IMPRES: When is "reconditioning" complete?

[buckyswider]

Hi all, just getting ready to put all our shiny new APX portables into service. I wanted to "initialize" all the batteries (NNTN8930A) prior to distribution to make sure none were bad.

Had a couple weird situations. Maybe something I just never noticed with the XTS batteries, but I don't think I've seen this behavior before. All batteries when first inserted went "yellow" as expected to recondition ("Calibrating" as the digital display calls it). Had a couple situations where I needed to stop the process before the display was green (needed to move the truck that one bank charger was mounted in; needed to pop out the inserts and put the 'ol XTS radios back on since I needed to leave).

In both situations, I waited until the "yellow" stage was complete and we were into the "red" stage (charging). Figured I could then just pop the batteries back in/plug the shoreline back in and they would show "red" again and complete charging until finally green. BUT- that's not what happened!! In both circumstances the batteries showed "yellow" and commenced discharging to recondition again. Yeah, I know I could've probably "double-tapped" them to get to red, but I wanted the validation of a complete yellow-red-green sequence (and also to get the "recondition" timestamp on the battery, although I'm not sure that I really know if that's what happens). Going back down do discharge and then to full green was a LONG process here- like 10 hours. (and then someone else unknowingly moved the apparatus to start the cycle all over again- AHHHH!).

SO, my questions are: When does "reconditioning" complete and the battery mark its timestamp- does it have to "go green" first? And- is this behavior different in the APX batteries or was it inherent in the XTS batteries also and I just never noticed it?

Thanks!!!

 

[mm]

1:Yellow =condition, 2: red =beginning of charging stage, 3:flashing green(stage3), 4:finally steady green(when you can remove the battery)

If interrupt the charging stages prior to stage 4: steady green then you need to do it all over from the beginning until steady green.

XTS, APX batteries all require the same condition/charge stages.

 

[buckyswider]

Thanks! That makes sense. I guess I never just had the same scenarios with the XTS so I didn't realize it.

 

[RodStrong]

If it's of interest, you can manually force the charger out of the conditioning mode by taking the battery out and putting it right back in. It should then be in rapid charge mode. If in rapid charge mode, you can do the same thing and force it into conditioning mode if you desire.

Knowing how to do this is particularly important if you carry a radio as part of your job, and you are on call 24/7. You probably don't want to knowingly allow the charger to condition the battery if you are on call. Good luck.

 

[buckyswider]

Yes, thanks, very good tip to know!

In this particular scenario, since the batteries were fresh out of the box, I wanted to ensure that they went through a complete cycle successfully before placing them into service.

 

[GTR8000]

With new IMPRES batteries...stick them in the charger, let them go yellow, and don't touch them until they go solid green. Don't over-complicate it.

 

[buckyswider]

Well, in my defense, we didn't TOUCH the batteries....just had to unplug the shore line a couple times to move the truck while the initial charging was in process...I didn't know they'd have to start all over again! I thought the batteries were "smart" enough to resume where they left off!!!

 

[GTR8000]

I meant "touch" in a general sense, including cutting power to the chargers. Probably a good idea to initialize batteries with a charger that's sitting on a desk in a locked room so they won't be disturbed.