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CPAP machine beeps on battery - Printable Version

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CPAP machine beeps on battery - jhayes9898b - 03-25-2016

My machine just beeps when I connect it to a battery.
I have a respironics remstar system one m series 50 machine which works fine in Aflex mode. I bought a 109 Amp hour marine/deep cycle battery and a charger. I also bought clamps to connect to the two battery terminals which has a car charger fitting in the end. I then went online and paid lots for the correct m-star series 50 connector that will connect my cpap into a car charger outlet. But the Machine power lights and menu do come on but when I press the main button to start the power/blower the machine just beeps once.

When the machine starts/first light is say in a box 'data activity: do not remove card' then that message goes away (never gives that message when I use the mains/AC power connection! I did try removing smart card but nothing changed.

It all looks fine on battery till I power on and it then beeps one and seems to be cycling thru power on and off , a beep then ramp light on, then powers off, starts again beeps power lights on , beeps...repeat.

Spent a small fortune to get it going for camping but lost now. Humidifer is attached, but power is set to zero on it. Did try removing humidifier but that didn't change anything.

Any help appreciate, so far it's been an expensive failed experiment.



RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - OpalRose - 03-25-2016

Hi jhayes9898b,
Wish I could offer help with your battery problem, but I'm a procrastinator, and I've never purchased a battery backup even though I keep telling myself I should.

With that said, there are a lot of folk here that use batteries, and I'm sure will be along to advise.

Just wanted to say,
Welcome to Apnea Board!




RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - trish6hundred - 03-25-2016

Hi jhayes9898b,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
There are some threads here on the board about CPAP and camping.

Hang in there for assistance with your battery problem and much success to you with your CPAP therapy.


RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - sdb7802 - 03-25-2016

Two things:

1.) Try lowering the pressure temporarily to 4 (with AC power supply) to see if it will come up under minimum load on DC.

2.) On a earlier model M Series, I had a similar problem on AC. I had to wait a minute or two after plug-in before I started the blower.


Just some things to try, before breaking out a voltmeter.


RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - jhayes9898b - 03-31-2016

So i tried reducing pressure to 4.0 and max 4.5 with humidifer not on there same thing, dies as soon as I turn blower on, thanks for trying!


RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - sdb7802 - 03-31-2016

Is this your machine?
[attachment=2315]

The problem might be one of these:

1.) The input voltage is either too low or too high.

2.) The battery can't supply the current needed. Is it charged?

3.) There's a problem in your cabling. Too much resistance (unlikely).


A quick test would be to plug it into your car cigarette lighter outlet (probably with the engine off).





RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - OMyMyOHellYes - 03-31-2016

I apologize - this might sound like a call to desktop tech support where they ask "is it plugged in?"

Just a couple of thoughts - following onto sdb7802's - it sounds initially like a voltage problem.

What are the battery specs (voltage is 12 V and not 24)? Can you put a multimeter on it to check the output voltage to see if it is in a reasonable range (somewhere 14 V (fully charged) down to 11 V (depleated) depending on charge state for a 12 V battery)?

What is the charger you have and configuration? Does it stay hooked up to the battery when you are trying to use the machine? You have fully charged the battery (it may not have come from the store fully charged)?

The cables hooking up the "car charger outlet" (I assume we're talking about a standard cigar lighter, female receptacle) are hooked to the correct polarity battery terminals?

Does it run when you put it in a car and plug it in like sdb7802 suggested? If so, I would suspect a problem with the battery itself; if not, I would suspect a problem with the adapter cable. If you have access to a multimeter, can you run a continuity test to make sure the inside connector on the coax plug is the hot and the outside of the barrel is the ground? (I have recently found one plug that was internally wired backwards)

OMMOHY


RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - archangle - 03-31-2016

Take the water tank out so you don't spill any while working with the machine..

Then remove the blower unit from the humidifier and see if the blower unit will run without the humidifier. (assuming you use the humidifier. ) The blower unit just lifts up at the front to remove from the humidifier.

Your symptoms sound like a weak battery with low voltage or bad connections. Check the voltage, connections, and water level, etc. Take the fuses out and put them back in. Sometimes there's a bad connection in the fuse holder. Twist the cigarette lighter plug in its socket to be sure you have a good connection there.

See if you can find some sort of heavy load, like a plug in searchlight, to check your marine battery. Measure the voltage under load.

Go try your CPAP in your car off of its battery or cigarette lighter socket.

BTW, you can't use the blower unit without the humidifier unless you have the adapter for the hose. It's called the M series air port adapter and you can find it online for around $10 if you need it. Many people lose it or never got it. However, you should be able to verify the machines starts without it. If you machine runs without the humidifier, but not with it, you can probably put the blower back onto the humidifier to connect the hose, but plug the DC power directly into the blower unit, bypassing the humidifier, and you won't need the adapter.

There are two versions of humidifier for the M series machines. Does yours have one cable from the power brick to the humidifier and machine, or a separate cable to the humidifier and one to the blower unit?


RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - jhayes9898b - 04-01-2016

You guys are Awesome, got a step further. Took the car adaptor and machine to car and the blower ran with 8.5 setting so at least I know the cigarette adaptor I got on link removed works.

I tested the battery which is an Everstart 27DC marine battery with 750 cranking amps with 109 amp/hours. The voltage was 14.6 at the terminals and 14.1V when I tested the clamp on female car adaptor. Someone mentioned the voltage being to high might be an issue ? Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the big battery hoping it would last longer! Well I know the $25 adaptor is good maybe now it's just the $110 battery I bought that needs to go!

At least I feel there's hope again, much thanks. Not sure what next step is but progress is progress!



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RE: CPAP machine beeps on battery - OMyMyOHellYes - 04-01-2016

That's a puzzler. Those voltages are not bad for fully charged, new battery. I can usually get a little bit more than 14 V out of my 35 AH SLA batts when freshly charged. Also, let the battery set a day or so after being removed form the charger to test. And if you really want to do it correctly, it needs to be done while there is a load on the battery. Most DC appliances run in a voltage tolerance range and I doubt that it is topping reasonable levels (Note that 12 V radios are really designed to run at 13.8 V, but can tolerate a little bit higher voltage. Most 12 v electrical systems in cars run between 14 and 14.5 V.)

Was the charger hooked up to the battery when you were trying to run the machine? And the connectors were all hooked up good to the battery? I kind of suspect it may have been a problem with a connection somewhere. Still no joy in subsequent tests?