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New charger for Oticon More

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In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

That is not what I was told by my.Audiologist and the clinic hearing aid technician. The technician has been trained to take care of most hearing aid issues

Thanks, Chuck, I understand my audi is no longer with the Long Beach clinic, so when I go for my follow-up on the 29th, I’ll inquire again.

When I received my Oticon More aids I just used the old Oticon disc charger to charge them as demonstrated in the video.

So I can see no problem in using the new SmartCharger to charge my old Oticon OPN S R aids.

The batteries are different…but both are Li Ion of the same 3.7(?) voltage.

Anybody want to chime in on backwards compatibility for the OPN S R aids with the new SmartCharger?

@member45 said:

Anybody want to chime in on backwards compatibility for the OPN S R aids with the new SmartCharger?

If you check Oticon’s info sheet, the only aids compatible w/ the new SmartCharger are the More’s at Firmware 1.1.1

Per @Luga’s post in this thread

The Release Text for FW 1.1.1 says:

New “MyMusic” Program
Support for SmartCharger for Oticon More miniRITE R
Support for CROS and CROS PX
General Updates and improvements

Sounds like the new charger needs the firmware upgrade.

Edited

Hi @flashb1024, thanks for your reply.

It would seem like the hearing aid software might actually control the charging voltage/current rate of the charger itself?

Inevitably someone will put an OPN S R into the SmartCharger. Physically, the charger and the aid are a match. I wonder what the Oticon safeguard to prevent damage to the aid or battery resulting from such an event is?

Back in the days of OPNs, I was one of the first test-dummys to inadvertently put my Oticon OPNs in the disc charger back to front which rendered the batteries inoperative (reversed polarity charging current). That was an expensive exercise in having to get new batteries.

Oticon’s fix for back to front charging error was to stick a label diagram showing correct hearing aid orientation on the charger.

The problem with engineering something to be foolproof is that nature is always going to produce a better fool…

Edited
@SpudGunner said:

Could you please clarify what characteristics are different?

By size I meant that the width and height appear to be the same.

But I meant to say that some of the physical characteristics are different, such as you can see on the top smaller concentric circle of negative (-) surface of the OPN S Battery.

And (not shown) the More Battery also has a very large cross (almost like a pillow) on the positive (+) side.

There is a video of how to change the More Battery on the Oticon Genie Fitting Software battery page that shows a bit more detail. See the location page on @Volusiano post here: Oticon # 222 Li-Ion Battery for OPN S - #28 by Volusiano

I would hazard a guess that with the More Battery, Oticon has opted for a cheaper and/or better battery from Power One as opposed to the Varta Z22 Battery of the OPN S.

@member45 said:

I would hazard a guess that with the More Battery, Oticon has opted for a cheaper and/or better battery from Power One as opposed to the Varta Z22 Battery of the OPN S.

You could be right here, but when Oticon used the ZPower charger using Power one batteries it had a terrible reputation, probably put a lot of people off rechargeable technology for life!

Edited

Just to clarify, when Oticon OEM’ed the ZPower system for the OPN line, this ZPower system didn’t use a rechargeable Power One battery. The ZPower system uses their own ZPower-brand Silver Zinc rechargeable battery.

The ZPower system was not Lithium-ion based, it was rechargeable Silver Zinc based, and it can also support the non-rechargeable/disposable Zinc Air usage in place of the ZPower Silver Ainc, although naturally you can’t and are not supposed to charge the Zinc Air in the ZPower charger.

And Tenkan is right, the ZPower system was horrible at being able to hold charge anymore after a few months of service, despite the advertised 1 year service life span. Oticon abandoned the ZPower system and switched to their own Lithium-ion system in the OPN S line going forward to the Morenow. ZPower has since gone bankrupt.

I have no idea when, @SpudGunner. I just responded with what I read in this thread, and it appears it will be released as a separately order able item for US $250.

Edited

In reply to @SpudGunner

I will have to.see if my audiologist has any luck in getting a smart charger for me.
I know that part of the VA contract is that spare parts and backup parts have to be available

In reply to @jay_man2

I’m saying that I won’t be eligible to order anything that must be purchased at the same time as aids until 2025. I’m obviously not going to wait that long for a charger for my current aids.

Seems strange to me that the sale of a charger would be constrained that way.

And I’m saying that I read in this thread that currently the new charger is not separately orderable, but can be ordered with new aids instead of the standard charger. It is expected to be released as a separately orderable item for a price of US $250, again from what I saw earlier in this thread. I have no idea when it might be released, or in what countries.

I have no other comment other than to say I’ve seen this type of business practice in the past as companies ramp up production or gauge interest in a product’s accessories.

I have no dog in this hunt.

@jay_man2 said:

I have no other comment other than to say I’ve seen this type of business practice in the past as companies ramp up production or gauge interest in a product’s accessories.

I have no dog in this hunt.

@jay_man2:

  1. I’m not saying that you have a dog in the hunt;
  2. I’ve never encountered this kind of purchase restriction on an accessory before, unlike yourself, hence my questions;
  3. My question doesn’t include possible release date.

I’m simply soliciting an informed opinion as to whether my recent purchase of More1s would qualify me for the smart charger. I suppose the logical source of this information is my local audiologist.

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