Charging or not?

Martino

Martino

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As you may have seen, I’m resurrecting the South Bucks Light Railway. I packed everything up in Florida when we decided to move back in spring 2022. The move actually happened a year later - Jan ‘23. During mid ‘23 I unpacked some of the railway stuff including two locos. These are battery powered with AirWire control. The two unpacked mid ‘23 burst into life right away. I did charge them again and am now using these to test the concept of my indoor line, now under construction.

A further loco - a Bachmann Lyn - was packed up in spring ‘22 and I have only just found it! Unpacked, but appears dead and I’m not surprised after two and a half years. I plugged it into its charger. The charge light came on red, then green, then red, green and then steady red. I cannot however get it to respond to the AirWire controller at all. (The other two locos respond immediately to the controller).

I’m not au fait with these electronics, and before I start looking for someone to send it to. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what i should do?

Thanks in advance from a battery and electronics numpty.
 
Martino said:
I’m not au fait with these electronics, and before I start looking for someone to send it to. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what i should do?
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Red, Green, Red, Green is the charger self-testing..

Light on red, means charging. - It will go green, when the charger thinks the battery is charged..

Are we talking NiCad or NiMH cells?

PhilP
 
Thank you Sir. Li-ion/Li-Polymer.

I’ve left it charging - with luck.

Of course I have no instructions and have forgotten whatever I was told when I had the loco converted. Usual rules - for me.

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Do you have a multimeter? You could check the level of charge in the pack or, if possible, each cell in the pack. If any cell is reading under 3v then you can assume it is life expired and beyond resuscitation.

Rik
 
After all morning charging, the light on the charger is now slowly flashing red. I still can’t get the loco to respond to the controller. Later today hopefully, I’ll get at the batteries and try and check their charge status with my meter.
 
Flashing red is not good..

Having sat for best-part of two years, I don't think I would go any further..
Especially as we are talking Lithium-based chemistry.

PhilP
 
PhilP said:
Flashing red is not good..

Having sat for best-part of two years, I don't think I would go any further..
Especially as we are talking Lithium-based chemistry.

PhilP
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OK. So just replace the batteries?
 
Thanks Phil. I’ll oik the old ones out and replace them, like for like.
 
Thinking this all through, I had similar problems with my Funkey. I started pulling out the original setup then found a loose wire. Might be worth fully checking, my one was unsoldered but still held in place to disguise the lack of power joint. Turned out not a problem to me as I had decided to convert it to Fisworks, at least tge battery was still in good order.
 
dunnyrail said:
Thinking this all through, I had similar problems with my Funkey. I started pulling out the original setup then found a loose wire. Might be worth fully checking, my one was unsoldered but still held in place to disguise the lack of power joint. Turned out not a problem to me as I had decided to convert it to Fisworks, at least tge battery was still in good order.
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I shall, eventually do a careful take apart and examination. There are a great jumble of wires inside the cab, so sub optimal contacts could well be a possibility.
 
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