Richkim wrote:Does the internal battery need replacing? How can I get the hand controller working again?
The battery does not need replacing. Lithium-Ion batteries have a protection circuit to limit charging rates and limit how low the battery can be drained. When the hand controller sits idle for extended periods of time, the standby circuit keeps the hand controller alive until the battery protection circuit cuts power to protect the battery. The battery enters into a wake up protection mode.
Normal charge rates for the hand controller battery varies from 750mA to 600mA depending on age of battery and version of charge circuitry. When the battery level is very low after sitting idle for an extended period of time, the charging circuit protects the battery from an initial high charge rate by limiting the charge rate to 15-20mA. This means the hand controller could take several days to charge.
To get the charge circuit out of its overly protective mode, do the following. Plug the hand controller into the charger for about 10 minutes. This will raise the battery voltage with a very small charge rate. After 10 minutes, unplug the USB cable and plug it back in immediately. The charge circuit measures the battery voltage and charge current and raises the charge rate to about 60mA. Wait 5 minutes and unplug the USB cable and plug back in immediately. By plugging the USB cable back into the charger, the battery level does not have time to settle back down to a minimum level fooling the charge circuit. The charge circuit does the same measurements and raises the charge rate to 300mA. At this point the battery will fully charge in about 6-8 hours. Unplug and plug in the USB cable again after 5 minutes and the charge rate will elevate to its normal charge rate. Let the hand controller fully charge for about 3-4 hours. At this point the hand controller battery is fully charged and ready for 140-180 hours of use.
It is a good idea to charge the hand controller once a week to keep the battery from entering the wake up protection mode. This procedure does not harm the battery as long as you wait the 10 minutes initially before the unplug/plug and the 5 minute wait between unplug/plug thereafter.