Community: Message List - JTV battery life

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:31:38 GMT

The battery in my JTV-59 will run for 4 straight shows on a full charge. In between sets I unplug the guitar so that battery doesn't drain. At the end of 4 shows I am down to 2 lights. In addition I use the modeling portion of the guitar for alternate tunings and different guitar tones. I would say that equates to 1/3 of the total use. Hope this helps.

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:44:44 GMT

Thanks for the responses guys. I now have my battery in my case. Wow, the guitar's so much lighter now .

I guess Line 6 won't read this thread now, but if they do - is this battery-draining something that can be fixed with an update?

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:37:27 GMT

I also use my JTV-59 & now 69S with DVI to my HD500, and prior to that, my X3L and XTL. I found it redundant to have the battery in there when I was powering it from the pedal, so I always have the battery out. I do keep it in my guitar case as a backup. I did need it once, as my VDI cable end apparently got bent or something -- don't remember stepping on it or anything, but one night at a gig about a year ago, one end just no longer fit in either the JTV or the POD X3L at the time, so I pulled out the battery and plugged into the X3L guitar in 1/4" jack for the night. It had been in my case for literally months, but still had a respectable charge on it to get me through. I quickly ordered anothe VDI cable, as I really missed the model switching with the patches -- even with the X3L.

When I got the nw 69S last week, I checked the battery that came with it and it was only showing one LED on the 69S, so I pulled out the charger and left it charging over night. It lit up all LED's the next day. Out of curiosity, I then pulled the battery out of my 59's guitar case and put it in the 69S to check the charge, and it lit up all LED's on the guitar. Again, it's been months since I last charged that battery. Li-Ion batterys hold thier charges for very long times, as opposed to Ni-Cad's, and they also do not have the "memory" issues of Ni-Cad's from too-frequent charging, and charging before their drained. With Ni-Cad's it's best to operate the battery until drained, with Li-Ion and gel-cells, if they go completely dead, they are usually done and you can't re-charge them. I know this for a fact on gel-cells, and am pretty sure it's that way on the Li-Ion's as well.

My advice if you run on the HD500, HDPro, X3L, or XTL power, pull the battery, charge it and store it in your guitar case for contingencies or use with a regular amp & 1/4" cable -- keep one of those handy as well, just in case. I'm glad I did that night....

Dave

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:41:09 GMT

Confirmed; I definitely see the battery drain, and I only use it with the VDI-to-HD500 connection.

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:27:32 GMT

I thought I'd add to this thread rather than starting a new one.

97% (give or take) of the time I use my JTV-59 via VDI to my POD HD500 and I notice that my battery still drains (based on the green lights when you push the button on the back).

It seems that it should not use the battery when connected to power through VDI. I doubt that the rate of discharge I see is the same as I would get with the battery in storage, so I've removed the battery for now.

Can anyone else confirm they see the same thing? Is this a 'bug' that could be fixed with an update?

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:41:40 GMT

When I get a minute I will try and double check this behaviour with my JTVs, but I can't say when that will be.

Nick

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:18:33 GMT

OK Nick. Will do.

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:51:12 GMT

Hmmm

I would not have expected the internal battery to drain when using the XPS Mini (black plastic box) or the XPS A/B box, but I'm guessing now that the internal battery is activated by a switch in the 'sleeve' part of the output jack socket on the guitar where the sleeve of the jack plug completes the circuit between two points. I have XPS Mini and XPS A/B boxes here but although I have tested the XPS A/B box with the JTV, that's all I've done. I would normally run through VDI to the HD500 or POD HD Pro or just from the internal battery.

On that basis, I would have to say that what you are experiencing is probably normal behaviour in that case.

I would suggest that as David says, you run the guitar without the internal battery connected as was I recall the recommendation for the old style Variaxes too as ISTR similar issues with those.

Nick

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:22:44 GMT

Same here.

Re: JTV battery life

support@line6.com — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:16:39 GMT

I must admit, I haven't tried it but if your JTV works without the battery, then I would not expect the battery to run down when it can use a different power source. Sounds odd to me.