Attached is a picture of a battery for a medical device. The battery dies quickly so i wanted to figure out a cheaper way to replace since it is only used for training. I am not an electronics guy and wanted to come here to see what you guys/gals thought. The battery is a lithium 3.6v but when replaced with a new battery it still says that it is dead. Is there rfid in this battery housing?

 

How does that connect to the rest of the device? I don't see an leads or any obvious connection. Does the old battery appear to be a standard size and such, or does it look custom? A picture would help, both the old cell and the replacement. Did you charge the replacement?

It's remotely possible the manufacturer codes in an expiration date or some such trick but I think that's unlikely and it makes more sense to rule out the simple stuff first.

It's also possible your device has a new-battery-break-in routine. Reading the manual is always a good place to start.

 

ok i will answer the best that i can, here we go.

The battery connects via the normal terminal similar to a cell phone battery. The old battery is a AA 3.6v battery lithium and was replaced with the same. volt meter confirms they have juice.

This device is on a timer for the battery. It will allow 300 minutes of use before battery is rendered dead. The timer is shown on the screen of the device. So I believe that the rfid is sending a code to the device and the countdown begins. Once the time has expired the code is rendered bad and the actual battery cannot be replaced without the rfid code being changed to show a new battery. Does this sound like a typical situation with rfid?

Also is there a way to replace the rfid with something that the device will recognize?

 

Here are some pics. hope these help.

 

Does the manufacturer of the device require you to buy replacement batteries from them, or give any advice about replacements?
What are we looking at in those pics?

 

Well its for a laryngoscope. The manufacturer of course wants you to purchase their battery from them hence the rfid. I am looking for a workaround so that our training devices dont eat up our budget. At $60 each and going through 4 a week it gets pricey.

In the pic is the battery housing and then when opened up inside is a 3.6v AA and what looks like a rfid.

 

Hello,

For the information, I attached what is likely the manual.

Bertus

 

The '842.jpg is not sharply focussed. Is that the pic showing what you think is the RFID?
Rather than RFID they could be using a non-volatile memory recording a count-down value.

 

The '842.jpg is not sharply focussed. Is that the pic showing what you think is the RFID?

yes that is correct. I think it is a rfid

 

Hello,

For the information, I attached what is likely the manual.

Bertus

thank you

 

thank you

Hello, I have the same problem.

Did you get a solution?

 

Hello!

Same problem here.

I found this inside the battery case.

Does anyone knows what is it?

Note that I had scratched the black part.
Is this an RFID?

Thanks

 

It's look like this RFID

 

I don't think there's much doubt that the little disk is an RFID, but I still don't understand what's going on with this thing.

Speculation: The device this attaches to keeps track of the battery, identifying it by its RFID tag, and ceases to accept that tag after so many hours of service or whatever it logs. Both the battery and the tag may be fine, but the device won't use it. Inkjet printer cartridges use a similar trick to discourage refilling. With those, you have to use a little reset device to trick the cartridge into thinking it's new again.

Any way the laryngoscope might be 'reset' somehow? A firmware upgrade or something like that?

 

The new batteries come with a 250 minute counter and an expiration date. After these 250 minutes, or the expiration of the battery, the device no longer works, even if the battery has charge.

I would like to edit this RFID to reset the minutes and change the battery expiration date, rather than always buying a new one for $ 60.

I tried reading it with a 125Khz rfid reader, but I was not successful.

 

The new batteries come with a 250 minute counter and an expiration date. After these 250 minutes, or the expiration of the battery, the device no longer works, even if the battery has charge.

I would like to edit this RFID to reset the minutes and change the battery expiration date, rather than always buying a new one for $ 60.

I tried reading it with a 125Khz rfid reader, but I was not successful.

I doubt the usage time is stored in the RFID, although I suppose the expiration date might be. The device that reads it is the more likely suspect in my opinion. I suspect you need to hack the RFID to appear as a fresh battery, or hack the device to forget the "old" RFID. The former approach is probably next to impossible since that's the whole idea behind using the RFID. But the device may have a memory of some kind that can be accessed.

 

Which side of the battery holder has a + marking ? Is the 'rfid' side ?

How is the cell wired to whatever ?

 

Which side of the battery holder has a + marking ? Is the 'rfid' side ?

How is the cell wired to whatever ?

No, it was the minus side.
On the Rfid chip, we cas found 4 copper point, like the 4 connection point of RS232.

 

Hi,
I know this post is a bit old but during that COVID-19 pandemia and global sold out of captive market "for safety reason" MCGrath MAC batteries, I tried to replace the battery with a standard 3.6V AA lithium one.
The video laryngoscope stores to the RFID tag the amount of time the battery was used. A new one is given for 250 minutes. So if 50 is displayed on the screen the value of 200 is stored.
I was able to read and write the tag from a smartphone (Xiaomi M9T Pro) and the free app "RFID NFC Tool".
The tag is compliant with the ISO 15693 and seems to be based on the NXP SLIX chip.

The procedure below will reset the battery to 128 minutes, I was not able "refilling" it up completely for the moment.

OF COURSE, DON'T USE IT ! IF YOU DO, IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK

In the app "RFID NFC Tool" :
- Choose "ISO 15693 Vicinity"
- Put your phone on the battery. You should see the content of the chip. If nothing happened your smartphone may not be compatible.
- Select the "Write Single Block" command from the menu on top
- Enter the hex values :
Block : 0 Data : BC010003
- Then "Run Command" :
- Enter the hex values :
Block : 1 Data : 79003200
- "Run Command" again.
- Select the "Inventory" command and "Run command" to be sure datas have been written.

The video laryngoscope should now show a lifetime of 129 minutes. Be aware the lifetime on the screen is now totally wrong and depends on the capacity and quality of the new battery.

If someone want to go further :
BLOCK 0 :
- the hex value "BC01" seems to be checksum, I can't figure out how it is calculated.
- the hex value "0003" don't seem to change whatever the condition of the battery is.
BLOCK 1 :
- the hex value "79" is the "ON" time in minutes (0x79 = 121 => (250-121) = 129 minutes on the screen)
- the hex value "32" seems to be the seconds (it changes each time you power it on and off but is always between 0 and 60).

Hope it helps !

HateCaptiveMarket

 

Hi,
I know this post is a bit old but during that COVID-19 pandemia and global sold out of captive market "for safety reason" MCGrath MAC batteries, I tried to replace the battery with a standard 3.6V AA lithium one.
The video laryngoscope stores to the RFID tag the amount of time the battery was used. A new one is given for 250 minutes. So if 50 is displayed on the screen the value of 200 is stored.
I was able to read and write the tag from a smartphone (Xiaomi M9T Pro) and the free app "RFID NFC Tool".
The tag is compliant with the ISO 15693 and seems to be based on the NXP SLIX chip.

The procedure below will reset the battery to 128 minutes, I was not able "refilling" it up completely for the moment.

OF COURSE, DON'T USE IT ! IF YOU DO, IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK

In the app "RFID NFC Tool" :
- Choose "ISO 15693 Vicinity"
- Put your phone on the battery. You should see the content of the chip. If nothing happened your smartphone may not be compatible.
- Select the "Write Single Block" command from the menu on top
- Enter the hex values :
Block : 0 Data : BC010003
- Then "Run Command" :
- Enter the hex values :
Block : 1 Data : 79003200
- "Run Command" again.
- Select the "Inventory" command and "Run command" to be sure datas have been written.

The video laryngoscope should now show a lifetime of 129 minutes. Be aware the lifetime on the screen is now totally wrong and depends on the capacity and quality of the new battery.

If someone want to go further :
BLOCK 0 :
- the hex value "BC01" seems to be checksum, I can't figure out how it is calculated.
- the hex value "0003" don't seem to change whatever the condition of the battery is.
BLOCK 1 :
- the hex value "79" is the "ON" time in minutes (0x79 = 121 => (250-121) = 129 minutes on the screen)
- the hex value "32" seems to be the seconds (it changes each time you power it on and off but is always between 0 and 60).

Hope it helps !

HateCaptiveMarket

Greetings,
I have urgent need to solve this same problem with this product!!
do you have any further information on the exact devices/tools/applications required to make this happen??
I have a pro Li-Ion cell charger, so I can recharge the cell within, the RF aspects are the final roadblock to us getting these units active again.

Any help would be appreciated!!

-Kevin D.