JJ CCR both shearwater and hud dead

[beester]

Heya all,

In April of this year I did a service of my JJ (meaning replacing all batteries, O² sensors, flapper valves, O-rings). After I dived it for about 20 dives (25 hours) doing only recreational stuff. All good. During the last 2 months I haven't done any rebreather dives.

Since I've in Oct and Nov 2 weeks of rebreather diving planned, I just wanted to activate the controller to check the voltage the sensors are showing after 2 months of inactivity. But pushing both piezo buttons nothing happens? The shearwater remains black. I changed the battery on the shearwater with another SAFT LS14500 battery, but still dead. I checked the HUD to see if it would come up but also dead.

Next on the list would be to change all batteries in the head, but it seems strange that these could be dead after a couple of months and almost no diving. What gives?

 

[KenGordon]

Heya all,

In April of this year I did a service of my JJ (meaning replacing all batteries, O² sensors, flapper valves, O-rings). After I dived it for about 20 dives (25 hours) doing only recreational stuff. All good. During the last 2 months I haven't done any rebreather dives.

Since I've in Oct and Nov 2 weeks of rebreather diving planned, I just wanted to activate the controller to check the voltage the sensors are showing after 2 months of inactivity. But pushing both piezo buttons nothing happens? The shearwater remains black. I changed the battery on the shearwater with another SAFT LS14500 battery, but still dead. I checked the HUD to see if it would come up but also dead.

Next on the list would be to change all batteries in the head, but it seems strange that these could be dead after a couple of months and almost no diving. What gives?

First, really be sure the batter cap is screwed in on the petrel. I have had a “Oh no I’ve killed it changing the battery” moment in the past, it will power up as you screw in the cap - no need to press the buttons. Next batteries in the head, then maybe try the HUD then Petrel unplugged from the head.

I had a failure, actually my only JJ failure, where it looked like a dead cell at first but actually the HUD can bus port was broken. Having the board in the head replaced was not outrageously expensive and I think Narked at 90 did it in a week.

You could have a fault in the head which stops the petrel booting, or vice versa.

 

[KenGordon]

First, really be sure the batter cap is screwed in on the petrel. I have had a “Oh no I’ve killed it changing the battery” moment in the past, it will power up as you screw in the cap - no need to press the buttons. Next batteries in the head, then maybe try the HUD then Petrel unplugged from the head.

I had a failure, actually my only JJ failure, where it looked like a dead cell at first but actually the HUD can bus port was broken. Having the board in the head replaced was not outrageously expensive and I think Narked at 90 did it in a week.

You could have a fault in the head which stops the petrel booting, or vice versa.

Actually, if you ring Narked they will probably talk you through this.

 

[beester]

Thanks Ken,

ah ****! Well replacing the battery doesn't do anything, just screwing the cap in slightly or fully doesn't boot up the shearwater (and you are absolutely right that it should immediately do this, showing the replace battery screen. It does the same with my petrel 1 (non jj)).

Would rather avoid having to send the head from Italy to the UK (specialy with brexit making shipping much more "interesting"). See if I can give them a call.

 

[beester]

Been in touch with Narced@90 (what a quick reaction). They suggested me to unconnect the computer and hud and check if the computer starts up separated from the head.

Their reply : "
The handset should fire up when putting a battery in even if the buttons have broken, so if its not coming on it may be the head electronics telling it to be off, try disconnecting it from the head and trying to turn it on with the buttons or with a battery change.


The hud should also turn on with buttons or a battery insertion if its not coming on with a battery change then I suspect you maye water ingress into the head electronics or battery compartment, please check for rust on the battery springs or all the batteries."

Done both (deconnect both hud and computer) but still no luck. Also checked the battery compartment of the solenoid and hud and there is evidence of any water ingress (it's dry and no rust marks or spots). Don't feel comfortable opening the head, to be honest have no idea how to do that... it seems like it's like a solid block. Also can't understand where there could have been water ingress if it's not the battery compartment.

Anybody got good experience with maintenance on the head?

Cheers

 

[broncobowsher]

Put a meter on the battery, is it any good? New does not mean good. A regular AA battery will run the Shearwater. Try a known good battery.

 

[beester]

Put a meter on the battery, is it any good? New does not mean good. A regular AA battery will run the Shearwater. Try a known good battery.

Heya Broncobowsher. It was exactly that. Graham Blackmore on the JJ FB group, suggested not to replace the battery with a new SAFT, which could be suspect if they are from the same batch, but with a plain vanilla AA battery to check if the handset comes up... and tadaaaa it did.

Very strange because I checked the new SAFT battery with a voltmeter before putting it in, and it did read 3.5v. In any case I'm happy that it's just a faulty battery and not something serious! Much appreciate you chiming in!

Cheers

B

 

[beldridg]

Heya Broncobowsher. It was exactly that. Graham Blackmore on the JJ FB group, suggested not to replace the battery with a new SAFT, which could be suspect if they are from the same batch, but with a plain vanilla AA battery to check if the handset comes up... and tadaaaa it did.

Very strange because I checked the new SAFT battery with a voltmeter before putting it in, and it did read 3.5v. In any case I'm happy that it's just a faulty battery and not something serious! Much appreciate you chiming in!

Cheers

B

It has been a long time since I was a "practicing" electrical engineer, but my guess is that it read 3.5V because it wasn't under load.

- brett

 

[beester]

It has been a long time since I was a "practicing" electrical engineer, but my guess is that it read 3.5V because it wasn't under load.

- brett

I believe so... I think if we put some resistance on it that we might see a much lower voltage. Not sure though how to do that... I have a multimeter... but not much else.

 

[michael-fisch]

Hook the multimeter up parallel to a 47ohm resistor, ignore the initial reading for a few seconds and don't leave this hooked up for long since it puts a heavy load (@ 60ma) on a SAFT battery.
Michael