TB Capacitor vs. rechargeable battery - useless knowledge

[lazafari]

When i think i know something i see a post by @kronin323 lol
Thnks bro! I have had some timebombs that i had them just cleaned and they functioned perfectly but seen some with no storing energy at all, never knew that this replacing would be possible...

Nice infos.

 

[kronin323]

Testing tag of @GRFMotorsports in a thread he hasn't posted in yet...

 

[Sun & Sand]

Here's a dedicated charger from a watch wholesaler/ retailer down the street from me:
REQ Charging Stand

I got this REQ Charging Stand from the Dakota Watch Company for my TB, and it has totally transformed my use of the watch.
Used to be I couldn't get the TB charged up enough during the day to make it through the night without losing time, so I would always have to set the time on the watch before wearing it. That got old after awhile, and I stopped wearing the TB.
Now that I use the charging stand, the TB keeps great time, the battery is always charged, and I wear the watch every day.

 

[Sun & Sand]

There are some disadvantages to the LiOn battery, though - #1 is if you let it discharge completely, it will trash the battery and need to be replaced again.

My experience was that my TB battery seemed to have discharged completely, because the watch movement stopped moving and remained that way for several days, but when I put the watch on a charging stand, the battery worked like new again.

 

[kronin323]

My experience was that my TB battery seemed to have discharged completely, because the watch movement stopped moving and remained that way for several days, but when I put the watch on a charging stand, the battery worked like new again.

Are you still using the original capacitor that came with it, or did you replace it with the LiOn battery?

 

[CarGuy]

Are you still using the original capacitor that came with it, or did you replace it with the LiOn battery?

Spot on Groot, therein lies the difference. Kill the original and it can rebound- probably not to it's original capacity though- but kill the LiOn and you get that irritating 2 second swing again. Which is why, ironically, we probably replace most of them in the first place.

I got this REQ Charging Stand from the Dakota Watch Company for my TB, and it has totally transformed my use of the watch.
Used to be I couldn't get the TB charged up enough during the day to make it through the night without losing time, so I would always have to set the time on the watch before wearing it. That got old after awhile, and I stopped wearing the TB.
Now that I use the charging stand, the TB keeps great time, the battery is always charged, and I wear the watch every day.

Thanks for the review. Their modest company HQ is literally a block away from my work, I'll see what I can do there...

 

[Sun & Sand]

Are you still using the original capacitor that came with it, or did you replace it with the LiOn battery?

It's supposed to be the LiOn battery, but I can't be 100% positive because I didn't change it myself.
Before I saw the instructions on this forum explaining how to change the TB capacitor, I sent my TB to Oakley for maintenance. Oakley told me they replaced the capacitor with the battery, but I can't be certain that my TB has the LiOn battery unless I take the battery out and look at it, which I'm too lazy to do, especially now that the TB is working well.

 

[kronin323]

It's supposed to be the LiOn battery, but I can't be 100% positive because I didn't change it myself.
Before I saw the instructions on this forum explaining how to change the TB capacitor, I sent my TB to Oakley for maintenance. Oakley told me they replaced the capacitor with the battery, but I can't be certain that my TB has the LiOn battery unless I take the battery out and look at it, which I'm too lazy to do, especially now that the TB is working well.

If the replacement was done after 2000, then in all likelihood it's LiOn.

Another possibility is it was discharged to the point that the watch no longer operated, but not to the point where the battery was truly, completely dead.

In all the LiOn batteries we use in electronics and power tools these days, there are some built-in electronics that make it indicate as fully discharged while there still is a minimum charge on the battery, specifically to avoid it from being trashed like that. I'd be surprised if these tiny button LiOn batteries have the same electronics, but they might.

Either way, I wouldn't take the watch no longer operating as an indicator that the battery is fully discharged, just merely below a minimum functional charge. Leave it like that for a long time, long enough for that remaining residual charge to leak, though, and it'll be new battery time...

 

[kronin323]

BTW I've been running a test to see how long a new, fully charged LiOn battery will run a TB without any recharging (to low indicator mode), through motion or otherwise. Is it really six months? I'm at around a month and a half and counting...

 

[Sun & Sand]

If the replacement was done after 2000, then in all likelihood it's LiOn.

Yes, the replacement was done a year or so ago, so it should be LiOn.

Another possibility is it was discharged to the point that the watch no longer operated, but not to the point where the battery was truly, completely dead.

In all the LiOn batteries we use in electronics and power tools these days, there are some built-in electronics that make it indicate as fully discharged while there still is a minimum charge on the battery, specifically to avoid it from being trashed like that. I'd be surprised if these tiny button LiOn batteries have the same electronics, but they might.

Either way, I wouldn't take the watch no longer operating as an indicator that the battery is fully discharged, just merely below a minimum functional charge. Leave it like that for a long time, long enough for that remaining residual charge to leak, though, and it'll be new battery time...

I didn't intend my initial post to be construed as scientific evidence that dead LiOn batteries can live again.
I merely intended to share my TB experience.

Perhaps other TB owners whose LiOn-battery TBs haven't moved in weeks or months might consider trying to charge their watch with an inductive charger first, before assuming that the LiOn battery must be replaced. In my case, the inductive charging brought my TB back to life without the need for a new battery.