garch 22

My Feedback: (7)

Hi Danny, I have a JR 652 transmitter which is approximately 4 years old. Still works great, but am guessing that the Lithium backup battery may be getting ready for a change. A number of people in our Club fly JR equipment also,and we all have the following questions :

-What is the safe limit of time in service for these batteries?

-Is it possible to change the battery ourselves, or do we have to send it in to Horizon for replacement?

-Opened up the back to replace the fuse and could not see a lithium battery, where does it reside,
under one of the circuit boards? Do the batteries need to be soldered in or can they be simply replaced?

-What happens if the battery goes out when flying, is there a warning or does the tx just go to the
O volt indication. Will tx still send out a signal?

-Will we lose all our settings if the battery is changed out?

-Don't know if I have my original sales receipt, is it required to get it serviced? Any advantage to
sending it to Horizon versus Radio South?

Thanks, Joe Gardner

bhady

I was wondering the the same about the lithium backup battery in my 652. I would guess any setting would be lost, which could be quite interesting druing flight. As far as a sales receipt being needed, I don't hink so, at least I sent miine in for service after my son-in -law borrowed it and tried to charge the battery with a non-JR charger (reverse polarity) and fried a diode. Hopefully an answer will be coming out soon.
B. Hady

G.W.

My Feedback: (22)

A friend of mine changed the battery in my Futaba 9Z, and he said that it was like a watch battery and that it should be replaced every 5 years. The backup battery is only used if the main Tx battery is removed for any reason, so it is not in use unless the main battery is removed. If it were to go dead and you took out your battery, you would lose all your memory, but otherwise you wouldn't even notice it was dead because it has nothing to do with main power or flight system as long as you don't remove the main battery. So nothing would happen if you were flying and it went dead. Unless you were to take out your main battery while you were flying.

Hope this helps.

Coffeegrinder

bhady

Thanks coffegrinder, I won't give this another thought as long as the main battery is OK there should be no problem. I don't anditicipate removing the main batt. during flight, I have enogh trouble with multi-tasking just flying let alone any thing else, and yes, removing the battery during lfight would be a bad thing. bhady

AlW

My Feedback: (17)

If the lithium battery were to fail while you were flying using a JR XMTR you will not crash. However when you turn the xmtr power off you will loose all your settings and the xmtr will return to factory default settings. I believe that the lithium batteries are soldered in- I recently had them replaced in (2) of my JR xmtrs by Horizon -reasonable cost and excellant service.

G.W.

My Feedback: (22)

That could be the case for JR, but I'm an all Futaba guy and the backup batteries are used only if you remove the battery from of the transmitter. Think about this, if the backup battery was used when the power was turned off but the main battery is still plugged into the transmitter, don't you think that if you didn't fly for a week the battery would be dead?

Coffeegrinder

Mac_Man_UK

The current consumption of the memory circuits of the JR equipment is measured at about 2 - 5 microAmps. A standard 240mAH CR2032 will last a substantial amount of time. At 2 microAmps, it will be about 13 years, and at 5 microAmps it will be around 5 years.

The main battery only takes over supplying power when turned on.


[8D]

G.W.

My Feedback: (22)

Like I said that may be the case for JR, but on my futaba equipment I was told that the memory battery only became in effect if the main power source is taken completely out.
I'll check in the Futaba forum


Coffeegrinder

dsnyder

We recommend having the battery checked every 5 years, but in reality the system should be checked more frequently than that for tuning and output, if you are a regular flyer and your system is used often, every year the system should be checked out. If you don't fly very often, a couple years would be ok. The system does need to be sent in to have the battery changed, it is soldered in.

The lithium battery does nothing when the system is on, so it will not affect the operation of the system while it is on. It is only used when the power switch is off to store the memory of the system. Before the battery dies, there is a batt low warning. Likely the settings will be lost when the battery is changed. It is possible that they may not be, but the settings should be written down or stored in some other fashion before changing the battery.

No, a receipt is not necessary, a receipt is only necessary for warranty repairs. Our service center knows the JR systems inside and out and can check the system over for proper operation while it is here.

garch 22

My Feedback: (7)

Danny, Thanks from all of us for your expert advice! Only question I now have is what the " Low Battery " warning looks like on the display. Can you tell us how it will read out?

Thanks, Joe

dsnyder

For the 652 from the manual:

Note: Your transmitter has a 5-year lithium battery
to protect your pre-programmed data against main
transmitter battery failure. If your system reads 0.0
volts, or has an unfamiliar display (service mode) or
your data resets to the factory defaults, return your
transmitter to Horizon Service Center (see page 91)
for lithium battery replacement.

rslstft

My Feedback: (10)

I recently sent in my 8103 transmitter for backup battery replacement and backed up my programing with my DataSafe just in case all was lost. I got the transmitter back quickly, with all programing still intact and had been check out, cleaned, and retuned all for something in the neighborhood of $40-50!!! I have dealt with Horizon's JR Service Dept. a few times in the last few years and have nothing but praise for them and their quick turn around time. They must love their jobs as the customer service I receive has nothing but fantastic. Let the pros look at your transmitter, you'll be glad you did. I'll be sending in my 10X soon for the same reason.

Russ

dsnyder

Great to hear! Good to hear we were able to help you out!