I work at a hospital in which the c-arms are being used constantly during the day and rarely overnight, our surgery manager insists the battery needs to be charged when they are not in use. The techs are all wondering if the c-arm is plugged into the wall during the case is it not being charged then?? The c-arm is not like your cell phone in which it needs charge to work, it is being run off of power from the wall while being used?? Our question is why would the c-arm need to be constantly plugged into the wall when not in use if we are going to plug it in when we are using it?
CHARGING BATTERY?
philips recommends charging when not in use. You need to charge the batteries for high dose flouro, that is the only time the batteries are used. they do charge when its in use but what if they weren't charged enough? I tell my customers to plug in while not in use.
Jamison Ashby, MBA
Owner: Precision Imaging solutions
www.PI.solutions
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Yes your surgery manager is correct!
Imaging using your car without an alternator and your battery was at 10.5Vdc. Sure you could start the car and drive..for a while and after a certain point it falls flat on its face. Leave them plugged in.
Now..yes they are charging when in use but it is very easy to deplete the charge faster than the little trickle charger board can keep up with. Look at the green light near the umbilicle cord. It will falsh with the rate of charge completion. I.s. fast blink you are almost there. Full charge light is lit steady.
Npow keep in mind that just because the light is green and you have a full charge that you have rock solid battery performance. Your battery pack may be old and cant even hold the max voltage. There is a place using BV scope in battery or ESU where you can see the install date and the calculated charge level. This is not an actual voltage but a calculated one. If someone changes a battery and doesnt "install it in the software" of hits the install battery button and didnt change the battery your software will be lost.
Anyway depending on usage 2-4 years replace them.
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Hi,
Im reading the discussion and it appears you cannot install new batteries without having software access. Is this true?
Art
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Sure you can replace the batteries without updating the software.
Not the most perfect thing to so but it will work. After you change them.go to service and change time and date to a year backward..reboot..then change it back to current year and it will start an over charge cycle. Let it charge over night 12 hrs.
and yes it does need and use batteries when pluged in. its not a portable like an AMX...it has to be plugged in to run.
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