Elk M1 Battery Not Charging
- Thread starter jeffl012
- Start date
apostolakisl
Senior Member
I pulled up the elk manual, I don't see any mention of a fuse.
Also, do you have a surge supressor? If so, your AC from the wall wart goes there first and something could be wrong with it.
Probably the m1 is fine if it works on battery power, however I suppose you could have a damaged voltage rectifier/regulator on the m1 board and still have the battery work. Hopefully you just have a failed wall wart. Anyone who sells Elk systems will have them for sale.
Monk
Active Member
I would follow Spanky's advice and report your power measurements. Not sure how you are getting the M1 to startup on battery power alone unless you are shorting the "startup spots" on the board - are you simply flipping the switch and it powers up?.
apostolakisl
Senior Member
I don't quite understand how you are getting the unit to start up on battery power either. Perhaps your wall wart is putting out enough power to avoid that reset?
Anyway, as a stop-gap measure until you can get this fixed, I would suggest you take your old battery and put it on a car charger at low setting until it says you have the battery mostly charged. You can swap out your two batteries back and forth this way keeping your system operating until you get the new wall wart or whatever it is that needs replacing.
Anyway, as a stop-gap measure until you can get this fixed, I would suggest you take your old battery and put it on a car charger at low setting until it says you have the battery mostly charged. You can swap out your two batteries back and forth this way keeping your system operating until you get the new wall wart or whatever it is that needs replacing.
Spanky
Senior Member
If the M1 is starting with a transformer connected when you turn on the power switch, it is looking more like the power supply on the M1. If the transformer was not working, the M1 will not start with a battery connected until the startup pads are shorted on the PCB. A working transformer will start the M1 when the power switched is turned on.
An item to check is the voltage on the transformer. If it is low voltage on its output, the battery could not be charging properly.
The transformer has an auto reset fuse built-in rated at 4 amps. The M1 also has auto reset fuses.
If the transformer is extremely hot, the auto reset fuse could have shut down the transformer. Unplug the transformer and let it cool down if it is hot. This could reset the fuse in this case. There could be enough leakage current on the auto reset fuse to start the M1.
An item to check is the voltage on the transformer. If it is low voltage on its output, the battery could not be charging properly.
The transformer has an auto reset fuse built-in rated at 4 amps. The M1 also has auto reset fuses.
If the transformer is extremely hot, the auto reset fuse could have shut down the transformer. Unplug the transformer and let it cool down if it is hot. This could reset the fuse in this case. There could be enough leakage current on the auto reset fuse to start the M1.
apostolakisl
Senior Member
Sounds like the Elk's on board AC to DC rectifier/voltage regulator is damaged. I would suggest firt unplugging the battery and the wall wart for a half hour and plugging it back in. If it still doesn't power up, it probably needs to go in for service. Maybe Spanky can tell you of something specific on the Elk board that you can fix at home, but I doubt it. It is probably something simple like a burned out diode, but if you don't know how to trouble shoot the board, I doubt you will get anywhere.
