DirDirect :: Computers, Timers, Compasses & SPGs :: Assessories & Batteries

The Liquivision Xen and Xeo use ER14335M lithium 3.6V batteries. Only ER14335M batteries are authorized for use with your Xen or Xeo. ER14335 batteries (no M) are NOT compatible. Only the batteries contained in Liquivision battery packs can be guaranteed to perform to Liquivision standards.

1 ER14335M battery
1 spare O-ring

O-rings

You should inspect your battery cap O-ring with every battery change. Check for cracking, damage or dirt. If you choose to replace your O-ring, always make sure to clean the battery cap properly to remove any residue that may prevent a good seal and to lubricate the new O-ring with silicone O-ring lubricant.

We also require that you read the battery change procedure in the Xen Manual or view the Battery Change Video before changing your battery, as battery compartment flooding and possible resulting Xen or Xeo unit damage is not covered by the Warranty. If you have any hesitations about changing the battery yourself, you can ask your Dealer to do so for you.

Important Notices on Battery Life

The ER14335M Xen/Xeo batteries can provide up to 46 hours of dive time with your unit (low brightness, green font, battery used within a month of initial use), although 20-30 hours is more typical if you use the standard Liquivision color scheme on medium brightness and all the dives are done within a month of first using the battery.

Battery life is shown by the battery indicator on your Xen or Xeo.

A Green indicator means that you have enough battery power to complete a normal 2 hour dive. The safest way to perform a long dive (5+ hours) is to insert a fresh battery prior to the start of your dive.
A Yellow indicator means a battery change is strongly recommended.
A Red indicator means that you must immediately change your battery.

You should always check the battery life remaining on the surface, prior to beginning your dive, by briefly entering simulator mode with your unit. Your Xen or Xeo uses more power in dive mode than in surface mode. It may show a green indicator in surface mode, but a yellow one in dive mode and you can check this by starting a dive simulation.

The discharge curve of lithium-thionyl-chloride batteries is very flat, with a very sudden drop-off, as shown in the graph below.

This means three things:

It is hard to estimate level of charge: The battery shows a steady 3.6V for most of its life - there is no slow battery voltage decrease that can inform your Xen or Xeo about the amount of power that has been used and the amount of power left.
It is hard to estimate the amount of time left. Even if your Xen or Xeo knew exactly how much battery power is left, it is still hard for your unit to judge how much dive time is left. Dive time will be greatly affected by user settings such as screen brightness and colors.
Once the battery voltage starts to drop, it drops fast. Your Xen or Xeo will stop functionning entirely once the voltage drops below 2.90V. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the Yellow battery indication - it means there is really very little time left.

Basic Rules For Optimizing Battery Life

You can extend/optimize your battery life in several ways

Always choose the lowest screen brightness setting you need for your dive. The Xen and Xeo have an "Auto-Dim" feature, where the unit uses your chosen brightness setting on the surface, and slowly reduces brightness to "Low" as you descend to a selected depth.
Keep battery life in mind when setting screen colors. The OLED screen is an RGB screen, which means it has red, green and blue pixels. To display the color green, for example, it only needs to light up one pixel - the green one. To display any other colors, the screen must light up a combination of pixels. To display white, it must light up three pixels, full-force. Therefore, the most economical display colors would be red, green and blue. The least economical display color is white. The standard Liquivision display color scheme is designed to balance readability with economical battery use.

Detailed Rules For Optimizing Battery Life

The settings you choose on your Xen have a drastic effect on battery life. Battery life will change by a factor of six or more based on settings. That means you could use up six times more batteries than your buddy, despite diving exactly the same dives, if your settings are different than his. To get the most out of a battery it is critical that you understand how your settings affect battery life.

1. Brightness

Brightness has the biggest effect on battery life. As a general rule, HIGH brightness gives you HALF the battery life compared to MEDIUM brightness. Similarly, MEDIUM gives you HALF the battery life of LOW. This means that LOW brightness gives you FOUR TIMES more battery life than HIGH brightness. One way to optimize screen brightness is to use our AutoDim feature, that allows high brightess on the surface and progressively dims the display as you get deeper and the water gets darker. For more information, please see our (Xen User Manual)

2. Colors

Colors have a dramatic impact as well. Primary colors (pure green, pure red, dark blue) consume the least battery power. Compound colors such as yellow, orange, and gray burn more battery power. Compound colors that require all three colors, such as light blue and light gray, burn the most battery power. You should use compound colors with caution.

3. Refresh rate

The refresh rate changes how fast information is updated on the screen. It has two settings, "Normal " and "Fast. " If you can use Normal and you don’t notice anything, that is the best choice. If you use Normal and you find that you can see the screen flickering, then use Fast. Also, if you plan on taking any pictures or video of the Xen, select Fast.

The Fast refresh rate burns about 20% more battery power than Normal. So battery life on "Fast " is reduced by about 20%.

4. Display mode

The display mode (standard, alternate, simple) has a small effect on battery life. Simple burns the least power. Alternate burns 10-15% more than simple. Standard burns 10% more than alternate.

5. Water Temperature

Diving in cold water (water temperature below 12°C / 54°F) shortens the life of your battery. We strongly recommend using conservative colors and brightness settings when diving in cold water to maximize your battery life.

Estimated Battery Life Based on Settings

The following tables show the approximate number of dive hours achieved with different settings, assuming the diving is done within one month of changing the battery, in warm water:

Table 1 - XEN: Default Colors, Standard Display Layout

	High Brightness	Medium Brightness	Low Brightness
Stopwatch ON, Slow refresh	11.7h	22.6h	38.0h
Stopwatch ON, Fast refresh	10.3h	20.4h	30.1h
Stopwatch OFF, Slow refresh	13.2h	26.1h	42.8h
Stopwatch OFF, Fast refresh	11.5h	21.4h	35.1h

Table 2 - XEN: Custom Colors, Standard Display Layout

	High Brightness	Medium Brightness	Low Brightness
All green, stopwatch ON, slow refresh	14.0h	25.4h	44.1h
All green, stopwatch OFF, slow refresh	14.5h	26.3h	46.6h
All light blue, stopwatch OFF, fast refresh	7.1h	13.8h	26.4h
All light blue, stopwatch ON, fast refresh	6.5h	13.4h	24.4h

Table 3 - XEO: Default Colors

	High Brightness	Medium Brightness	Low Brightness
Slow refresh	11.7h	23.2h	38.1h
Fast refresh	10.3h	19.0h	31.2h

Table 4 - XEO: Custom Colors

	High Brightness	Medium Brightness	Low Brightness
All green, slow refresh	12.9h	23.4h	41.4h
All light blue, fast refresh	6.3h	12.2h	23.5h

As you can see, the dive hours on a battery vary from about 6 hours to 46 hours for the Xen, and 41 hours for the Xeo, based on the settings. The longest battery life is obtained by using the simple layout, all green colors, slow refresh rate, with the stop watch off.

The standby battery life of the Xen/Xeo is about 5 months. If you are not going to use the Xen/Xeo for 1 month or more, you should remove the battery during storage.