Or maybe I am just too tired from parents visiting day at camp today but...

A customer reports the following problem with the TSU2000 in combo with the DS1000:

1. The Charger light does not come on when I put the battery (NiMh) in. (The light does come on if I don't put the battery in, so the charger is working)

2. The Pronto does work when I put the NiMh battery in, it just says the battery is low. (a sign the battery is placed correctly)

3. But when I put the Pronto on the charger, the light does not come on and it does not charge

I am not trying to be lazy here, but... I am not seeing something clearly enough at this moment to give an accurate answer as to the why on the above situation.

-Bruce
alpha2data

After selling probably fifty chargers, I've just decided to sell AAs instead. The things are quirky and many of my clients have had the same issues. Not sure what the problem is, but others here have had similar issues.

Most of the problems with charging stations we have seen are due to dirty contacts on the base station or the pronto itself, try cleaning the contacts on both then do the same for the inside of the battery compartment and the battery.
When you install the battery push it down against the contacts.
Also try resetting the pronto.
If all else fails replace the batts. and or charger.

Hi Kevin and Easton...

I do know the history of the initial fit problem with the NiMh in the Pronto. It never came down to dirt, but always the proper insertion of the NiMh pack. That is what caused me to post my primer here:

Primer - Avoiding Initial Docking Station Set-up Problems

The initial install instructions reduced the problem down to nil where I have only had to replace about 3 actual bad DS1000's in the past 8 months and only 1 bad NiMh pack that had an actual air bubble behind one of the square silver contacts.

The actual DOA rate including the TSU2000 had been around .004, but now I am seeing a series of complaints similar to the one in this post and this is _after_ I believe the NiMh pack was properly installed. Philips support is said to one customer who called that the NiMh pack was bad, but I am not so sure that is correct.

It seems more like the TSU2000 is not reading the battery correctly no matter what the customer does.

You will see in at the above link that even Marantz support was advocating the "eraser theory" but it didn't work. To quote Steve's response, a Marantz dealer, on June 15th in that thread:

=====
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.......

I have had this problem ever since I got my first batch of RC5000i's. I had never had battery problems before with the rc5000, programming probably 50 of those for my customers, and I figured it was firmware problem with the new unit. The repair techs at Marantz told me to clean the battery contacts with an eraser and reinstall current firmware. I have had this problem on just about all of the rc5000i's I've sold. So bad that I was very concerned about over the counter sales (the charger comes standard with the Marantz). Once I get the units to charge the first time they work fine.
I guess maybe I started inserting the battery a little bit differently at some point. If this solves the problems for me, I owe you one big time.
Thanks"
=====

I was hoping that someone had some later intelligence on this. Tomarrow I am on the phone to Philips.

I am also going to post a little more at the "eDealer" site of Eric's.

Thank you for trying to help.

-Bruce
alpha2data

D

This message was edited by eldonius on 08/08/01 02:09.27.

Bruce, I have since discovered that it is not always the proper seating of the battery that causes this. I had the problem the other day again at some length with two remotes not charging. After trying all of the previously stated fixes to no avail, I switched the two batteries, and they worked like a charm; switched them back and they wouldn't charge, then again and they were fine, go figure. I have always been skeptical about the "dirty contacts" on brand new remotes. I never have this problem after the inital charge takes. Three out of about sixty five or so have reported that they had to reset the remote once in the first week because it wouldn't charge. After that, I've never had a battery problem of any kind with the RC5000s or rc5000is. However proabably 80% of the rc5000i's have trouble taking an initial charge, even after cleaning contacts repeatedly, reloading firmware with skip option and reseating battery multiple times, leaving it out for a while, etc. Swapping for the battery from another unit usually makes them both charge OK, however. Go figure. I know consumers don't have the luxury of swapping batteries between two units, but it may help dealers with this problem.

Steve

Thank you Steve... maybe now I owe you.

Historically on close to 1,000 units any time I had this come up, the seating was the issue, or at least the proper seating and having my customer follow the steps in the Primer cured it.

Now, from what you are saying, and my recent experience, it looks like there may be a run of bad NiMh batteries appearing, and that I will have to toss this into Philips's support lap... something I hesitated to do because I want to be the one to cure the problem on behalf of my customer. However, I have switched out a couple of docks for people and the problem repeated.

Since the switch was within the same few days and likely from the same production batch, it does seem to point back to a possible bad production run of the battery.

I have one customer who called Philips first and they are sending her a new battery. I am going to get the result of that in another day or two.

If it works right away as you indicate it should, then it is proof positive of the battery and I will then refer this problem directly to Philips at the onset to have them replace the battery directly to the customer. In that way, they will get tracking and perhaps do something about it.

In the meantime, luckily for me, the customers that are affected are realizing that I stand behind this and are working with me.

I appreciate very much that you took the time to respond here. I was feeling really stupid.

-Bruce
alpha2data