| Author |
Comment |
Greg
Unregistered User
(5/19/00 7:49:33 pm)
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Mobile
Battery Charger and Batteries
I recently bought a battery charger
which will work either from 120 volt AC or 12 volt DC. It will
charge any NiCad or NiMh battery from 4.5 to 12 volts. It
automaticly senses voltage. Aslo, it has a discharge function for
reconditioning NiCads. It is a Maha MH-C777 (model). I got it at HRO
for $50.00, and it seems to work quite well. It charges a battery in
one to three hours.
They also have Maha NiMh AA's with a 1550 mah
rating. They come four to a pack for $15.00. Since I already had a
battery holder for AA's that fits my radio, I now have a 7.2v 1550
mha battery pack. Thats more than double the mha rating that the
original battery from Kenwood. Another nice feature is that in a
pinch the batteries can be used for other purposes like for a
flashlight.
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BILL VOGEL
Unregistered User
(5/20/00 6:59:56 am)
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CHARGER
GREG GREAT FIND I AM ORDERING ONE
NOW. IHAVE AA BATTERY PACKS FOR BOTH MY RADIO'S AND THEY USE SIX
BATTERIES EACH. BILL V
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Ralph
Unregistered User
(5/20/00 11:20:26 am)
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Battery
Charger
Yes, Greg, I also have one of those
Maha MH-C777 Universal chargers, which we got last Fall from AES,
and we use it all the time for battery packs for radios and
Aircotecs. A nice feature is that it can "condition" nicad packs, by
first draining them to 1 volt per cell before recharging them
quickly. This is good when you've used your radio a couple of days
but don't really know how much juice is left. Just throw it on the
charger and press the discharge button. It's a nice unit.
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Bob Stanley
Unregistered User
(5/26/00 2:45:27 pm)
| Careful with the NiMH Batteries
I have a similar (or maybe the same with a different name) charger, the UDQ-9000 for Mr. NiCad (website www.mrnicd-ehyostco.com/). One trick I have found for charging my radio battery is to use a small bungee to hold the battery in place. You have to futz with the spring loaded pins on the charger to get them to line up on the battery. If the battery is stable is easier.
I started out enthusiastically on the AA NiMH batteries. I even went to radio shack and got some AA battery holders and some alligator clips. I wired the clips to the battery holders so I could charge them on the UDQ by clipping on the charging pins. I got a two place and a four place holder for flexibility. The neat thing about these chargers is that they can sense the battery voltage and correctly charge to the correct voltage automatically, no matter what you stick on it.
The good thing about NiMH AA's is that they are much better than NiCad. They hold about 1500 mAh (milli Amps times hours, see what your device current draw is in mA and you can figure out how many hours the battery will power it.) AA NiCad is about 600 to 700 mAh.
The bad thing is they have a very high self-discharge rate, about 15% per month. Don't leave them in a drawer for a while and then expect to use them without charging.
Now, Alkaline AA's (no recharge of course) have a higher voltage AND have 2850 mAh, almost twice the capacity of a NiMH. I really saw the difference on my GPS III. On an airplane ride to Pitt. PA, the GPS thought the NiMH batteries were gone after an hour and died completely after four hours. On the way back, with Alkalines, the software thought they were gone after 4 hours but never did quit after 5 hours. People have reported that the GPS would last for 10-12 hours on AA batteries. NO WAY with NiMH!
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