It seems that I never never got a charger with my SkyFi 3 when I got it last year. The package was damaged in the transport, and the charger was but I never thought about it, because I have plenty of chargers. For a long time I have used an iPhone charger, but it can take more than a day for it to charge, so I wonder if I could do better. I saw that the official charger. is 5V 1A. My iPad charger is 5.1V 2.1A. Would that damage the batteries or is it OK?
Best regards,
Steen Kastoft Hansen
The iPad charger will be fine. It should charge in about 3 hours.
I tried the iPad charger but it took more than 24 hours to charge fully from a state that the SkyFi reported as "-16%". That low value was the result of leaving the unit unattended for a week, and I am pretty sure it was turned off when I left it. Maybe there is a problem with the batteries after all.
On the plus side I can say that at temperatures of about 5°C the unit only dropped to 80% after three hours of observation.
Those temperatures were last spring. It has been too cloudy or too bright to use the telescope since then, but I cross my fingers for clear skies at least one weekend this autumn. It has always taken 24+ hours to charge the SkyFi 3 but the comments I could read here in the support forum led me to think that maybe my charger was not right.
Steen,
Could you try reinstalling the firmware to see if that helps. I've seen this problem once before and a firmware reinstall seemed to correct it.
Go midway down on this page for instructions:
http://www.skysafariastronomy.com/skyfi-3-professional-astronomy-telescope-control.html
After a week the charge had only dropped from 100% to 87%, which is good, actually much better than my laptop that discharges completely in a week while turned off.
I upgraded the firmware to 1.3.3 and started charging. To my surprise it actually lost charge while turned off: it dropped from 87% to 83% in an hour, so that I now know I cannot expect to use the SkyFi while charging. When I turned the SkyFi off, the charge light also went off, but I switched the charger off and on, and then the charge light lit again. After four hours the charge had gone up to 93%, and the next morning it had charged fully during the night.
So the new firmware did not help, and it seems I'll just have to make sure I always have enough time to charge the SkyFi before use.
Just to recap. You think there is still a problem with the rate of charging? It does charge to 100% but it takes longer than expected?
You should certainly be able to use the SkyFI while charging it.
To my surprise it actually lost charge while turned off: it dropped from 87% to 83% in an hour, so that I now know I cannot expect to use the SkyFi while charging.
I'm not sure what yo mean by this. You had the device turned off while charging and it lost charge?
Do you have another way to charge it other than the iPad charger? If you leave it on for half a day and then plug it into your computer, how long does that take to change?
Yes, I still think there is a problem with the charging, but I don't think much can be done about it. In three hours it only charges some 10-20%.
And I have seen that if I leave the SkyFi turned on when charging, it loses charge. I must remember to turn the SkyFi off if I want it to charge. I made a typing error when I described this behaviour before.
I have a universal charger that be adjusted to provide me with a range of Volts and Amperes, but I can try to charge the SkyFi from the computer next time as you suggest. Then it will have lost about 10-15% sitting in the drawer while switched off.
Just turn it on and leave it on for about 4 hours. That should drain it to ~50%. Then try charging from your computer. Also try a different USB cable. Perhaps the one you are using is damaged and has a high resistence.
It took 18 (eighteen) hours for it to reach 50% charge. Of course there was no load on it, but still, it is rather encouraging.
Charging from the laptop with a new cable took 15 hours to reach 100%. The SkyFi unit was switched off during the whole time, except for brief periods when I wanted to check the progress.
It sounds like this SkyFi unit does indeed have a problem. I'm going to transfer this ticket to Keiron so he can get you a replacement.
Hi Steen,
From where did you purchase SkyFi 3?
Thanks!
