How to tell if Sony XG 500 boombox party speaker is charging? This waterproof speaker has an orange LED light just below and to the left of the Power button, as we see in the next pic. This light, labeled as the CHARGE lamp, flashes orange when the battery is about dead. So it does tell battery level (to a degree). When the speaker is not on the charge and this lamp pulses ON and OFF in slow flashes it’s telling you to CHARGE the speaker. This means that the speaker will soon shut down. But also, to see if the XG 500 is in fact charging, check out this LED for this as well. We explain how to interpret it next.
How to Tell If Sony XG 500 is Charging: Summary
You have, or notice the following…
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- Connected and working power cable.
- The CHARGE lamp glows steadily.
- The speaker and charger typically heat slightly.
- Battery percentage increases gradually.
- The CHARGE light eventually goes out.
- The XG 500 reports that battery is fully charged after charging. This is also evidence that charging was indeed happening.
How to Tell if Sony XG 500 is Charging: Details
Connect the Unit to AC Adapter
Of course, you can rest assured that the speaker is NOT charging with no power cord feeding the speaker.
Check that the CHARGE LED is Glowing Steady Orange
You can tell if the Sony XG 500 is charging if this light glows a solid orange. This steady glow happens only while charging. But when no charger is powering the unit, this light blinks when the battery has about run all the way out of power.
If the XG 500 CHARGE lamp flashes when the power cord is connected, then the speaker is likely NOT charging. So you should check that your charger adapter, and power source are both working. Try a new power supply or a known good AC cable. You want this light glowing without blinking to know for sure that the XG 500 is charging.
Check XG 500 Speaker Temperature
The button panel on the XG 500, or the area in and around the rear port compartment may warm a little as well as charging. Plus, most adapters for car and home with will also heat up somewhat. This warmth is a good sign that speaker charging is happening, so long as there’s neither too much heating, nor none at all.
As speaker recharging advances, the CHARGE LED keeps glowing. But unlike some other popular wireless speakers, the XG 500 gives no visual reading of just how far along the charging is, just that it is still in progress.
Ask the XG 500 to Tell you Battery Full Percentage While it Charges
But you can hear how charging is progressing by briefly pressing the Battery-Battery Care button, found inside the ports panel on speaker back. Pressing this gets the 500 to speak the current percentage of charge in the battery, in a female voice. But the speaker must be running for this to work.
When the CHARGE LED Darkens, Charging is Complete
The battery charge cycle is finished when the CHARGE LED goes dark.
Even with the charger cord still powering the unit, the CHARGE lamp stops glowing when the battery hits the full mark. We see this in the last picture above. The speaker indeed no longer recharges when the light goes out.
Finally, Unplug the Sony XG 500 and Boot It
With the power cable disconnected, we cannot know just by reading the CHARGE or Status LEDs, just how much the XG 500 actually recharged, only that it did charge some. It typically does charge to full though, as long as we wait until the CHARGE lamp goes out before unplugging the adapter. Note that if this lamp does not flash when you next start the speaker, then the battery likely did charge.
Again though, we can press the Battery-Battery Care button when the speaker is running, and if charging completed properly, it will say, “Fully charged,” to us in the lady’s voice.
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References
Revision History
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- 2023-04-11: First published.