Should the Fluke-196B drain the battery when the oscilloscope is turned off?

[Lachin012]

Hey! tell me, please, should the Fluke 196B oscilloscope be discharged if it is not used? the fact is that when I last worked with them, I fully charged it to 100%, turned it off, and I went on vacation for 3 weeks, after the vacation for the second day I went to work, checked the oscilloscope and there was 50% battery left, I wanted is this normal or not? I put a new battery in, the battery lasts 4 hours when working with oscilloscopes.

And one more question, does the Ni-MH battery have to be completely discharged and then only charged?

[BeBuLamar]

I don't know but the one I have at work does the same thing. I have to charge it everytime I used it. I replaced the battery but still the same problem.

[Lachin012]

You didn’t understand me, my battery holds perfectly, exactly 4 hours, then I charge, I mean, if I turned off the oscilloscope and don’t work with it for a long time, say a month or a little less, should the battery be discharged?

[BeBuLamar]

So you meant if you remove the battery then only put it back when you use the scope it would be OK? That's a lot better than mine. With new battery it only works like 1 hour or less. Leave it fully charge the battery is completely dead in 2 weeks. And that's brand new battery bought from Fluke.

[Lachin012]

No, you don’t understand me correctly, I don’t pull anything from the oscilloscope, I wanted to say, so I charged my oscilloscope before going on vacation, it was exactly 100% after 3 weeks, maybe a little more, I came back from vacation, turn on my oscilloscope And I see that the battery has exactly half left.

[BeBuLamar]

What happens if you remove the full charged battery? Try that and see.

[Lachin012]

I think that it will be discharged but not much.

[Bud]

Batteries self-discharge  through internal leakage and discharge thru the device circuitry if left in the device. How much it may discharge if left in a device depends on the device design. Loss of 50% charge over 3 weeks seems possible.

[Lachin012]

Batteries self-discharge  through internal leakage and discharge thru the device circuitry if left in the device. How much it may discharge if left in a device depends on the device design. Loss of 50% charge over 3 weeks seems possible.

Thanks for the answer, it turns out it is discharged up to 50% and should not be discharged further?

[mcinque]

since it has a soft power on (not hard on-off switch), it drains some current when turned off.
but that model for sure it drains hundreds of uA (or worst, few mA) while is turned off. So it discharges the battery.
they should had realized a better soft power on circuit, you can have few uA drained while off, that is negligible compared to battery autodischarge

[Lachin012]

since it has a soft power on (not hard on-off switch), it drains some current when turned off.
but that model for sure it drains hundreds of uA (or worst, few mA) while is turned off. So it discharges the battery.
they should had realized a better soft power on circuit, you can have few uA drained while off, that is negligible compared to battery autodischarge

Thank you for the answer! what do you mean with autodischarge?

[mcinque]

Thank you for the answer! what do you mean with autodischarge?

I mean self discharge, probably I used the wrong term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-discharge

[Bud]

Batteries self-discharge  through internal leakage and discharge thru the device circuitry if left in the device. How much it may discharge if left in a device depends on the device design. Loss of 50% charge over 3 weeks seems possible.

Thanks for the answer, it turns out it is discharged up to 50% and should not be discharged further?

This totally depends on the design. If there is no a low battery cut off circuit, it may keep discharging to zero voltage. And the cut off switch still can leak some current so the battery will eventially drain completely, it just takes longer.

[Lachin012]

There is a low battery shutdown.

Tell me, how to properly charge the battery when the battery is completely discharged or does it not need to be completely discharged? Somewhere they write that if the battery is at 50%, then you should not charge it, you need to discharge it to 0% and then put the device on charge.

[pantherj]

perhaps a simple solution is to put in a micro on of button switch

[coromonadalix]

I think you need to re-read


The battery will self discharge over time, there is nothing you can do

EDIT
Even separating each cell of the pack, they will eventually drop  ...

Factors like the battery pack age  can affect its longevity for sure,   a 50% drop after a few days ?      it depends how the scope consumes at Power Off

For sure this battery pack is NiMH, it should last a bit,  but bad charging practices may affect longevity ...  how old is the pack ?


For every laptop i have / tablet / portable instrument(s)     I plug them  say once at every 2 months

For lithium / ion drill pack, i've done some tests, they can last a year on a shelf if i put them fully charged there, but eventually  they drop too

If the pack is older in age, i do them at every 6 months, If they dont last 6 months, i'll use them more until they die.

It is your responsability to check them ...