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Phonak Charger Case Go Problems (Audéo Life)

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Edited

I just thought I’d start a topic for those experiencing problems with the Phonak Charger Case Go which is an induction charger with an internal battery and is used to charge Phonak Audéo Life hearing aids, both Paradise and Lumity models.

Both myself and @xyzzy have needed to reset our chargers as they stopped working for us.
They are reset by using a pin to push a hidden button in the base, see photo below, until the LEDs blink.

This has happened to me three times and twice recently overnight which meant I woke up to a dead charger and flat batteries in my hearing aids in the morning.
I think that we can all agree that is not a great situation to be in with rechargeable aids.

It would be good to collect together experiences from people who are having these or other problems with these chargers so that we can collectively work out the cause or trigger so as avoid the issue happening in the first place.

Charger Case Go Support83

PXL_20230126_102218223

UPDATE 13th March 2023:
There is a mechanism for updating the firmware of the charger (see post below) and for me there was an update available. I’ve applied the update which went very smoothly using a Win 10 PC and the original USB-C cable. I’ll report back if it makes a difference.
Link below:

https://www.phonak.com/en-int/professionals/campaign/firmware-upgrader-for-charger-case-go324

9 people in this conversation7 min readJump to latest

I have had similar problems to @BeLo. The support page says to use the cable and power supply that came with the charger case, but there was no adapter with mine. I’m still having problems with only one hearing aid turning on when I take it out of the charger, but I haven’t recently had to do a reset to get charging to work.

The supplied cable has a ferrite bead that I assume filters out switching noise from USB power supplies. Using it would be the first thing to try if anyone has problems, though I would have thought Phonak would be able to build a more robust charger.

I’ve got the original wall charger and cable and unfortunately it makes no difference.

Also I didn’t mention it but I have the same issue with one aid not turning on when I take it out of the charger: I’d say that they both turn on automatically only about 10% of the time.
It was exactly the same with Paradise Life as well and one aid normally needed to be turned on manually too.

I have had no problems for a few weeks now, until yesterday when one hearing aid didn’t turn on, and next time I used it the charger case seemed to be completely dead.

I reset it (which can be quite difficult – I find that I have to get just the right angle in the reset hole) and it’s back to normal.

What seems to happen in my case is that if I unplug the charger from its power, then next time I plug it in it might be flaky.

Given the lack of other folk posting to this thread, @Belo’s and my problem may be unusual. Maybe I’ll have to live with it.

Edited

Just happened to me too. Same deal, surprise you’re are dead. Only reason I noticed is because they paired to my phone when the HAs turned on due to the dead charger.
Did reset, you do have to go at an angle in the hole to find the button, towards the outside of the case in my case. Just did it so remains to be seen if the reset sticks.

In reply to @xyzzy

@xyzzy said:

@Belo’s and my problem may be unusual.

It’s now happened for me with a brand new charger.
I’ve had this now with two pairs of Audéo Life, Paradise 90 and Lumity 90, and with two different chargers.
I’m using the original Phonak USB-C power supplies and cables with ferrite beads.

Unless we are incredibly unlucky I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a more widespread problem.

For me it’s happened when charging to full, when allowed to fully discharge and just randomly with 50% charge and unplugged.
I’ve tried but I can’t successfully replicate the issue manually, it just happens.

If I had to take a guess I’d say it was the microcontroller crashing in the charger but I think that’s a straightforward observation.

Now I just make sure that I see the lights come on when the hearing aids are set to charge at night; I keep a SIM tool inside the charger and reset it if needed.

It’s far from ideal but I haven’t woken up to aids on 0% since I started doublechecking the charging status and resetting as necessary before going to bed.

I wonder if they are firmware upgradable via USB-C?

I’ve updated the firmware in the case, per the link provided by @user390. No dramas (though it burbled several times) and no issues so far. If any problems occur again, I’ll post here.

I have L90s since February and no issues so far with charger.
I was going to do the firmware update but it just clocks and says searching. I used the cable provided with the aids which has one regular old usb end and one usb-c end that goes into the charger. It is powering as green light goes on. Also it connected and recognized my tv streamer just fine.
Last I tried reset but cant hit the button using a small paper clip.
I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…

In reply to @BeLo

I, too, experienced that. One of your hearing aids is set to be the “primary” aid. For me it is the right hearing aid. If I remove the right hearing aid from the charger first, it will allow the left hearing aid to turn on. Otherwise, I have to turn the left aid on manually.

This has worked every time so far.

I have had my Lumity Life since December 2022. I have had the same problem with my Charger Case Go from the get-go! I would charge the case when the battery was low, open the lid, and find the charge lights completely dark and the case dead. I started resetting it, which worked for awhile, but now I have to reset it multiple times to get it to work.

I just found this thread this morning and have updated my charger case using the link to the software.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I have the same results as the others that have used it. I was about ready to tear my hair out yesterday when I charged my case and it was dead again.

Thank you so much for this post!

As far as I know this firmware is for the Lumity Life and only for the charge&go. Not the Lumity Life standard charger that always needs to be plugged in.
Regarding regular Lumity they charge differently. Regular Lumity has pins in charger while Life is magnetic with no pins.
The reguular life charger may have the small reset on bottom but regular and life charge differently.

I was on Phonak support while I was getting tweaked and that is why my Life Standard charger would not firmware upgrade. Life charge& go only. Hope that makes sense.

I updated the firmware on the charger and also the firmware in my L90RL aids a couple of months ago. I still get the problem that if I plug or unplug the charger while the aids are in it, randomly, one or other of the aids won’t switch on when I take it out of the charger. I think that has sometimes happened even without plugging or unplugging.

More seriously, yesterday they started to charge then must have stopped doing to overnight. I didn’t do anything connection-related that I remember.

So at least for me, the firmware updates didn’t solve the whole problem. But at least I haven’t had to reset the charger yet.

It has never fixed the automatic turn on for me. About 10% of the time they both turn on. The Bluetooth primary hearing aid always turns on automatically but the other one doesn’t.

I have a feeling that it has to do with the order that I take them out of the charger. Although a little annoying first thing in the morning it doesn’t bother me enough to investigate further.

Apart from my aids not turning on automatically my charger has worked flawlessly since the update and has worked reliably as expected.

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