Battery Charging Time

[CopyThat]

For all of you with 396 XT's how long do you charge the unit? Mine takes 14 hours to fully charge (with the batteries in the unit)

I am a very busy person, and like to have my scanner with me all of the time. I usually only have 5 to 6 hours inbetween work etc.. How am I suppoesed to use it daily when it has to charge 14 hours?

What happens to the batteries if I only charge it for six hours? Do the batteries develop a memory, or not? I do not want to shorten my mobile time, because I do not charge for the full 14 hours.

Why 14 hours?? Anyway to charge faster? If not is 6 to 8 hours okay?

Thanks!

 

[BigC801]

Energizer 15-Min Charger with Car Adapter - Helmet Camera Central

Get something like the energizer 15-min charger, that way you can always have a fresh set, when one set runs down it wont take long to charge.

 

[CopyThat]

External Battery Charger

Energizer 15-Min Charger with Car Adapter - Helmet Camera Central

Get something like the energizer 15-min charger, that way you can always have a fresh set, when one set runs down it wont take long to charge.

Do you know if the battery type for this scanner will leak? In my experience with external battery chargers they always seemed to have corrosion and battery acid that build up on them.

Maybe that was the old-school batteries?? I just kind of have OCD's about battery acid. I don't want transfer battery acid/corrosion from the charger batteries into my scanner.

Have you ever had build up on your external chargers? Or are these new types of NiMh batteries dry cells that do not leak battery acid?

Thanks.

 

[BigC801]

I have never had a problem with NiMH batteries and my external battery charger, for me they charge better in an external charger then in the scanner.

I have about 30 NiMH batteries laying around some are old and don't get used much but i have never seen any of mine leak so far. I just looked in my charger and i dont see any signs of acid in there any where.

I am sure that some cheaper one's could leak but i have not had that problem, I also have the energizer 15min and 1 hour chargers, they work great for me. Hopefully some other guys will let u know if they have any problems with there's.

 

[CopyThat]

2000, 2500, 2700 etc..

I have never had a problem with NiMH batteries and my external battery charger, for me they charge better in an external charger then in the scanner.

I have about 30 NiMH batteries laying around some are old and don't get used much but i have never seen any of mine leak so far. I just looked in my charger and i dont see any signs of acid in there any where.

I am sure that some cheaper one's could leak but i have not had that problem, I also have the energizer 15min and 1 hour chargers, they work great for me. Hopefully some other guys will let u know if they have any problems with there's.

Thanks for the info!!! I know NOTHING about Ni-MH batteries. I see the numbers 2000, 2500, 2700 etc for the Ni-Mh batteries. What does that mean?? And what do you use for your scanners? What brand and number (i.e. 2000, 2500, 2700)

Are certain Ni-MH batteries too much power for the 3963 XT? I just want to get an external charger now, and some come with batteries. I just want to make sure they are compatible with my scanner.

Thanks.

 

[K5RYA]

The number is MaH (Milliamp Hour). Just determines how much juice the battery holds. Go for the biggest to get the best battery life, but they will also take longer to charge. I run Energizer 2500 in all my scanners.

 

[davidmc36]

Do the batteries develop a memory, or not?!

NiMH batteries will develop an effect similar to the memory that plauges NiCad, but to a much lesser degree. NiMH need to be treated differently for cycling also. You should never run them down to below about 0.9 to 1.0 volts, that is about when your low battery warning should go off on the scanner, vs the complete draining that NiCad's like.

 

[CopyThat]

Charging in the scanner

Thanks for this information about the batteries!! I know some users use external chargers, some charge them in the scanner. Would it be better to use an external charger? Is is hard on the scanner to charge them in it? I know it sure takes a lot longer!!

If an external charger is the best way to go, any particular brand or model. I saw the Energizer 15 minute and 1 hour reviews on Amazon.com. It did not get very good reveiws.

The Sony BCG-34HRMF4 Battery Charger with LCD Display and 4 AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries
got good reviews.

What do you use? And do you prefer external or charging in the scanner.

Thanks.

 

[UPMan]

If you are charging in the scanner, note that the 14 hours is a timer. It is not detecting that the batteries are fully charged. You can adjust this timer by changing the "Set Charge Time" option in the scanner (can be set to be from 1 - 16 hours). The timer is reset when you remove external power. The timer and charge rate are not significantly affected by having the scanner on vs. off.

Roughly 1 hour of charging in the scanner will give you about 45 minutes of scan time (very roughly...). Conversely, for about every 1 hour of scanning it takes roughly 1 hour, 20 minutes of charging to replenish. So, if you use the scanner for 3 hours, it takes about 4 hours of charging to bring the batteries back to near full. (Please apply this as a "rule of thumb" and not as a mathematical certainty.)

 

[thewenk]

Here is another thread(among many if you search) which discusses external battery chargers.
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/radio-shack-scanners/142832-pro-106-battery.html

Dave

 

[K5RYA]

All I know is when someone comes out with a nice handheld scanner with a lithium ion battery pack i will be on that thing like white on rice!

 

[davidmc36]

All I know is when someone comes out with a nice handheld scanner with a lithium ion battery pack i will be on that thing like white on rice!

Hopefully that will never happen. Thankfully they are getting away from expensive proprietary packs so you can choose your own readily available cells and eaisly charge and keep extras on hand. LiIon would force you to buy expensive packs that would only charge in the unit or a specific built charger. And they have a gauranteed finite life that starts the minute they are manufactured, they start "Ionizing" whether they are used or not. That would really suck if you bought a scanner that had been sitting on the shelf for a year or so, the battery would already be wearing out.

 

[K5RYA]

Hopefully that will never happen. Thankfully they are getting away from expensive proprietary packs so you can choose your own readily available cells and eaisly charge and keep extras on hand. LiIon would force you to buy expensive packs that would only charge in the unit or a specific built charger. And they have a gauranteed finite life that starts the minute they are manufactured, they start "Ionizing" whether they are used or not. That would really suck if you bought a scanner that had been sitting on the shelf for a year or so, the battery would already be wearing out.

True, we would need the specific charger for that scanner. But why can't all scanners have a generic charger? The cell phone industry took USB and ran with it and a HUGE portion of the cell phone market devices are equipped with USB ports for charging. LiIon batteries are smaller and lighter and are pretty cheap. You can get replacement LiIon batteries for video cameras and other portable devices for <$20. I can't imagine a backup/replacement battery would cost much more then we pay now for quality NiMH rechargeables. The battery technology as a whole is greater than that of the NiMH technology we are using now. I honestly think the positives outweigh the negatives, but that's just my opinion.

I'd rather have one (maybe a backup) high capacity and long life battery then all these damn AA's floating around in my office/truck/backpack/ect

 

[SteveSimpkin]

True, we would need the specific charger for that scanner. But why can't all scanners have a generic charger? The cell phone industry took USB and ran with it and a HUGE portion of the cell phone market devices are equipped with USB ports for charging. LiIon batteries are smaller and lighter and are pretty cheap. You can get replacement LiIon batteries for video cameras and other portable devices for <$20. I can't imagine a backup/replacement battery would cost much more then we pay now for quality NiMH rechargeables. The battery technology as a whole is greater than that of the NiMH technology we are using now. I honestly think the positives outweigh the negatives, but that's just my opinion.

I'd rather have one (maybe a backup) high capacity and long life battery then all these damn AA's floating around in my office/truck/backpack/ect

In a perfect world, someone would make a Li-ion battery pack that would drop directly into the scanner where the 3 AA batteries go, use the same back cover and charge (slowly) via the scanner's built-in charging circuit (or an external quick charger). Then everyone would have the best of both worlds.

By they way, I personally have yet to see the widespread acceptance of the micro USB plug for charging cell phones. All of the cell phone manufacturers that I am familiar with seem to relish in the fact that they have managed to come up with the most complex charging connector that is incompatible with every other cell phone (including their past models!).

Steve

 

[K5RYA]

In a perfect world, someone would make a Li-ion battery pack that would drop directly into the scanner where the 3 AA batteries go, use the same back cover and charge (slowly) via the scanner's built-in charging circuit (or an external quick charger). Then everyone would have the best of both worlds.

By they way, I personally have yet to see the widespread acceptance of the micro USB plug for charging cell phones. All of the cell phone manufacturers that I am familiar with seem to relish in the fact that they have managed to come up with the most complex charging connector that is incompatible with every other cell phone (including their past models!).

Steve

Yep, too bad we don't live in a perfect world though.

Micro was just agreed upon as a cell phone standard in the past month. But Mini-USB has been an generally accepted standard by many leading mobile device manufactures for several years now. Not just cell phone makers, but PDAs, digital cameras, GPS devices, ect.