Seiko SGDA epd trouble

[Delmarva]

My Seiko SDGA001 keeps going into power save mode even when it's under direct sunlight also my battery status always show full charge. I believe it still has the original rechargeable capacity cell so technically it's 10-11 yrs old.

Has anyone who replaced their cell capacitor notice any improvements in the power save mode? Per the manual the watch should only go into Power Save mode when no light is present else the time should always be displayed. My EPD behaves like an LED watch were I have to keep pushing a button to get it out of Power Save mode just view the time. Not what I expected but I"m hoping a new capacitor cell may resolve this issue.

A full charge on an 11 year old cell may represent little actual reserve. Especially if the watch went unused and went into a deep discharge. So the watch may put itself into power save to protect what little electrical reserve is available. The worst that can happen from changing the cell is nothing improves. I suspect your watch will perform as new.

[coconutman351]

Update. I changed the capacitor cell with a new one and it unfortunately did not change the behavior of the Power Save mode. It continues to go into this mode even when there is direct sunlight. I tried to reset the watch by pressing the front two left buttons along with the left side button and even after that reset it still exhibits the same behavior. If any one has other ideas would be nice to hear them. At this point I'm not sure if this is just the behavior of the watch or if it's a bigger issue such as the charging circuit. Everything works well, including the radio reception and other functions.

[Riba]

Unfortunately I can only confirm that mine is behaving the same way. I suspect the solar charging is not providing enough current. Supposedly there was an upgraded solar charging element, but of course as many thing with this watch it is unobtainable.

[coconutman351]

When you first received it did it stay on consistently and only go into power save mode when low or no light was available? I acquired mine used I never experienced how the charging and power management worked out of the box.

[Kasper]

i missed this last posts ...but the same problem here

[coconutman351]

Happy new year Kasper... ! Yeah it is disappointing that every hour regardless of the amount of light it goes into power save mode. It still looks very cool though. Must be a design issue where the power consumption and cell type was at the fringes of its capability to hold the display time w/o going into power save mode.

[Caruso]

so i also opened mine up..batt is dead so i ordened a new rechargable and keep my fingers crossed it will solve the problem:
CTL1616F CTL1616 Rechargeable Watch Battery For Casio Etc



i will keep you updated

Mine just died after 14 years - not too bad. Thanks for the pics and info I've ordered a new CTL1616 Rechargeable.

[Caruso]

Well my battery finally arrived today - a Panasonic CTL1616. It's not the CTL1616F which was in the watch and has some extra hardware on it. I was able to carefully remove the hardware from the old one and place it on the new one and it went back together ok and works. The snap on caseback was the hardest part to get off and put back on without cracking the glass.