Hi folks,
My jump starter doesn't work, in that the positive cable gets no power. Is this thing worth opening up to attempt to find the problem and fix? Note that it works fine to launch rockets; I use the accessory plug port on it and that's still OK. It just doesn't work as a car starter.
It's a Walmart-sourced Instant Power [yeah, right] XP500. Manual is here. I've read the manual; I'm doing it right. It did work once, when my wife left her lights on. So, not a major manufacturing defect.
I was at a club launch a month ago and they had power troubles with their main battery; I offered my jump pack, but we couldn't get it working. That was odd since I launched with it the day before. Investigation showed the accessory port I use was drawing power fine, but the club would attach via the cables instead and they weren't working. (Yes, I turned the thing on, and tried the switch both ways...).
Last night I finally got down to some troubleshooting and found that the positive cable/clip is never energized no matter what position the switch is in. The negative cable is connected; if I use my voltmeter on the negative cable and the positive button in the accessory port I can get voltage readings.
Yeah, I can go to WM and drop $50 and have a new one (or go somewhere else and maybe get a better one!), but it bugs me that I have this thing I thought was my backup in case of car non-start, and it's not at the point I want to throw it away (because it works fine for launches!), but it's bugging me that there's something wrong and the tinkerer in me wants to mess around.
Before tilting at this particular windmill I figured it would be good to get insights from folks more familiar with these things.
Thanks.
Marc
My jump starter doesn't work, in that the positive cable gets no power. Is this thing worth opening up to attempt to find the problem and fix? Note that it works fine to launch rockets; I use the accessory plug port on it and that's still OK. It just doesn't work as a car starter.
It's a Walmart-sourced Instant Power [yeah, right] XP500. Manual is here. I've read the manual; I'm doing it right. It did work once, when my wife left her lights on. So, not a major manufacturing defect.
I was at a club launch a month ago and they had power troubles with their main battery; I offered my jump pack, but we couldn't get it working. That was odd since I launched with it the day before. Investigation showed the accessory port I use was drawing power fine, but the club would attach via the cables instead and they weren't working. (Yes, I turned the thing on, and tried the switch both ways...).
Last night I finally got down to some troubleshooting and found that the positive cable/clip is never energized no matter what position the switch is in. The negative cable is connected; if I use my voltmeter on the negative cable and the positive button in the accessory port I can get voltage readings.
Yeah, I can go to WM and drop $50 and have a new one (or go somewhere else and maybe get a better one!), but it bugs me that I have this thing I thought was my backup in case of car non-start, and it's not at the point I want to throw it away (because it works fine for launches!), but it's bugging me that there's something wrong and the tinkerer in me wants to mess around.
Before tilting at this particular windmill I figured it would be good to get insights from folks more familiar with these things.
Thanks.
Marc