Charging and BATTERY LEVEL

[trkntrlrman]

I've noticed that the BCD396xt does not show a battery indicator untill the battery is in a low condition. How can you tell when the batteries are fully charged, and how long is a normal full charge from a dead set of batteries?? A battery indicator button would be nice...

 

[W8RMH]

To view the battery level (in volts) press the scroll control and look at the small numbers in the upper right of the display. Press the scroll control again to close the volume level (or let it disappear after 10 seconds).

When charging the display should read "Normal Charging", and read "Charging Complete" when fully charged.

Also I, as well as many others here, do not recommend charging batteries in the radio.

I use a BC-700 by La Crosse Technology - Tomorrow's Weather Today to maintain my batteries.

I get 8 to 9 hours of constant use, (less monitoring fire), and a 5 hour recharge time in the Le Crosse 700 charger.

 

[DannB]

BCD396XT batt/charge

The BCD396XT has a feature to set the desired charge time....you can set it to charge for a period of time ...2hrs 10 hrs whatever its in the menu on the screen...oh and i use the radio to charge the batteries and i never have a problem...

 

[McP]

What do those numbers translate to in regards to full, 75%, half, etc. Mine shows 3.70 right now.

To view the battery level (in volts) press the scroll control and look at the small numbers in the upper right of the display. Press the scroll control again to close the volume level (or let it disappear after 10 seconds).

 

[trkntrlrman]

Well, if each battery is 1.2 volts, then a full charge should be 3.6+ volts. After a full charge I get 4.2. and and the AC adapter is 6.0Volts. Kind of confusing...also the low battery light cam on just below 3.2 volts...
The instruction say charge for 15 hrs, but the charger only charges them for 2 hrs... ?? I'll never undrstand Electronics, no wonder i dont get a ham lic....heheehhhehe

 

[scanrfan]

Battery Level

Each battery is rated 1.5v, so 3 batteries would be 4.5v. My 396T and 396XT beeping and showing LOW BATT at about 3.5v. That is a difference of 1v. Take the lowest value (3.5v) and subtract that from what ever value the scanner shows and multiply by 100 for the %. So 3.7 - 3.5 = .2 x 100 = 20%. This formula may not be exact or accurate, but should give an estimate of the % of charge left in the batteries.

 

[CoolCat]

When charging the display should read "Normal Charging", and read "Charging Complete" when fully charged.

The "Normal Charging" and "Charge Complete" messages only indicate the status of the scanner's charging circuit itself. These messages do NOT indicate whether or not the batteries themselves are fully charged.

It will read "Normal Charging" when the charging circuit is ON, it will read "Charge Complete" after the 'Battery Charge Time' runs out. Disconnecting/reconnecting power to the scanner will reset the charge timer (and it will keep charging for the set amount of time again, even though the batteries may be fully charged already). It is possible for the scanner to read "Normal Charging" when the batteries may have been fully charged for hours, and it may also read "Charge Complete" when the batteries are only partially charged.

 

[UPMan]

Should add that there is no way to know the absolute charge state (i.e. percentage of capacity remaining) on NiMH batteries by measuring their terminal voltage (which is nominal 1.2V for NiMH, not 1.5).