So I have had a couple OB4s for a few years now. Never had any issues with battery but the unit spent 99% of its life plugged in as I assumed that was the best way to use it since it is running for a few hours each day at minimum. Just this weekend I noticed a red blinking while the unit was on and plugged in. Usually when charging it will blink slowly then the red light will disapear. Now I have it blinking at strange quick intervals all the time. If I unplug, the light goes away. I let the unit run overnight unplugged and put it back on charge hoping that might help. Did a factory reset, and a motor calibration to be safe but the blinking light persists.
Could not find any mention of this issue on these forums but on Reddit some other users had encountered this. Anyone have any advice? From what I read TE charges close to 300 USD for a battery replacement and honestly for it’s age I would assume this would happen again. Really disappointing. I have another one that is never plugged in that kind of hangs out in storage and it doesn’t have this problem. Firmware was also recently updated.
Have you tried unplugging to see if you still have a functioning battery? Some indications from Reddit this was the first signs of a malfunction with the battery. Do you remember. how long the blinking was present for?
it generally isn’t good to keep lithium ion batteries at ~100% for very long periods of time. this is just best practice for battery health and longevity - it doesn’t overtly damage the battery. why not just use it unplugged during the day and then plug it in at night?
red blinking light for the ob-4 is the “low battery” signal. ugh darn so you might be hitting the point in the battery;s life where its full capacity is not a very high charge and the measurement on the unit to verify it is getting a strong charge at the battery terminals is not quite meeting the requirement for power output etc
I have actually tested to see how battery performance was after first noticing the blinking and it seems fine so far. Let it run overnight with a low volume and the battery drain was reasonable and consistent. The blinking is not the standard blinking - it blinks quickly but randomly, where the low battery is a blink at a set interval.
Nothing is plugged into it and no sources are active. This happens no matter the source. If you were to do a quick google search you will see a few posts on reddit with a similar issue. It is perhaps isolated but the outcome on those other units were dead batteries, where someone in this thread just said that the blinking went away but their battery is this fine. I will open a ticket with TE so they have this documented.
got it. yeah maybe the mechanism that is measuring the battery terminal charge and deciding if it is low is starting to flutter right at the liminal point between low and sufficient. sorry to hear about the battery. how long have you kept it plugged in to the wall do you estimate?
Have had it for a few years and it spends most of its time plugged in. I take it off the plug sometimes to play around with it, but I have another unit that I take around and that one still seems fine.