Zumo 550 Battery Lesson

[dcarver]

• My Zumo 550 died, would not turn on. None of the usual 'tricks' worked, e.g. remove then reinsert battery. Hold down + and power button, connect to USB from computer, connect to bike cradle.
  
• Called Garmin, obsolete product. No can help.
  
• Bought used Zumo from nice forum member
  
• Swapped battery from new to old Zumo. Old Zumo WORKS!
  
• Put 'bad' battery in new zumo. Nada, zilch, no power up. Clearly the battery.
  
• Get to looking at all the coolio stuff the nice fjrforum peep sent with 'new' zumo... hmm, an AC power adapter.. lets try it, with bad battery out of old Zumo circuit. YES, the old Zumo fires up.
  
• Hmm, let's put bad battery in old Zumo and connect to AC adapter. Yep, you guessed it, it fired right up.

So then, it appears possible for a Zumo 550 battery to discharge far enough down that it won't receive sufficient voltage from the cradle or USB to enable power up sequence.

If you have a dead 550, you might try removing the battery and powering up using the AC adapter?

In the meantime, leaving the 'bad' battery charging via AC adapter overnight appears to have sufficiently charged it to allow power up off of 'bad' battery.

Live and learn..

 

[jmgrif]

Not sure if it would work with Zumo battery but, I have a Paslode nailer that uses a stick battery "similar" to the Zumo? It was so dead it wouldn't start to charge in the charging housing. Take a known fully charged nine volt battery from your other battery operated tools. Determine the pos and neg of the tools battery then using jumpers attached to it with alligator clips, hold the neg on the neg side of Zumo battery and strike the pos terminal with the other jumpered wire a few times maybe 5 or 6 times. You'll see a small spark. Not sure why it worked on my Paslode but something about exciting the electrons in the stick battery enough to take it off the bottom of gone! Put it into the Paslode charger and it began the charging process. Still works many months later?

 

[Twigg]

When a battery has reached that point, replace it. New batteries are modestly priced on eBay.

For many, the GPS is a critical piece of equipment under some circumstances. Seems sensible to make sure it is in good condition.

 

[Bugnatr]

$17.88 for a replacement battery https://www.ebay.com/itm/like/191386579073?lpid=82&chn=ps

I can set you up an a payment plan today

 

[Abercrombie FJR]

Not sure if it would work with Zumo battery but, I have a Paslode nailer that uses a stick battery "similar" to the Zumo? It was so dead it wouldn't start to charge in the charging housing. Take a known fully charged nine volt battery from your other battery operated tools. Determine the pos and neg of the tools battery then using jumpers attached to it with alligator clips, hold the neg on the neg side of Zumo battery and strike the pos terminal with the other jumpered wire a few times maybe 5 or 6 times. You'll see a small spark. Not sure why it worked on my Paslode but something about exciting the electrons in the stick battery enough to take it off the bottom of gone! Put it into the Paslode charger and it began the charging process. Still works many months later?

I have been resurrecting overly discharged rechargeable batteries for years. Long ago a radio repairman friend informed that when a perfectly good rechargeable battery becomes completely discharged, the supplied small Milliamp charger doesn't have the oomph to start the recharge. He instructed me to use small trickle charger on it for about 30 seconds to give it a boost from its fully dead state and then charge it normally. It works great.

 

[RossKean]

Lithium ion batteries REALLY don't like a 100% discharge. Ni-cads can take a lot, NiMH aren't quite as friendly and lead chemistry batteries are worse for discharge damage (but not as bad as Li). A lot of Li ion batteries have some internal circuitry to effectively shut off the battery when the charge level drops to 10% or so.

You may find that the "bumped" battery in the Zumo doesn't have much capacity left or doesn't hold a charge like it used to.