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NX5200 battery life

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Giddyuptd

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While I havent had any issues, a couple I know in another department are claiming to have short battery life on their NX5200s after turning it on from a charge.

Battery is probably 6 months old on both of theirs.

I explained the proper charging and running the battery down and re charging to reconditioning.

I feel it is that with improper battery care and charging but I wanted to see if there is any issues known with the thicker NX5200 battery.

I know the one guy leaves his in his chager most the time off and I explained that to him and to remove it and let the battery cycle itself.

The other uses his non stop.

I haven't had any issues and I have the thicker battery and a thin battery and no issues what so ever.

I know my firmware is at 3.10 or latest if that's it also following proper battery care

They are on 2.60 or so and don't follow the firmware updating in their department.
 

Ant9270

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Batteries are like a fine woman... If you don’t treat them right, they’ll blow their top.

(All aside, I’d agree that it’s most likely poor battery care. Leaving something in the cradle constantly on “charged” throws off the internals.
 

Josh

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I've had an NX5200 since about the time they first became available around April 2015, so more than four years- with the same batteries, which would be the slim, low capacity battery, and the highest capacity battery made (3000ma). I don't use it all the time, however, it's always in my work truck and use if on and off since I primarily use a mobile radio. It is out in the truck in the heat of the summer days and cold of winter- zero issues. Because of my use of it, my radio is rarely in the charger and batteries aren't cycled very often. They still working as good as I would like after four years, even enduring the rare days where it gets used for an entire shift.

From what I've read, at least about lithium-ion phone batteries, you'll get the longest life as long as you keep them between 80% and 40% charged, they don't like staying at full capacity, but don't like being drained completely either. Of course temperature extremes play a role as well.
 

Giddyuptd

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Yeah what I was explaining to them.

They use them for a fire entity. I'm wondering if heat has played a role but wouldn't explain mine doing fine in same conditions.

Hopefully soon I'll get our department all the nx5200 portables as I liked mine and how it has handled the load.
 

mmckenna

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The batteries are different, but I'm running about 450 NX-410's and NX-210's. We're using the stock NiMH batteries.
The batteries for my radios are from around 2011, and are still doing just fine. Many of the radios on the system are also on mostly original batteries.

Where I run into issues is users that leave the radios turned on and drop them in the charger.
 

Giddyuptd

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I had looked at the batteries and both of theirs are the high capacity lithium as mine are two- I have one that is low capacity slim type and never have had issue.

That had crossed my mind about them dropping it in and leaving the radio on just like everyone used to do with the old jedi ht1000 or MTS.

When I asked they said no but I'm willing to bet it's user error with leaving it on in the charger or improper battery care with charging.
 

mmckenna

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If it's a widespread issue, that's what I'd expect, too.

The chargers don't usually supply enough current to charge the battery as well as run the radio.
And getting officers to do the right thing with their radios can be difficult.

Of course, if they recently switched from Motorola to Kenwood, you may run into issues where they are attached more to the brand name. I had to go through that for about 6 months when I shut down our old Motorola Type 2 trunked system and switched users over to a Kenwood NexEdge system. Had to hear a lot of that for a few months. Occasionally in radio training I'll have a new user or two ask why we are not using Motorola, I think some of these guys watch too much TV and are influenced by the brand name recognition a bit too much.
 

Giddyuptd

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That is a possibility. They have those enabled on theirs.

Mine I have the GPS off but can turn it on if I needed it. The Bluetooth I have no use for on mine.

I planned to enable it when we got some for the dept in.

As for people crying we mainly use older Kenwoods, though a few do others duties with feds, LE which are use to either BK or Motorola. So those ones I get the usual why don't it do this, why is this like this etc.
 

EWC_BDN

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If they work like the KCS-25L charger. They have a timer. So after 180 minutes the charger stops charging and If the radio is left on the battery will start discharging. See this in NX-3000 sometimes. I've also heard the smaller capacity battery doesn't provide enough life for the NX-5k stuff depending on what's enabled. Especially in regards to back-light.
 

Giddyuptd

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Seems about right for the one guy who said he leaves his on charger moat the time. I could see it reaching a cycle life always on charger dropping then brought back up all the time endlessly.

I hear they have bigger woes with the KNG p2 on issues they went to.
 

W2PDX

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I agree with the above posts. We're running about 60 NX5200s with the larger capacity battery with no problems so far. Radios went into service in the beginning of 2017, including mine, and the battery capacity is still pretty good.

FYI if you have access to the KPG CPS, there are two useful features re: the battery. One, you can add Battery % on start-up to give you a snap shot of the battery's current charge (in percentage). You can also add Battery Information to the menu (Under Key Assignment) which give you a lot more battery information, including charge %, total capacity, number of charges, temperature, etc. I find this information useful in managing my battery.
 
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