DC012 WORKSITE CHARGER/RADIO

[Sherry]

My husband has the worksite charger/radio. It's old, but may have been used a total of 50 hours. It's been on the charger since he got it and we have (in the past) bought a new coin battery.  Today he tried to adjust the time and listen to the radio; was not able to do either. The radio will not play and the display area continues to be blank. His battery, according to the legend, is fully charged. We have tried moving it to other electrical outlets, removing and reinstalling the battery, nothing gets this clock or radio to function. Anyone have a clue what we can try next?

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Sherry
Clarified what battery we changed.

[paulengr]

Probably power supply failure.

Electronics has hundreds to thousands of connections. It just takes one to cause trouble. But sounds like power supply. So open up and hopefully find a failed connection if you are lucky. Sometimes it’s a bad connection from the factory if you are (un)lucky and easy to spot.

Power supplies typically also use electrolytic capacitors. You can easily spot these on a circuit board because they are the large can looking devices. They are made by tightly winding up 2 strips of aluminum foil and some paper soaked in an electrolyte (glycol has been used) stuffed in the can and here’s the important detail crimped shut. They normally last about 8-10 years. Usually the electrolyte dries out. Once this happens first the electrical properties drift and eventually it shorts out internally. If you have the proper equipment they can be changed out but we are down to component level failures. Without a schematic (that nobody shares except in very old or military hardware) it is almost impossible to repair. Even manufacturers typically toss the failed boards instead of fixing them. The boards are built by fully automated machinery (photo chemical etching and stenciling, pick and place robots, ovens or wave soldering). Nobody touches them until testing. Less picky locals might dig them out of the dumpsters and fix the ones that can be fixed. These become “grey market” equipment that shows up on E-Bay, flea markets, questionable Amazon retailers with no reputation, etc.

If there is nothing obvious then do as the manufacturer does and recycle it.

By the way leaving something on a charger is as bad as letting it die. Off charger it loses typically 1-2% charge per day. At zero (true zero) when you recharge sometimes you get cell reversal (battery cell flips polarity) which is fatal. On charger it constantly produces hydrogen gas or ions that are reabsorbed over and over in a chemical process but it’s a chemical process...some hydrogen is lost over time which kills the batteries faster than doing nothing. The best way for long term survival of batteries is to fully charge them leave them off the charger until they are nearly dead (60-90 days) then recharge fully again repeating every 60-90 days. Or take your chances letting them go to zero. The jury is still out on that strategy and when the cycling approach is better (chance of failure vs. long cycles).

[fm2176]

2 hours ago, paulengr said:

...

By the way leaving something on a charger is as bad as letting it die. Off charger it loses typically 1-2% charge per day. At zero (true zero) when you recharge sometimes you get cell reversal (battery cell flips polarity) which is fatal. On charger it constantly produces hydrogen gas or ions that are reabsorbed over and over in a chemical process but it’s a chemical process...some hydrogen is lost over time which kills the batteries faster than doing nothing. The best way for long term survival of batteries is to fully charge them leave them off the charger until they are nearly dead (60-90 days) then recharge fully again repeating every 60-90 days. Or take your chances letting them go to zero. The jury is still out on that strategy and when the cycling approach is better (chance of failure vs. long cycles).

 

I've always heard this about leaving batteries on a charger, but do Li-Ion batteries discharge this rapidly?  I ask based on experience with multiple batteries I own.  I had both 18v and 12v Max Porter Cable batteries that had dates as old as 2010, still have DeWalt 12v Max batteries with similar dates, and have a bunch of other batteries of various dates and types from the likes of Ryobi, Ridgid, Dewalt, EGO, and Milwaukee.  None of these have discharged appreciably despite months of sitting in my truck or a random tool box.  Case in point, two Bosch 12v batteries from a kit I gave my daughter early last year: they sat in her car until a few weeks ago, and when I checked them in the drill they reflected a full charge.

[Mordekyle]

Succinctly, no.


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[Framer joe]

@paulengr...never had a problem leaving lithium batteries on the charger. I always do....as far that radio charger, upgrade to lithium batteries instead of stem batteries, that’s some old school junk.