HP1: "Battery Charge Error"

[Jay911]

I just started experiencing this on one of my two HP1s - the one that spends more time out in the wild, so to speak (mostly in the car, but sometimes at work or with me in a "portable" setting), connected and disconnected from DC power somewhat frequently. The batteries get run down somewhat regularly, and get at least a partial charge often. Every now and then I'll bring it into the house and drain it, then run a full charge.

Tonight, after draining the batteries enough to get the low power warning a couple times over the past few days, and a couple of partial charges subsequent to that, I tried doing a proper charge from AC power tonight, with the scanner turned off. After about 45 minutes, I got the "Battery Charge Error - charging aborted" message. I removed the cable and re-attached it after a few moments, and it only lasted a couple minutes before delivering the same message.

I've had the scanner on for about 25 minutes now sans external power and it appears to have at least a partial charge - no complaints of low battery or anything. The batteries in it were Duracell rechargeables, 2450 mAh, which I use in a number of other scanners and other devices without problems. The scanner is set to 2300 mAh/14 hours (evidently it got reset some time over the past while as I did set it for 2450 when I put that set of batteries in it, months ago). The batteries are neither hot nor unevenly warm - in fact they all feel the same uniform temperature close to the ambient level in the room. I'll try exchanging for another set in one of my other scanners, but has anyone got any insight into what's happened? I see some infrequent, vague references to this error message both here and on the HP1 forums, but without any real indication of the reason behind it. Is it likely this batch of batteries has gone bad, or is something else going on?

One last thing - both this HP1 and my other one just had the recently-released 2.01 firmware applied, and the other scanner is chugging merrily along, charging its batteries (even though I keep it attached to AC power 99% of the time, I decided to give the batteries a charge).

 

[UPMan]

I'd try swapping batteries between the units. If the problem follows the batteries, then one or more cells is likely near the end of their useful life.

 

[Jay911]

I put a different set in the scanner and told them to charge, and put the ones that generated the error in the other scanner (not an HP1) and let it run unplugged. It's just reporting a low battery alert now, and the HP1 charged the "new" set all night with no complaints.

I planned to buy a few new batches before my vacation/trip this coming week anyway, so it's all good.

 

[derevs]

Jay911
I'm surprised you don't use an external charger. A good charger like the MAHA Powerex, which I use, will be able to point out weak batteries and also discharge/rejuvenate some bad cells. With all the talk on here about battery problems I don't let batteries recharge in any of my equipment.

 

[XTS3000]

Put approx 1200 charge cycles through the 396T without any problems. Probably have close to 600 charge cycles through the 396XT, no problems. Dunno why so many are so paranoid of using the internal charging in Uniden scanners? Everyone charges their cell phones, two-way radios, etc using the internal charging circuits with only rare isolated problems. Most devices these days have either smart charging or semi-smart charging circuits. Proof positive is the HP-1's internal charging circuit, it refused to charge a set of batteries with one or more cells that are bad.

Not saying I read every post here in RR, but I can't remember the last time someone posted something about distroying their Uniden when charging batteries.

 

[OCO]

The HP1 isn't really all that convenient for pulling the batteries; I agree that I should be able to charge them in the unit - but- the discussion today reminded me of something I had noticed but forgot about when I was testing the microSD thing - the batteries run very hot if the charger is left on. I'd defaulted to telling it to charge the batteries whenever I plugged the power supply back in, as I'd read that the charging circuit went to a float mode when the batteries are charged. I just pulled the cells and checked them after about six hours on the charger, they read all read 1.37 volts give or take a hundreth or so and must have still been charging, based on how hot they are. So maybe the "smarts" in the charger in my HP1 are off...

Doesn't seem like such a big deal, but with the battery mode operation time at something around four hours, I want the batteries back on the charger when I bring it in the house...So I'll get in the habit of turning the charging off after six hours or so and see how long they last before I get the discharged warning.