AB Diconic battery question

[Philip Fass]

I have a Dionic 90 battery, not used for a while, that seems to take a full charge according to the LCD panel. But my HPX370 is giving me the steady warning light, high-pitched sound, and momentary viewfinder indication of a low battery. Can the battery's panel give misleading info...ie, could it seem alive but be dead?

[Don Bloom]

Can't say 100% that this will fix it as LiOn cells can go bad if not used for a while or kept charged properly (that's why I loved my intellicharger) but anyway...try discharging it completely. then charge fully, discharge again and charge it...Do this 3 or 4 times. Then fully charge and see if that makes a difference.

If not, then call AB customer service. They are excellent (at least everytime I ever called) and they might be able to give you another idea to fix it.

[Philip Fass]

Don, it's a few years old and went a long time without use or charge. But the display on it says it's healthy. I guess not.

Is there a way to fully discharge it without being able to run my camera with it? I have a Titan Twin charger.

[Don Bloom]

The only 2 ways I know to discharge it safely is either running an appliance with it, IE, camera or an Ultralight with say a 50 or 75W bulb (only cause it's generally faster than the camera since it draws more juice) OR the 2722 or 2702 intellicharger/power supply. Those have a discharge capability and when charging condition the batterys. You could leave the batterys on those chargers for quite a long time and know they'd be good to go. In this case however you might just be out of luck. If it were me, I'd call AB and ask them if you sent the battery back to them could they run a diagnostic and how much to re-cell it. When I bought my 90s they were $500 each. Now they're down to only $400. Hey it's a C note right?
Wish I could help more but Ireally think a call to AB might be the way to go.
Good luck.

[Charles Papert]

Anton Bauer doesn't recell their Lithium battery line. There are other companies that will do it, but at your own risk.

[Philip Fass]

Since time is an issue, I might have to order a new batt from B&H, then see what I can do with the old one.

I'm thinking about switching to a Hytron 100...price is pretty similar to the Dionic, but it seems to offer more years of life.

[Philip Fass]

Just thought I'd share what I learned from a conversation with AB tech support. When you have dead or nearly dead cells, the LCD display is showing what it remembers from the last time they were healthy. It's like a snapshot from history. That's why it can be so misleading.

[Charles Papert]

[QUOTE=Philip Fass;1704803
I'm thinking about switching to a Hytron 100...price is pretty similar to the Dionic, but it seems to offer more years of life.[/QUOTE]

5.5 lbs for the 100 vs 1.8 for the 90...weight is the primary reason that the Lithium batteries have become popular. They definitely have their drawbacks (life cycle and length of service issues).

I have 5 long-dead 90's from around 2005 sitting on the shelf. If anyone thinks they want to have a go at recelling them through a third party, please feel free to make me an offer!

[Don Bloom]

"5.5 lbs for the 100 vs 1.8 for the 90...weight is the primary reason that the Lithium batteries have become popular."

Yep, the main number reason I switched to the Dionics when I was shooting fullsized rigs. It go to the point I couldn't lift the camera anymore. Camera weight plus the battery plus some accessories...weighted almost as much as me ;-) Plus carrying 4 Hytrons in the bag made going to the job hell on wheels.

[Philip Fass]

Camera weighs about 12 lbs, so the choice is about 14 lbs with Diconic or about 17 with Hytron.

[Warren Kawamoto]

From my experiences, dionic batteries will last about 3 years, whether it's used or not. It gets very expensive if you don't use them. I keep mine in the fridge since heat is it's worst enemy.

[Battle Vaughan]

In another forum (about power tool batteries) an engineer posted that the cells with monitoring circuits deactivate a Li-ion battery when the residual voltage falls below 2.8 volts, which it can if they sit unused over time, due to a self-discharge phenomenon. Apparently there is a considerable safety issue in charging very under-charged lithium cells. I had this happen (to two power-drill lithium packs) that died at the same time due to not being used for some time. Repeated attempts to charge them would give a full-charge indication but there was virtually no real charge on them. Unlike Ni-Cads, they can't be rejuvenated when they croak.

[Charles Papert]

AB suggests leaving them on the charger fulltime. I will admit that I did not do this nor any other kind of maintenance (discharge/charge etc) with my first set of Dionics, and they lasted a solid four years/200 plus cycles or more. Anton Bauer was surprised to hear this...! One never knows.

[Daniel Epstein]

If you have an Anton Bauer Charger with a display you can find out more about your batteries actual shape by pressing the display button and looking at the battery capacity when it is showing a full charge. There is a number ranging between 0 and 10 at the higher end on one of the menus for the battery. For instance a new Hytron 140 will come in at over 9. An old one will have about half the capacity at a 5 as it originally did. On some cameras this would be almost useless. The meter on the side of the battery could read fully charged but its true shape could be almost gone. The Dionic 90 might only read a 5 OR 6 when new but fall below a 3 when near the end of its useful life.
Yes weight is an issue but one really good reason to go with Hytron's over Dionic is they are safer to travel with and don't have the same limits as lithium Ion for Air travel.

[Randy Johnson]

Have you tried running it down then resetting the battery meter?