BC296D Battery Life

[FireCop]

The battery on my BC296D is down to about 1 1/2 hour of run time. Is this common place, or should my battery pack run longer?

The scanner is over a year and a half old. I didn't use it much for the first year or so.

I tried to look at archives to see if this has been asked before, but to no avail.

Thanks for any help.

 

[LOf674]

Mine too!

But I've gone through 2 new batteries, not counting the orginal that was sent by Uniden. Anyone know who we can contact at Uniden to attempt to correct this?

 

[wesct]

The battery on my BC296D is down to about 1 1/2 hour of run time. Is this common place, or should my battery pack run longer?

The scanner is over a year and a half old. I didn't use it much for the first year or so.

I tried to look at archives to see if this has been asked before, but to no avail.

Thanks for any help.

the average use time of batteries is about a year. if you get more than that- great.

wesct

 

[Al42]

The battery on my BC296D is down to about 1 1/2 hour of run time. Is this common place, or should my battery pack run longer?

Try a full discharge - turn it on and let it run until it turns off. Then give it a full charge. If 3 cycles like that don't bring back some of its old capacity it's time for a new battery.

 

[FireCop]

Thanks for your suggestions!

I'm still in the charge/run down/charge, etc. cycles. I got about 4-4 1/2 hrs. off a charge yesterday. I still need to try this again a few times. I'll still probably look at a higher capacity battery.

 

[MacombMonitor]

I'm still in the charge/run down/charge, etc. cycles. I got about 4-4 1/2 hrs. off a charge yesterday. I still need to try this again a few times. I'll still probably look at a higher capacity battery.

Check out PrimeCell:

http://www.primecell.com/pcstu.htm

SCAN-MAX 4.8V 2300 mAH $19.95!

 

[dlbrock]

I use the Maha MH-C777Plus-II Charger and I get over eight hours of run time on the standard battery. This charger also conditions the batteries for longer run time. I purchased this charger because I was having charging problems charging batteries in my scanner and had one battery short out and almost cause a fire. Since the purchase of the charger I no longer plug my scanner into anything. It cost too much to fry because of a bad battery or a power surge.

 

[FireCop]

Macomb Monitor (Bill),

Do you have a suggestions for a charger? I'd rather move away from charging in the scanner.

Thanks.

 

[MacombMonitor]

Macomb Monitor (Bill),

Do you have a suggestions for a charger? I'd rather move away from charging in the scanner.

Thanks.

If you want one of the best, as dlbrock pointed out, check out the MAHA MH-C777PLUS-II. It will charge just about anything out there...and more importantly, charge it correctly.

http://thomas-distributing.com/mh-c777plus.htm

Not cheap though! $74.87

 

[dlbrock]

It's very cheap considering I almost melted my $500.00 scanner when a battery that was charging in the scanner shorted out.

 

[FireCop]

Certainly not cheap, but most likely the better option considering dlbrock's previously mentioned problem!!!!

As I PM'd another RR user, the charger and battery(ies) will probably be my Christmas present for this year.

Thanks for all your replies!

 

[GTO_04]

Battery Problems

I use the Maha MH-C777Plus-II Charger and I get over eight hours of run time on the standard battery. This charger also conditions the batteries for longer run time. I purchased this charger because I was having charging problems charging batteries in my scanner and had one battery short out and almost cause a fire. Since the purchase of the charger I no longer plug my scanner into anything. It cost too much to fry because of a bad battery or a power surge.

I have always worried about this happening. I thought maybe I was being paranoid about this, but apparently not!

I know some Uniden scanners have had issues with the low battery warning coming on too soon. Have the 296, or the 250, had similar issues? My low battery warning comes on after 1.5 hours also, and I have tried more than one battery pack, one of them not heavily used. I thought there were no memory issues with NiMH batteries and conditioning them would not be necessary.

GTO_04

 

[dlbrock]

I'm not up to date on the science of these batteries but they do perform much better after conditioning the battery. I have also found that on my BC296D when the battery low indicator comes on the scanner shuts down within a minute. So I don't think the indicator comes on too soon.

 

[gg750]

My 296D is brand new. If I run the scanner with the digital card disabled and the backlight off, I might be able to get 5 hours of run time. With the digital card on, I get 2 hours tops, but often less. This is after a full nights charge. I often let the scanner run on battery until it shuts itself off, then give it a good 10 hour charge...doesn't seem to have any affect. My Pro-96 (with rechargable NiMH batteries) will get a good 6-8 hours of runtime off a full charge.

 

[rhutch]

Read the manual full charge is 12-14 hours so maybe if you fully charge it you 6-8 hours with it too. I get approx 6-8 hours using the digital card.

 

[gg750]

Read the manual full charge is 12-14 hours so maybe if you fully charge it you 6-8 hours with it too. I get approx 6-8 hours using the digital card.

I have read the manual, thank you. Sometimes the scanner is plugged in for 24 hours or more when not being used, still only get 2 hours of runtime with the digital card on. I also don't think 2 hours of charge time is going to correspond to 6 hours of runtime, but I could be wrong. The scanner is brand new (less than 2 months old), so I think it's obvious that the battery pack is bad. Whats the possibility of making your own pack with some good NiMH batterys?

G

 

[cj5]

Well I did an experiment, using my bc296d. First I depleted the battery, and recharged for exactly two hours. Results: I got a quarter (just over 1.25) of my standard run time with card on (about 6 hours). Next part of the experiment, I charged for the recommended 12-14 hours (actually 12.5), and what do you know I got over 6 hours of continuous run time. Moral of the story..... RTFM

No really. Either the radio is faulty or the battery pack is.

 

[rhutch]

My 296D is brand new. If I run the scanner with the digital card disabled and the backlight off, I might be able to get 5 hours of run time. With the digital card on, I get 2 hours tops, but often less. This is after a full nights charge. I often let the scanner run on battery until it shuts itself off, then give it a good 10 hour charge...doesn't seem to have any affect. My Pro-96 (with rechargable NiMH batteries) will get a good 6-8 hours of runtime off a full charge.

Well thank-you thats not what you wrote so instead of reading the manual read your post then.

24 hours = full night, where do you live the Alaska, if so I apologize. If not there is nothing in your post that indicates that you charge it beyond 10 hours.

 

[rhutch]

There is a post somewhere in here that gives the company that you can buy the connectors from. I wish they would design an after market pack in which you coud just drop 4 AA cells into.

 

[gg750]

Well thank-you thats not what you wrote so instead of reading the manual read your post then.

24 hours = full night, where do you live the Alaska, if so I apologize. If not there is nothing in your post that indicates that you charge it beyond 10 hours.

I said SOMETIMES I charge it for more than 24 hours. Point is, there is still no affect on runtime, even after a long charge. I'll figure this out on my own though...not in the mood to argue with you over a couple of typed words.