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Overheating a GW-5000 = black screen

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#21 ·
That's pretty cool to hear about the LED bulbs. I've definitely had this same exact experience with my first gw5000. Left it outside in direct sun in the middle of summer for about an hour and it went black. Im wondering if that's why the screen is darker on my new one when compared with the one that sat in sun too long. None of my other watches ever did the blackout
 
#22 ·
Cbrbamby09 said:
I've definitely had this same exact experience with my first gw5000. Left it outside in direct sun in the middle of summer for about an hour and it went black. Im wondering if that's why the screen is darker on my new one when compared with the one that sat in sun too long. None of my other watches ever did the blackout
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The manuals for almost all of Casio's solar models specifically mentions this situation -- it's on page 4 of the GW5000 manual: http://support.casio.com/storage/en/manual/pdf/EN/009/qw3159.pdf

"Certain charging conditions can cause the watch to become very hot. Avoid leaving the watch in the areas described below whenever charging its rechargeable battery. Also note that allowing the watch to become very hot can cause its liquid crystal display to black out. The appearance of the LCD should become normal again when the watch returns to a lower temperature."

Casio is obviously aware that this can happen, but they don't seem to be overly concerned about it because their watches are designed to be charged by the sun. I've charged plenty of solar watches in direct sunlight in temperatures below 80F without the display "blacking out."

tl;dr: Casio watches are designed to be charged in direct sunlight without any problems. If someone wants to charge their watch in direct sunlight on a VERY HOT day, they should probably take steps to prevent it from overheating, like putting the watch in a container of water, then putting the container in the sunshine.

Electric lights, on the other hand, can become too hot and damage solar watches, as in this case (and others): https://www.watchuseek.com/f17/omg-...ust-fried-my-gxw-56-kings-display-went-negative-now-become-positive-584823.html For that reason, Casio doesn't recommend using anything other than "indoor florescent" lights in their manuals! (Obviously, SOME electric bulbs operate at cooler temperatures than others, but if a person has any question about "will this bulb/light hurt my watch?" they should use the sun to charge their watch instead.)
 
#23 ·
Last summer when it was in the 90's and sunny here, I decided to put my solars out on the deck to charge in the morning. About 2 in the afternoon one of the them had the same issue, thought it fried. Held it under the air conditioning vent for about a minute and then it went back to normal, no worse for wear. Working fine ever since. They are made to take temp extremes but it looks weird especially since you don't want to damage the watch. I will not do it again and make sure set them out early or later in the day do not in direct sunlight. Not worth torching a watch just to charge it.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
 
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#25 ·
Well, that scared me as well today but am glad I am reading there are no long term negative effects! I dipped my G-5600E in boiled water and kept it flat pressed for a minute so I can soften the strap a bit (too uncomfortable when new on my wrist). While I was holding it down I noticed the screen go darker! In a couple of seconds it went tottaly black and I was like "Damn, I just destroyed my beautiful watch, stupid me!!!" I immediately put it under cold water to lower the temps inside and voilĂ , the screen started getting back to normal. In 5 secs it was as before again! What a relief! Strap was softer fortunately and now it wears comfortably enough!
 
#28 ·
Hello guys! I have problem with my GWG 1000 mudmaster
I done stupid thing. Yesterday I try to charge my GWG 1000 on halogen lamp for 10 minutes, and after that 10 minutes my watch was hot as hell, back cover was so hot that I almost burned my finger. The led display was all black without any letter or number and I put watch outside to cool down. After he cools down, I got again letters and numbers on display but display wasn't black with white marks, it is something near grey with white letters and numbers, and it is hard to see now. I was thinking that polarized film was burned because it was overheated. I just don't understand why battery didn't explode because it was overheated or maybe it's problem with lcd.
 
#30 ·
natural farmer said:
Well, that scared me as well today but am glad I am reading there are no long term negative effects! I dipped my G-5600E in boiled water and kept it flat pressed for a minute so I can soften the strap a bit (too uncomfortable when new on my wrist). While I was holding it down I noticed the screen go darker! In a couple of seconds it went tottaly black and I was like "Damn, I just destroyed my beautiful watch, stupid me!!!" I immediately put it under cold water to lower the temps inside and voilĂ , the screen started getting back to normal. In 5 secs it was as before again! What a relief! Strap was softer fortunately and now it wears comfortably enough!
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why didnt you just remove the strap before you boiled it?
 
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#33 ·
mgeoffriau said:
This thread is 5 years old, folks.
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Oh no's!
Zombie Thread!!!

But, if you start a new topic then it's all "use the search function before starting a new post!!"

The information is still relevant.

There's always one...
 
#34 ·
Just put the watch on a bright windowsill that is out of the sun for a few hours, and only required if the watch is saying it is low on charge, that will provide more than enough to put charge into the battery . They don't need direct sunshine and they don't need sitting under any sort of lamp, they are designed to work and charge by any ambient light source. Just look at the surface area that is the solar cell part of the watch (if you can even identify which bit it is), it covers a fractional area of the watch because it doesn't take much power to work an LCD watch and keep a tiny battery topped up. When you put the watch in the sunshine or under a lamp, then 99.9% of the energy is passing straight through the LCD display to just bake the watch inside and heat up the watch resin case and strap, the solar panel is catching just a tiny fraction of that energy, and bright light will see too much voltage from the solar cell that the watch will just burn that off as heat in its internal charging circuit to reduce the voltage to the cell.

If the watch has become that hot then likely the damage is permanent, if not it will have damaged the battery so it will likely not hold as much of a reserve of power as it would do otherwise.
 
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