F770 & Cellink stopped working suddenly

[Oilburner]

Whilst on holiday my recently installed F770 & Cellink stopped working suddenly after a 4 1/2 hour trip, the vehicle had only done a couple of short 1 hour trips prior to this longer trip, and it worked perfectly whilst driving and using the park feature I even removed the cellink battery to check its state of charge using a dedicated 12 volt 10amp charger, after being connected for less than 7-10minutes the cellink displayed battery full, so it was obviously being charged by the vehicle successfully this was all carried prior to a longer trip.

The vehicle had just done a 200 mile trip the day before working pefectly, next day about a 80 mile trip still working good it then was parked and set for parking mode operation which was for three hours exactly, on return I noticied the F770 had turned itself off, I first thought had the F770 got hot whilst parked and switched itself off automatically to protect itself, athough the outside temp was only 16-17 C, I did not think that was the problem, I checked the cellink this was cold to touch as its stored in the rear cargo area under floor panel not affected by heat during parking.

I first thought this may be a internal fault on the F770 because for a split second it started then immediatly turn off, so the following six days it did not work whilst on holiday, however once at home I checked all of the installation wiring including the inline fuses with my multimeter, everything checked out ok, I then unplugged the Cellink battery and checked with the multimeter on the input side of the cellink battery plug as this was the easiest to check, but did not get any voltage showing on the multimeter, now whilst this is the input lead I would have expected to get a reading, I then took the cellink indoors to connect to my dedicated 12 volt 10 amp charger/supply and I was surprised it took just over 1 1/4 hrs to state full, on reconnecting the cellink back to the vehicle surprisingly the F770 started working again, now this is not what I was expecting so is this a faulty cellink battery or what ! or could the problem still lie with the F770
pulling the voltage down due to a internal fault.

 

[flip9]

It takes about 1.25hours to fully charge the Cellink so it sounds like it was empty. The Cellink might not be getting charged by your car.

Do you hear the beeps when it turns on with the car? Which switched power source did you choose to feed the cellink?

Input side likely wont have a reading as its not referenced directly to the battery, it goes to the charge circuit first.

Test the output side instead of the Cellink. Do a voltmeter test on the B+ and GND with the car off, and then do one with the ACC and GND with the car on.

 

[Oilburner]

It takes about 1.25hours to fully charge the Cellink so it sounds like it was empty. The Cellink might not be getting charged by your car.

Do you hear the beeps when it turns on with the car? Which switched power source did you choose to feed the cellink?

Input side likely wont have a reading as its not referenced directly to the battery, it goes to the charge circuit first.

Test the output side instead of the Cellink. Do a voltmeter test on the B+ and GND with the car off, and then do one with the ACC and GND with the car on.

Thanks I will carry out more tests with the multimeter in the morning, not sure why the cellink could have run down to empty though as its hard wired, to the rear 12 volt auxillary socket fuse which stays live whilst the ignition is on, and goes off after about approx 7 minutes with engine/ignition off, so cameras is only using the cellink whilst parked and as this was only 3 hours parking duration it was well within the cellink capabilitys, the cars journey prior to this happening was about 1 1/2 hours long, the day before it had just completed 4 1/2 hour journey and I know it was fully charged at start of journey, I had also previously switched the F770 off not requiring parking watch whilst parked on private driveway.

As the vehicle is under three years old with very low mileage, I cant imagine the vehicles alternator being faulty and not putting enough power out to charge the cellink, but will check all your points you raised in the morning and hopefully get to the bottom of the cellink running down flat.

 

[Maddog1974]

I very much doubt it's the camera if it was drawing that much current the camera wouldn't work full stop. I agree with flip9 do a bit of checking at the Cellink...

 

[Oilburner]

Good news I think that I have located the problem its looking likely the grounding screw was tight but not tight enough, when testing the voltage with the engine running the input lead for the cellink was flucuating between 9.37 volts to 9.89 volts, as the supply is tapped into the rear 12 volt socket 20 amp fuse I took another reading directly from the socket and was show 14.34 volts, I then tightned up the grounding screw a little bit more and then saw the voltage shoot up to 14.34volts on the cellink input lead, after about 10 minutes with engine running the cellink lights changed from red charging to green full, hopefully this was the problem with the cellink running down, it just goes to show the grounding screw does need to be really tight to make a good connection.

 

[flip9]

Good to hear. It does certainly sound like poor ground if the voltage shot up..

Poor ground is the number 1 cause of issues in auto electrics.

 

[Oilburner]

Just a follow up I can now defiantly confirm the problem was due to a poor ground connection causing the cellink battery not to charge properly, have now completed several journeys including extensive use of parking mode, I have just removed the cellink to check charge status indoors on a dedicated 12volt 10 amp output charger and as soon as I plugged the cellink in it showed a green full light, thanks flip9 for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[tigermad]

This sounds a similar problem to what I am getting. Sorry to sound dim but in this statement"Do a voltmeter test on the B+ and GND with the car off, and then do one with the ACC and GND with the car on. " What is the B+?

 

[Maddog1974]

B+ is the Permanent 12v Wire
ACC is the Ignition Switched Live wire
GND is Earth

 

[tigermad]

I only have a lead with acc and GND coming from my cellink to the fuse. I still need to test the output like you suggested in my thread. Can I just plug in the lighter adapter and try and iphone in it instead when engine is off?

 

[Maddog1974]

I only have a lead with acc and GND coming from my cellink to the fuse. I still need to test the output like you suggested in my thread. Can I just plug in the lighter adapter and try and iphone in it instead when engine is off?

Sounds like a plan for a basic test....

 

[tigermad]

Ok so the iPhone charger doesn’t work when the engine is off either. But it does work when 12b cable is used in the car to charge the battery. Quick question when the Cellink battery is fully charged should I be able to unplug all the power and just plug in my iPhone or does it need some power to be able to use the charge from it?

 

[Maddog1974]

It shouldn't need any power going into the Cellink to charge the phone. The internal battery should do that! (Providing it's charged)

 

[tigermad]

It shouldn't need any power going into the Cellink to charge the phone. The internal battery should do that! (Providing it's charged)

Thanks. That’s what weird. The battery is not providing power to anything. It still works with the engine bypassing it. The green light is on so it is fully charged or it thinks it is so not charging any more. It’s just behaving as if no charge at all. Pity there is no way to discharge it completely so I can try and recharge. I have been driving for a week and it’s not worked. Looks like I need to buy a new one. Pity it’s just out of warranty when it’s happened.