G7 LCD Screen Flipping Out

[Lumpdawg]

I charged up up my G7 with the auto charger. Made sure the switch was on when I charged it. Am I supposed to see any indication on the LCD the battery is charging? After 6 hours the LCD screen flashes a mile a minute and all the icons populate the screen on the LCD. This is the first time I have had to charge the battery.

Does the LCD have an indication charging is in progress?
What is the indication if you have a bad battery?


Billy

[Mavrick]

I charged up up my G7 with the auto charger. Made sure the switch was on when I charged it. Am I supposed to see any indication on the LCD the battery is charging? Billy

Yes it will indicate that it is charging.

After 6 hours the LCD screen flashes a mile a minute and all the icons populate the screen on the LCD. This is the first time I have had to charge the battery.Billy

Ok that is not normal though. Turn the gun off and disconnect it from the charger. Once you disconnect the charger from the marker what happens? Give us some feedback and we will take it from there.

[Lumpdawg]

First and foremost, I am very grateful to those of you who pm'd and e-mailed me with your input regarding my G7 LCD screen flipping out. Thank you very much. I am prone to major anxiety when this gat goes sideways. I am still learning all about it.

Apparently the flashing LCD screen was just a way to tell me the battery was low. After a while, it would just shut off entirely. For the period of time I have had it, I have never had to charge my G7 until now. Seems that the charger was not working correctly. Inside the 12v male plug is a 3 amp fuse that blew on me. The battery never got charged up at all. A 50 cent POS fuse was all it took to fix the problem. I now see the battery charging indicator on the LCD screen. I had never seen this before, because (A) I never charged the battery before and (B) The charger never worked from the git-go.

I have to really throw out some MAJOR props to Gary and Karen at Center 50 Paintball in Lake Forest (down in Southern Orange County). It was 60 miles roundtrip for me and worth every minute of it. These two know they bidness about paintball and specifically, they know Angels and are factory authorized techs. Gary just came back from a round of practice at Pevs in Escondido and gave willingly of his time. I learned some very interesting stuff about that cheesy 12v charger for my Angel: Turn on the vehicle first and then plug in my charger. The dc voltage can spike when the car starts up and burn up the charger and/or the fuse. Fortunately, the fuse popped just like it was supposed to, protecting the equipment. Also, Gary suggested going to Radio Shack to get an AC/DC converter so I don't have to lug the charger around in my car. I can just charge it up at home. He suggested the voltage from the converter would be more stable and less likely to spike.

Loving my G7 now. Thanks again to all.

Billy

[shotonsight]

I am also having a similar problem with my Cobra G7. As with lumpdawg this is the first time I have had to charge my cobra G7.

My first question is, would it be ok to use a 12vDC portable battery pack for the charging of the angel ? I have not done this yet out of caution.

Aparrently there is also something rattling around freely within the charger box itself. I dont know i this is a fuse or some other part, I havent cracked it open to take a look yet. What I do know though is that when I plug the charger in to the angel and begin the charging process (switch is on) the LCD screen lights up for a second or two but does not display any characters. The led at the top of the gripframe also displays a solid consistant green. I will charge it for a little while and the noid will click but the LCD still reads nothing. By this I mean that when the angel is disconnected from the charger and off, when I turn the angel on it should read "live" on the lcd and the led should be green correct ? In my case the led blinks red and the screen lights up for a second or two without displaying characters then goes dark with the led still blinking red. Is the angel not holding a charge ? Or is there a problem with my charger or the LCD/battery ?

[Mavrick]

Sounds like it is not taking a charge. Check internals for broken wires at every connection point. Switch, battery, board connector etc. If you have an ohm meter to check it out that would be better. Highly unlikely but your battery might be gone to. How many times have you charged it in the past?

Charging from a 12V cell is really no different than charging with the cigg lighter in your car. Just be sure you don't have bare wires or cause a dead short across the battery terminals and you should be ok.

[Lumpdawg]

[QUOTE=Mavrick;572255]Sounds like it is not taking a charge. Check internals for broken wires at every connection point. <snipped for brevity>

I agree. If you do not see an icon scrolling on your LCD when you charge up your gat, there is a burned out fuse or an open connection inside the box.

[shotonsight]

Well I cracked open the charger box and found that the culprit of the noise was just a loose screw floating around. The charger checked out fine.

As far as I can remember this is only the second time I have charged it on a standard 3 hour chrage. It was a fairly recent purchase so I really havent used it that much.

The weird thing is the LCD will work sometimes but not on others, acording to the bar graph battery meter it said I had a full charge but when I started using it the LCD began to act up or cease function (aside from the backlight). Could it be that the battery pack that im using to charge the G7 with is currently low on power and might not be putting out as much voltage as it should, thus giving the battery meter false readings for some reason ? Ill try charging the battery pack and checking all the wireing then ill attempt to charge the G7's battery once again.