"Err1 = Low battery warning" with supercapacitor

[peppersass]

My GEM is about six years old and has the blue board. I'm seeing the following error message in the GEM Status display:

Err1 = Low battery warning

This is odd because I'm almost certain my GEM has the supercapacitor -- a squat black electrolytic cap behind a small board related to WiFi. I don't see anything that looks like a CR2032 battery unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Could this mean the super capacitor has aged and needs to be replaced? If so, what are the specs or can I buy one from Brultech? I've got the tools and skills to replace it.

Assuming the cap needs to be replaced, my understanding is that the battery or cap preserves the minute counters and that they'll be lost when I power down and pull the old cap. How often are the counters written to the SD card? In other words, how much data will I lose?

[ben]

My GEM is about six years old and has the blue board. I'm seeing the following error message in the GEM Status display:

Err1 = Low battery warning

This is odd because I'm almost certain my GEM has the supercapacitor -- a squat black electrolytic cap behind a small board related to WiFi. I don't see anything that looks like a CR2032 battery unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Could this mean the super capacitor has aged and needs to be replaced? If so, what are the specs or can I buy one from Brultech? I've got the tools and skills to replace it.

Assuming the cap needs to be replaced, my understanding is that the battery or cap preserves the minute counters and that they'll be lost when I power down and pull the old cap. How often are the counters written to the SD card? In other words, how much data will I lose?

It corrects itself on the next packet.

There should be a jumper above the Ethernet port on the unit, that jumper enables/disables the super cap (enabled when connected). Can you make sure it's still there?

Also, the GEM will only check battery status on boot. So you can try cycling power to the GEM to see if it goes away.

[peppersass]

It corrects itself on the next packet.

There should be a jumper above the Ethernet port on the unit, that jumper enables/disables the super cap (enabled when connected). Can you make sure it's still there?

Also, the GEM will only check battery status on boot. So you can try cycling power to the GEM to see if it goes away.

The jumper is in place. I removed and reinstalled it a couple times in case the contacts are corroded (doubtful.) I tried cycling the power, but the error status didn’t go away. Earlier I rebooted COM and ENG, but that didn’t clear the status, either.

What should I do?

[ben]

It corrects itself on the next packet.

There should be a jumper above the Ethernet port on the unit, that jumper enables/disables the super cap (enabled when connected). Can you make sure it's still there?

Also, the GEM will only check battery status on boot. So you can try cycling power to the GEM to see if it goes away.

The jumper is in place. I removed and reinstalled it a couple times in case the contacts are corroded (doubtful.) I tried cycling the power, but the error status didn’t go away. Earlier I rebooted COM and ENG, but that didn’t clear the status, either.

What should I do?

Are you losing your wattseconds counters between power cycles. Rebooting won't clear that flag btw, it has to be a full power cycle (wait ~10 seconds after unplugging).

[peppersass]

Are you losing your wattseconds counters between power cycles. Rebooting won't clear that flag btw, it has to be a full power cycle (wait ~10 seconds after unplugging).

How do I determine if I’m losing the wattsecond counters?

I pulled the DC power plug at the GEM and waited 10 seconds before replugging.

[ben]

Are you losing your wattseconds counters between power cycles. Rebooting won't clear that flag btw, it has to be a full power cycle (wait ~10 seconds after unplugging).

How do I determine if I’m losing the wattsecond counters?

I pulled the DC power plug at the GEM and waited 10 seconds before replugging.

If you watch the live data in the GEM Setup Webpage there's the "Wh" counters, when you unplug and plug it back in if they change they'll go to randomly large numbers.

[peppersass]

If you watch the live data in the GEM Setup Webpage there's the "Wh" counters, when you unplug and plug it back in if they change they'll go to randomly large numbers.

The Wh counters didn't change. I waited 15-30 seconds after re-plugging to give the GEM time to reboot before I refreshed the Live Data page. If the counters had been lost would they have been corrected by then or does it take more time than that?

[ben]

If you watch the live data in the GEM Setup Webpage there's the "Wh" counters, when you unplug and plug it back in if they change they'll go to randomly large numbers.

The Wh counters didn't change. I waited 15-30 seconds after re-plugging to give the GEM time to reboot before I refreshed the Live Data page. If the counters had been lost would they have been corrected by then or does it take more time than that?

If they were lost they'd be some random number likely in the 100 millions.

What COM/ENG do you got on there?

[peppersass]

If they were lost they'd be some random number likely in the 100 millions.

What COM/ENG do you got on there?

COM 5.13
ENG 1.49

[ben]

If they were lost they'd be some random number likely in the 100 millions.

What COM/ENG do you got on there?

COM 5.13
ENG 1.49

We're having an opposite problem, with the cap disconnected we can't get low battery. Debugging it but it looks like your unit is fine.