Question about Maestro internal battery

Mark Erbaugh

I take it from these comments that there is no way for long term storage of a Maestro without power. I am planning on a shack remodel where the M won’t be used until Field Day next June.

Tim - W4TME

You can set yourself a recurring calendar reminder for every 6-8 weeks to do it.

Greg K8CGS

Exactly to the point. I talked to FR today on questions on the 6600 (with Maestro) and 6600M. I am pretty set on the 6600 or 6600M but still don't know if I was going to go Maestro route or the 'M' model. With this Maestro issue, which I just learned from this community, I would lean toward the 'M' model. But now I am concerned the 'M' model might have this same issue. That would be a nasty surprise to have to send the whole radio back because of a **** internal battery going dead. Some people might not understand how sometimes it might not be plugged into wall power for a month...there are many reasons for some this can occur..for me its about a physical home move that will require all my gear stored for a couple of months. Others: travel, illness etc. And for those living internationally, wow, what a super pain.

Jay -- N0FB

...and if its "All Dead" then there's only one thing left to do. Open up the back and look for loose change.  :-)

Tim - W4TME

This issue is only applicable to the 1st generation Maestros.  The new Maestro will properly charge the display (one of the reasons that the new Maestro was delayed was because the USB C interface did not meet industry specs)

EA4GLI

Any chance to retrofit this fix to the first generation Maestros?

Tim - W4TME

Steve has previously addressed this.  It would require an extensive re-engineering of the internal Maestro control boards and not a simple board mod, so there are no plans for a retro fit.

Greg K8CGS

I believe most of them do. But having a liPo battery cause a DOA less than 60 Days from its last charge is not normal nor acceptable. Most LiPO recommendations for long term storage recommendations is once every 6 months. For giggles I rummaged through and found my old Gen-1 iPad Mini. This thing has been stored away in the junk box for over 3 ‘THREE YEARS’!!!! I plugged it in last night and after approx. 30 mins of charge it was able to boot up just fine.

John, G3WKL

I have one of the original "A" models, didn't get a note about the need to periodically charge the internal battery, and somehow missed this and similar discussions on this Community!  Norbert provided a great turnaround with the "flat battery" problem at FlexRadio's European support centre, so am back in business.  Many thanks.

Reading this thread I am a little confused so have the following questions:

a) Does the Maestro have to be turned ON, or not, to charge the tablet's internal battery whilst powered with 12V from the mains adapter?  Views seem to differ.

b) Will an external LiPo battery, if fitted within the rear compartment, charge the tablet's internal battery?  In part that might depend upon the answer to a) above!

A further question. Screen images in v2.0.19 of the Maestro User Guide show power indicators of a mains plug, full battery or both.  Tim has commented above that the full battery icon merely shows the presence of an external battery (which is fine). My question is that I only get both the mains plug and battery icons together for a few seconds.  The battery icon then disappears.  Is this normal?  From the screenshots in the manual, many of which show both icons, it would seem not.

73 John, G3WKL 

Rick Hadley - W0FG

While reading this, I noticed that my Maestro was only displaying the mains plug icon. I'd never paid any attention to that before.  As an experiment, I pulled the power cord for a few seconds and plugged it back in again.  Neither icon was showing when I pulled the power, but once I plugged it back in, both icons came back up and remained on.

Rick, W0FG

wb7ond

I literally busted out laughing......

Tim - W4TME

a) Does the Maestro have to be turned ON, or not, to charge the tablet's internal battery whilst powered with 12V from the mains adapter?  Views seem to differ.

No.  But you should power it up to make sure that the internal battery is not completely discharged.

b) Will an external LiPo battery, if fitted within the rear compartment, charge the tablet's internal battery?  In part that might depend upon the answer to a) above!

It is best to charge it using the DC power connector.

John, G3WKL

Thanks for the clarification Tim.  

It feel that it would be helpful for other owners of the "A" version if the next update of the User Manual gave more of the detail that you have provided in this thread (and other recent threads) on recharging the internal battery.  

73 John, G3WKL

p.s. I would still like to know if my mains and battery icon display is normal - contrary to lots of the photos in the User Guide I don't get both displayed together for longer than a few seconds.

Mike

Wow I feel like I've been hoodwinked. Engineering problem for sure. Why isn't the unit designed just to run off of DC direct. 

Mike

Amen, I never heard of this until my unit won't turn on. When I sent my 6500 in as a trade in July(?) it didn't seem like a good idea to leave things plugged in that you weren't using. Then with delay after delay months have passed. So now newer units don't have this problem? Just the group of us that bought early and became beta testers.

Mike

Seems like it would be more helpful to fix the problem and have the Maestro operate differently.

EA4GLI

I leave mine plugged in to power all the time, but if the power is interrupted and restored the Maestro will turn on automatically.
Seeing that Flex will not fix the battery problem with 1st version Maestros maybe they can add a software fix so the unit will not automatically boot up when plugged in.

Bob W4PG

I have a 1st generation Maestro and JUST TODAY received an email about this issue.  Mine has not been powered up in some time and will not boot.  SO, I'm trying some of the suggestions above to see if I can get it going.  Wish me luck! -Bob W4PG

Mike

Opps. You can open a help ticket but you will have to send it in according to Flex. You can plug it in for a day and see if it comes to life.  Expect a charge for the charge. My wallet is about $90 lighter for the adventure.

Bob W4PG

Praise Jesus!! After being plugged in for about 15 minutes suddenly the screen with the WiFI connections showed up and I was able to connect then boot up OK.  Gonna leave it plugged in for a day before updating the software!  Phew!!!
 

W5UN_Dave

My maestro is DEAD. Hasn't been plugged in since I got it over three years ago. I can't even find the power plugin now. Guess it's time for a trip to the garbage dump.

W5UN_Dave

what I don't understand is why Flexradio didn't use an EEPROM instead of needing to keep something powered from some little, unaccessable battery. Yes, I'm angry.

KY6LA_Howard

It’s a Dell tablet inside. I don’t remember the model but there are battery replacements available on Amazon.

yes it was definitely a design error do you have to have it Powered all the time to keep the battery alive

k3Tim

That's not a design error, it's a feature.

On the Flex website a PDF explains how to pop the cover on the unit and using a quasi-special USB cord recharge the tablets battery. When cracking the case, one only has to partially split it open making the task easier.

A this station, the Maestro has a 12 V LiFePo4 battery double-sided taped to the Maestro battery area and the 12 V from the bat is feed to the coaxial power connector. A secondary cable for charging is plugged into a charger. By doing this the Ethernet port is powered up on battery, a 120VAC power drop does NOT trigger the tablet to power on,

_..--

k3TIm

W5UN_Dave

Well the "feature" doesn't work for me. I followed the restoration processed by Flexradio very carefully. It did not work. So, I'm not sure where to go. Battery replacement? of the replacements suggested by Flex, none are any longer available. I'm open to suggestions.

John W9KXQ

Dave,

I went through the same problem, including following the restoration process. I finally had to return the Maestro to the hospital for repair. It took about a week for FRS to turn it around. My battery had to be replaced as it had expanded. I would suggest you start a help ticket and get it on the road to recovery.