I now own two radios with 18650's - the Commradio CR1a and the Tecsun PL880. I like them for different reasons and are apples to oranges in comparison to each other.
BUT, I love the batteries far better than my stable of nimh's, maha chargers et al ...
The Tecsun 880 uses a 3.7v nominal, protected, button-top cell. Mine was rated at 2000mah. Testing it shows that the internal charger starts out at about 370mah of current which is just fine, only it takes a few hours to fully charge that cell.
The cell comes fully charged out of the radio a *tad* high at 4.22v, but this is still within spec. You don't really need to go this high, but the tradeoff is slightly lower cycle life - however unless you do full discharges daily, the battery will most likely age faster than you can cycle it.
I investigated replacements and picked up a Tenergy 18650 protected button top - in silver and black wrapping. It fits fine and has extra capacity to boot - 2600mah vs the Tecsun branded 2000mah.
I also tried using the similar Tenergy 18650 that was inside the Commradio CR1a, but this was a "flat top" and did not make a connection inside the Tecsun.
The beauty about the 18650's is that it changes the way you think about portable radio operation. There is no need to fully-charge it every cycle. It will live it's entire life quite happily in a state of partial-charge.
Note that the Tecsun 880 has a secret low-voltage cutoff you should know about: With power off, and holding down the #4 key for about 5 seconds, and then rotating the tuning knob, you can select anywhere from 3.4v to 3.7v cutoff. 3.4v is practically dead, so I up it to about 3.6v. Your choice on how deep you want to go.
Obviously one can use an external charger like a Nitecore etc, but I'm happy that the internal charger, though even a tad slow, works ok despite being just a hair higher in voltage than I'd like - but still within spec.
BUT, I love the batteries far better than my stable of nimh's, maha chargers et al ...
The Tecsun 880 uses a 3.7v nominal, protected, button-top cell. Mine was rated at 2000mah. Testing it shows that the internal charger starts out at about 370mah of current which is just fine, only it takes a few hours to fully charge that cell.
The cell comes fully charged out of the radio a *tad* high at 4.22v, but this is still within spec. You don't really need to go this high, but the tradeoff is slightly lower cycle life - however unless you do full discharges daily, the battery will most likely age faster than you can cycle it.
I investigated replacements and picked up a Tenergy 18650 protected button top - in silver and black wrapping. It fits fine and has extra capacity to boot - 2600mah vs the Tecsun branded 2000mah.
I also tried using the similar Tenergy 18650 that was inside the Commradio CR1a, but this was a "flat top" and did not make a connection inside the Tecsun.
The beauty about the 18650's is that it changes the way you think about portable radio operation. There is no need to fully-charge it every cycle. It will live it's entire life quite happily in a state of partial-charge.
Note that the Tecsun 880 has a secret low-voltage cutoff you should know about: With power off, and holding down the #4 key for about 5 seconds, and then rotating the tuning knob, you can select anywhere from 3.4v to 3.7v cutoff. 3.4v is practically dead, so I up it to about 3.6v. Your choice on how deep you want to go.
Obviously one can use an external charger like a Nitecore etc, but I'm happy that the internal charger, though even a tad slow, works ok despite being just a hair higher in voltage than I'd like - but still within spec.