Race awful charger contacts

[GiPFELKiND]

@Brad_Olwin my old Suunto 9 Baro works until today fine No damage from internal components

[Mff73]

@GiPFELKiND
between S9P and S9PP, Suunto changes some internal components (surely for more accuracy, dual band, or…) and updated the charger magnets to less strong ones.
Your S9 even older than S9P, you can’t compare.

[Dušan Ković]

It is not so much problem with magnet strength (it would be nice if magnets are stronger), but the shape of the charging contacts. Keep magnets as they are, but give us more contact surface.

Left S9P, Right SR

It is super finicky to align charger on the SR properly.

[pilleus]

@Dušan-Ković

My chargers are the same for S9PP and SV.

[Egika]

the one with the circular contacts was from S9P afaik.

Anyway: I got myself a charger from Ebay (cheapo) for S9P. It had super strong magnets that resulted in charging not starting. So I pried it open and removed one of the two magnets inside. Now it it still holding well (can hang my watch on the charger) and charging

[peegee]

@Elipsus
FINICKY is the word!

[Mff73]

@Egika
Customizable magnets strength, you got the idea

[maszop]

If magnetic chargers didn’t work well, why the hell does Suunto still use them?
For comparison, here’s Suunto’s older solution that just worked:
https://www.suunto.com/Products/Other-accessories/USB-Power-Cable/

[MiniForklift]

@GiPFELKiND said in Race awful charger contacts:

@Brad_Olwin my old Suunto 9 Baro works until today fine No damage from internal components

Same! Think I had my S9B for 4 years or might have been even longer, never had any issues with it and the magnets for charging on that watch was the best

[sartoric]

@Mff73 said in Race awful charger contacts:

@GiPFELKiND
between S9P and S9PP, Suunto changes some internal components (surely for more accuracy, dual band, or…) and updated the charger magnets to less strong ones.
Your S9 even older than S9P, you can’t compare.

@MiniForklift read what @Mff73 said … older hardware was different

[MiniForklift]

Yep I realise that we’re talking about different hardware. I was just commenting on what a great charger the S9B had

[Stefano M64]

the real problem for me with the new charger base isn’t the magnet, but the lack of a “guide” that keeps the charger base correctly aligned with the pins on the back of the watches: it’s enough a small rotation to loose the contact

[Mff73]

@Stefano-M64
in fact (my understanding of the design) is that the magnets are playing the role of alignment jig.
not strong enough and alignment is lost.
too strong and suunto programmed a non charging alert to safe the sensible components.

in addition to magnet, there could be (in the future) a solid aligment point(s), but …

[edit] might be some quality issue where magnets are not super well placed according to pins positions (watch vs charger) ?

[edit2] my bad, magnets are the contact pin to charge, thus no misalignement. just too weak ? or poor/dirty contact ? )

[maszop]

@Mff73 It’s just a very bad design.
The problem is that Suunto hasn’t done anything about it for years (since the release of 9PP, or even 9P) and traditionally pretends that the problem doesn’t exist.
Shame.

[Mff73]

@maszop I don’t think someone say that the problem doesn’t exist. It is not perfect, magnet are weaker than we would like and sometime something doesn’t work, but, globally (my personnal experience) I manage to charge my watch.
Suunto has surely decided on purpose which magnet strength to choose vs risk for inside components.
But for sure, not under stressed conditions, in a tent or else).
Maybe also Variability in magnet manufacturing.

[maszop]

@Mff73 It always seemed to me (apparently wrongly) that Suunto watches (apart from Suunto 7) are sports watches, for outdoor, mountain, etc., and not ordinary smartwatches.
Therefore, a reliable and secure way of charging, also in the field, is absolutely necessary. The current solution is the opposite of this assumption. And as you can see here on the forum, Reddit, Facebook, etc., it causes problems for many people.
The problem seems very easy to solve, and here for years there have been the same discussions, from which nothing results.

[Mff73]

@maszop hey mate, i am with you, but i will stop debating, it is giving me downvotes
i raised this point long time ago (with lots of others) when S9PP released with weaker magnet.

my own litterature about this topic
https://forum.suunto.com/post/135781
https://forum.suunto.com/post/132247
https://forum.suunto.com/post/112961

[Dušan Ković]

@pilleus They probably changed charger for S9PP… I had it but I don’t remember what charger looked like

[Mff73]

@Dušan-Ković
https://forum.suunto.com/post/160193

[Dušan Ković]

@Mff73 Yup, that’s for S9P, but @pilleus mentioned S9PP charger. I had most suunto watches (S3, S9B, S9P, S9PP, SR - missing SV and SO) so I don’t remember how charger for S9PP looked. My wife still uses my old S9P so I have both chargers (S9P and SR).