impres gang charger malfunction

[NIFOG291]

I have an Impres gang charger WPLN4121BR V3.0. It's been in service for about 4 years. Now 3 of the 6 positions blink a fast green and won't charge the batteries. Is this a fatal problem? A firmware issue? Does that tiny hole under the status light do anything?

Thanks

[Karfield]

I'm going to pose a few questions here for you that might help out. I don't do gang chargers that much but this might help from what I've seen.

1. Are the bad pockets always the same?
2. Will the bad pockets charge when there is only 1 battery installed? Or perhaps 2 but nothing over 4.

Blinking green usually means you are at the 90% mark and thus going into trickle charge mode this may indicate something bigger than my suggestion but this won't hurt anything either.

If your answers to 1 and 2 are both no then I'd suggest starting with cleaning the contacts. Most of the chargers use pressure contacts on a main board so that certain pockets can be easily replaced. I haven't had the joy of taking apart an impress charger yet so I'm still going on the assumption that they haven't really changed much. Once you get the unit apart check for pits on the board contacts. There could be pits on ANY of the contacts, even the ones that just measure and not provide any real current to the battery (in fact these are the ones I'm guessing are bad). Might need a magnafying glass to make sure that the pits aren't all the way through the board. If they are then make sure you tin the pad to cover the hole completely.

If your answer to either 1 or 2 is yes then I would guess a power supply failure and that is a trip to depot. Classically the power suppy cost more than a trip to depot.

[NIFOG291]

Good questions. I, however made a mistake in my first post. The positions blink a fast RED not green. It's always the same 3 pockets, weather it's one battery alone or 6. it dosen't matter if their old or new, Impres or not. The other positions work consistantly. I have the luxury of having a spare. If I disassemble this one and don't fix the problem, well, it was junk anyway.

[RFguy]

I would do a firmware upgrade on each pocket. Couldn't hurt (famous last words) and may resolve it if there is a coruption issue with the firmware.

[NIFOG291]

I'll try it.
Ok, how do i do it?

[escomm]

Get a field programmer, disassemble the charger, hook up field programmer to each slot, hit program, ...., profit.

[NIFOG291]

escomm i'd do it if my local shop didn't laugh when I asked about firmware upgrades this morning.