Down and beyond said:
Roy should I charge the scorpion? Been a good 5 months since it?s last real use
If its showing blue lights on the indicator it obviously isn't down to cut off point. But less than 4 lights when you come to use it means its best to top up for the most burn time.
From a full charge state, I have observed that the loss on the quality cells I use is minimal over months and months.
To get to technicalities, lamps will be of two types, the 'hard' switching' variety such as most of mine, and the 'soft switching' type whereby the operation is under soft control, so there will be a constant draw assuming a connected battery, such as a sealed rechargeable type. I make one of this type, the TGX, and have one in stock which I have had for some time. They are a slow seller. I have just gone to my stock shelf and tried it, 4 blue lights. Of course this is a brand new lamp with new quality cells, and my design uses a CMOS controller which draws such little current it would have to stand for years to show any depletion.
Basically, anything that uses separate battery banks, stored disconnected from the lamp, will only loose charge through a natural depletion. So we are looking at cells that have had quite a lot of use, or maybe poor quality, and have been accidentally put away in a discharged state.
Having said this, I have had a battery pack that had seen a lot of use returned in the state that is the subject of this thread. I believe it was about 8 years old if memory serving me correct, and may not have been the high quality cells I now use. Anyway, I managed to get it kick started and checked the cell voltage, less than 2 volts so advised it was scrap.
