What is the voltage indicator on the 436 showing?

[dcisive]

I've noted that little voltage indication in the upper right corner of the display when you tap on the selector knob at the top. It shows a voltage. So I went through the entire 50 hour process of eliminating my 436 as a candidate for the clock issue. It passed with flying colors. I let it run on AC for 50 hours as the Sticky Note tells us to do. In order to fully charge the internal clock battery. I also fully charged (with a top notch pulse charger) 3 Pro Eneloop 2450mah batteries that were new. Topped them to the brim. Installed them and ran it to verify there was no request to set the clock. Indeed it's dead on and fine

The little voltage indicator showed 4.22v. I assume this is the MAX it will ever show or is showing fully charged. Just letting it sit overnight not being run I powered it up this morning and it was already down to 3.75v. I ran it on battery for about a half hour and now it's 3.55v. So in the first place what does this voltage represent? The batteries that run the scanner (the 3 AA's) or the internal clock battery? Just curious as i never saw a mention of this anywhere.

 

[wmbio]

View the Battery Level (BCD436HP Only)
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.

Easier to Read BCD436/536HP Digital Scanner Manual

Halfway down the easier to read man.

Enjoy
Wmbio

 

[buddrousa]

Like stated above it is how you check your battery level.

 

[ofd8001]

And that's the batteries powering the scanner versus the internal/real time clock battery. No way of telling how much juice the RTC has, other than having to re-set the clock regularly, suggesting it is not holding charge and should be replaced.

 

[dcisive]

Fortunately after going through that procedure mentioned by UPMan mine is just fine, no issues with the clock. I ran it for the 50hrs to get it up to snuff charge wise. Just surprised the voltage of the radio seems to drop pretty quick. or perhaps it's not all that quick in order to operate for the supposed 8 hours it's rated for. These Eneloop Pro's should be at least that good or better. Fully charged it indicated 4.22v when first put in from a competent external charger. Dropped to 3.7v fairly quickly in a half hour. So now I'm looking at how the built in charger will effect that as well.

 

[UPMan]

It takes higher than nominal voltage to charge a battery. NiMH are 1.2 v/cell nominal (or 3.6V for 3 cells). It takes some time after charge stops for the batteries to float down toward nominal. What you are seeing is not unusual and does not indicate that any of the charge capacity of the batteries have been used. It just shows that charging is no longer being applied. Under load, the batteries will be below nominal until they are very close to fully discharged, at which point the battery voltage will drop suddenly.

 

[KE5MC]

Copy and paste from you original post indicates to me one of your batteries is an underachiever and time to replace it.


"The little voltage indicator showed 4.22v. I assume this is the MAX it will ever show or is showing fully charged. Just letting it sit overnight not being run I powered it up this morning and it was already down to 3.75v. I ran it on battery for about a half hour and now it's 3.55v."


Mike

 

[wtp]

external

this is one of the reasons to get a good smart charger.
not the 15 minute quick charger, or one that you have to pair them to charge them.
i bought a maha c-9000 years ago, you could buy what you like.
BUT
it should have a setting to check the capacity of each cell.
one bud one spoils the bunch (kills the run time)
i also check and match up my batteries to have them grouped by capacity.
mine last about a year do to the fact my radio never gets plugged in. this is florida, lightning capital and all that
after a year the barreries get down to 2000 to 1600 mah and that is my limit as the running time is short.
and like i was saying if you have two at 2300 and one at 1200 run time is way down.
the reason you don't mix new and old is they can even reverse charge,feel free to google that.

 

[Tim-B]

With three Duracell 2500 mAh cells mine runs down like clockwork. The voltage drops about 0.1 volts per hour. I can tell how many hours of battery time I have left by subtracting 3.3 from the indicated voltage. That's with the backlight on continuously at dim setting while monitoring a fairly busy 700 MHz trunked system.