA’s. My own version with Li-On is much, much lighter but the SLA are much, much cheaper.
Yep, I was thinking SLA but writing NiCd. I’ve recelled at least 3 of them, and all were SLA.
@richard-imrie The instrument uses only around 1 amp while working, but, I found that a 2 amp regulator is needed to make sure that it starts correctly (shown is 4amp) The instrument needs at least 12.6v to keep from chirping at you. Richard, I have had issues with the Parani’s at 5.6v and I am thinking that might be a bit aggressive from my testing. The instruments are fine up to at least 14.8v (full NiMh) that I have observed, but, that was on Geodimeter’s and not the Trimble’s
I got the impression from the Parani manual that its voltage range is 5-9V (presumably because it is RS232?), which sort of made it a bit tricky because USB power supplies are 5V while the car battery is 12V so both are outside the range, which is why I put in the step down regulator on the 12V car battery – not sure why I set it at 5.6V.
My experience with car batteries is that while they might be 13.8 on the charger or when the car is running, they drop to 12.6 ish as soon as they are taken off, so the instrument battery indicator never shows a full charge.
@richard-imrie You are right, I got it confused with the the top limit. Parani’s do not like over 12.0 volts. My bad, sorry it has been a few years since I went through it
@jim-frame Thank you Jim, very helpful info!
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