Lithium cells have the advantage of a very long shelf life. This is due to the cell’s ability to form a barrier to stop self discharging and is called passivation (a bit like a skin on rice pudding.)
When the battery is inserted into the Depassivation Unit the following sequence of LED flashes will occur:
LED flash sequence for a good battery (note that the time between the second and third flash, along with the sixth and seventh, are longer.)
For a battery that is passivated, the first flash is the test start up and the next two are the depassivation test. If this does not clear the passivation, the test will be repeated up to three times. If it is followed by the small flash and the closing sequence of three flashes the cell has passed the test. If the cell has failed, it will flash continuously (very quickly).
A battery beyond recovery
When inserted the tester will run the start up test (single flash) and as the battery is flat will not be able to continue with the depassivation routine. It will keep on trying the start up routine which will result in a continuous sequence of single flashes about 1 per second until the battery is removed.
