Apollo Family - Batteries & Shelf Life
- Apollo devices have two batteries, necessary to operate mandatory PCI PTS Tamper Protection features
- One short-term small rechargeable battery
- One larger long-term non-rechargeable
- Together, these have an expected shelf-life of twenty-four months. Devices are fully charged by Payter at the point of despatch
- During any period of storage, a short (20-40min) charge every 2 to 3 months will maintain battery life almost indefinitely
- If fully depleted, Apollo devices fall into a Tamper Protection mode (Security Violation) and must be returned to Payter for repair.
At no time can either battery be replaced by end-users. Payter Apollo devices include no user-serviceable parts. Any attempt to open them will trigger the tamper protection mechanisms rendering the device inoperable regardless of battery state and void the warranty. Production/Live devices experiencing a Security Violation event for any reason must be returned to Payter for repair.
All models in the Apollo range of payment devices include two batteries for offline power supply. This battery power is essential to support the PCI PTS Tamper Protection systems and associated secure cryptographic keys and certificates.
All PCI PTS payment devices are mandated to include tamper protection and detection mechanisms. Should any attempt to infiltrate and tamper with the device be detected, all cryptographic keys and certificates are destroyed rendering the device inoperable. This system requires the use of a permanent background power supply.
Rechargeable Short-Term Battery
A rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery cell serves as the first source of this power. When fully charged, this battery is expected to operate the tamper protection circuits of the device for up to three months whilst in storage or otherwise not receiving mains power. Anytime that mains power is supplied to the device, this battery will automatically recharge.
Fully recharging the Li-ion battery cell after 2 months without mains power, will take approximately 20 minutes. If charging after 3 months (therefore at approximately 0% state of charge), this full recharge will take longer, up to 40 minutes.
Non-Rechargeable Long-Term Battery
A second, non-rechargeable battery is also included. This battery has a total life-time capacity of up to 21 months for devices that are offline and not receiving mains power. Power from this battery is used by the device only when mains power is unavailable, and only after the short-term rechargeable battery is also depleated. This long-term battery cell is not rechargeable so discharge should be minimised and avoided where possible.
Battery Life In Deployment
Once deployed into a production environment, mains power is typically provided for the remainder of the Apollo’s operational life-span with only relatively brief periods of being switched off due to power-cuts or maintenance of the host system. The cumulative total offline battery supply from the two included battery cells become far less important after deployment.
State Of Charge (SOC) On Delivery
All Payter Apollo devices are fully charged during the preparation for despatch. In most cases it should be presumed that a maximum of 1 week of the rechargeable battery's capacity has been consumed at the point of delivery.
Battery Management In Stock / Shelf Life Best Practice
In most cases it is rare for Apollo devices to be stored for longer than a few months before they are built into various host-machines and deployed for operational use. The combined battery capacity is more than capable of operating the tamper protections during this time and, once deployed and powered on, the rechargeable battery cell recharges and takes over most likely power interruptions thereafter for the rest of the device’s life.
Exceptions to this can occur when production plans involve the potential for Apollo devices to be stored for much longer. Under these circumstances anyone holding long-term stock should consider a periodic process to power on and recharge Apollo devices once every 2 to 3 months to avoid continuing to reduce the long-term battery cell’s capacity.
It is particularly important for users of Apollo devices in the EV Charging space to consider battery life carefully. Due to various planning regulations and challenges with timely enablement of high-capacity power supplies, it is commonplace for EV Chargers and their included Apollo payment terminals to be left on-site without power for months at a time. If this is expected to be the case, please consider any opportunity that might be available to provide power to the Apollo device during this time.
Apollo devices can be configured with a specific mode for this circumstance, whereby the display is disabled/populated with nothing but a black image, appearing to be off to a casual observer even though it is powered on. Alternatively a "Coming Soon" or similar image can also be applied.
Symptoms Of Battery Depletion / Failure
Should all battery power ultimately be depleted over time, or due to any battery fault of any kind, this would present itself as a “Security Violation” error on start-up, as a result of the cryptographic keys and certificates having been destroyed by the tamper protection mechanism activating at the point of power loss. The device is no longer able to complete a boot-up sequence, activate it’s applications, or respond to any integration commands.
In this circumstance it is unfortunately impossible to resolve the situation without returning the device to Payter under normal RMA procedures, where a repair or replacement can be made available.