LabQuest
®
3 User Manual
www.vernier.com/labq3
59
Battery Maintenance
LabQuest uses a high-quality lithium-ion battery. This is the same chemistry used in premium
laptop and smartphone batteries and you can expect similar performance. There is never a need
to condition the battery by regular full discharge/charge cycles.
Use only the supplied AC adapter to charge the LabQuest battery. A
replacement adapter
can be
purchased from our website (order code LQ3-PS). AC adapters from the original LabQuest or
LabQuest 2 should not be used with LabQuest 3 as they do not provide enough power to run the
unit and charge the battery. See
www.vernier.com/til/8431/
for more information.
The battery takes about 12 hours to completely charge. It is safe to leave the battery charging
indefinitely, and there is no need to fully discharge the battery before charging. Battery life
depends on the sensors used, but in most cases, you can obtain six or more hours of use before
recharging. We recommend charging LabQuest overnight to start the next day with a full charge.
Battery life depends on the sensors and features used. To access power-saving options, choose
the Light & Power app from the Settings screen. Optimize day-to-day battery life by setting the
screen brightness to the minimum acceptable level and power off (suspend) the unit whenever
the unit is not in use.
When using LabQuest as a standalone device, the screen dims after a few minutes of no use,
even during data collection. However, LabQuest does not turn itself off while collecting data
until the battery is almost discharged. Data loss due to a loss of power is minimized through
periodic saving of a backup file.
When using LabQuest 3 as a computer interface, either the battery must be charged or LabQuest
must be connected to AC power. LabQuest 3 cannot operate on USB power alone.
The long-term life of the battery varies, but you can expect about 300 to 400 full
charge/discharge cycles before the battery needs to be replaced. In this count, a charge from half-
way to a full charge would count as half of a charge cycle. In typical school use, the battery can
last three years or more. Exposure to temperatures over 35°C significantly reduces the battery
life.
As a battery reaches the end of its useful life, the run time becomes shorter and the battery begins
to swell. Eventually the run time will be too short for your application, and you will want to
replace the battery. You should also replace the battery when the swelling is visually noticeable.
Rechargeable batteries are considered a consumable, and as such, are warranted for one year. A
replacement battery
can be ordered from our website (order code LQ3-BAT). Recycling
information is available at
www.call2recycle.org
.
