About this replacement
Ingenico iPA200 / iPA280 — 3.85V Li-ion Replacement Battery (IPA200-BAT)
This 3.85V, 3000mAh Li-ion battery fits the Ingenico iPA200 and iPA280 mobile payment terminals. It replaces OEM part numbers IPA200-BAT, VBT1, and 296104539. Voltage and cell format match the original specification exactly.
- iPA200 and iPA280 platform fit: Both terminals share the same battery bay dimensions, connector pinout, and BMS handshake protocol. A single cell format covers both models without modification.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this battery through a full boot sequence on the iPA200. The BMS accepted the handshake on first power-on, passed the PCI boot check, and the charge IC entered top-off mode as expected on a fresh cell.
- First-use calibration for payment terminals: After fitting this battery, complete one full transaction cycle — including a receipt print — before deploying in a live environment. The terminal maps battery capacity during normal operation and needs at least one complete power cycle to calibrate the charge indicator correctly.
Terminal rebooting mid-transaction after a battery swap
The receipt printer motor draws a short, sharp current spike at the start of each print job. On a new battery that has not yet completed a conditioning cycle, the BMS may read that spike as an overcurrent event and trip the protection circuit. This cuts power to the terminal mid-transaction. One complete transaction-and-print cycle allows the BMS to learn the load profile of this terminal and stops false trips from recurring.
Terminal not powering on after sitting unused in storage
Li-ion cells self-discharge at roughly 1–2% per month. After extended storage without a charge top-up, the cell voltage can drop below the BMS recovery threshold — typically around 2.5V. When this happens, the terminal shows no response at all: no boot screen, no charge indicator. Place the terminal on charge for at least 30 minutes before attempting to power on; most charge ICs include a trickle-charge stage that recovers cells down to approximately 2.0V before switching to normal charge mode.