As I understand it from Mineo's postings, when the battery voltage on FO-29 hits a certain set point the satellite turns off. By design it should turn back on when the voltage recovers, but that part is malfunctioning. This makes it impossible to accurately determine how long the transponder will stay on, because it is dependent on use as well as other parameters.
For those that remember FO-20's last months of operation, the transponder would often be on until someone used too much power on the uplink, or there were too many users and it would then shut off. Later as the voltage recovered it would turn back on. At the end it was only operational while illuminated. I think FO-29 is behaving the same way, except it requires command intervention to turn back on.
Is this essentially correct Mineo?
73, Drew KO4MA