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RailPro => RailPro Specific Help & Discussion => Topic started by: faithie999 on February 21, 2021, 02:10:00 PM

Title: HC-2b "under temperature warning"
Post by: faithie999 on February 21, 2021, 02:10:00 PM
I discovered something today.

my train room/workshop is in an outbuilding.  it has heat, but I only bring it up to temperature (58F) when I'm in there, otherwise I set the thermostat at 42F.

the other day I plugged my HC in at the end of the day, and I noticed the next morning it had not charged.

today I brought it into the house, plugged it in (to the Ring charger) and after a few seconds on the "charging page" it errored with "under temperature warning".

I unplugged it and let it warm up to room temp and now it's charging properly.

who knew??

Ken
Title: Re: HC-2b "under temperature warning"
Post by: Alan on February 21, 2021, 05:40:36 PM
I certainly didn't know there was such a warning. Makes sense. Battery resistance is real low when they are cold. Very easy to overcharge them under such conditions.

I have battery minders on some equipment stored in the barn over winter. The battery minders have temperature compensation built into them for the same reason.
Title: Re: HC-2b "under temperature warning"
Post by: trainman605 on February 22, 2021, 05:36:28 AM
Here in Texas as many of you know the temputures dropped to O, I keep my shop heat on where my trains are, just because they don't like cold and neither do I.  It was a propane fired heater, so not using electricity as we were off the grid for 39 hours.

trainman
Title: Re: HC-2b "under temperature warning"
Post by: Alan on February 22, 2021, 08:44:26 AM
I can relate to the Texas crisis. During the winter of 2012-2013 we had an ice storm that knocked out our power for 4-1/2 days. Single digit temps the whole time. Thankfully we have a fireplace in the living room that kept us from freezing. Once it was over my wife said "this will never happen again" with an authority in her voice that is usually reserved for a drill sergeant. Today we have this:

generator 4.jpg

Side note - two Christmases ago the power went out for 1/2 day. The whole neighborhood was dark except for our house complete with all the Christmas lights outside blinking away. It felt like we were saying neener-neener to our neighbors.
Title: Re: HC-2b "under temperature warning"
Post by: G8B4Life on February 23, 2021, 09:23:38 AM
Late to the discussion again :-[ but in my defense I've been too tired to bother logging in and replying.

who knew??

I knew. I'd had that warning a few years ago when I tried to charge my HC when it was too cold. We also briefly discussed the temperature when charging in the old battery thread; the charging temperature range is mentioned in the user manual.

- Tim