From our 'Contact' page - Philip Harris elog (II)

From our 'Contact' page:
Dear Roger

Have just bought a Philip Harris eLog II datalogger (before I looked at your website!). I am having problems.

The A3 sheet sized quickstart guide (there is no manual yet) says you can charge the internal batteries through a connection to the USB port on the laptop PC (with the laptop USB power saving features turned off). 8 hours should be needed.

However this does not work - the batteries stay stubbornly uncharged even after 36 hours and a very hot laptop. Turning the elogII power on (there is a meagre 5% internal battery power left) during charging doesnt help either - and I have now completely pancaked the internal battery.

The Philip Harris tech support line is a study in ignorance. Can you suggest what I am doing wrong?

The elogII worked briefly on what power it DID have before I pancaked it.

Cheers



RF thinks:
That USB socket on a laptop delivers very little current. It's slightly different to a USB on a desktop where charging via USB isn't going to overdrain the battery. There's enough power in the laptop USB to allow you to read the sensors but either there's not enough to really top up the battery or more likely there's not enough to recharge the battery from flat. (It would be sensible/likely for the manufacturer to have disabled charging the logger from flat.) An alternative idea, and battery issue aside, is that the kit is not good - which is sad because there's a lot of faith in the company but their equipment is over-blown and off-target. And more sad that there's not a lot of intelligence left at Philip Harris to steer it back on course.