I have tried just about every available RS charger/ac adapter to charge the rechargeable batteries in my scanner. I have also tried various different pin configurations and no luck. Yes I do have the yellow battery adapter installed. What adapter will work. Also will the ac adapter work if attached to scanner without batteries installed?
Since I have done a great deal of experimentation and research with the 106/500 scanner and battery charging as well as had a near fire experience with their improper charging circuits, Ill attempt to answer all your questions on this unit.
First, it is not recommended by myself and most other users of this scanner to charge in the scanner. This unit has almost no smart charging capabilities and will just as easily overcharge your batteries as not.
That said, a quick way to tell if your AC adapter is doing the job is to remove the battery holder and power up with just the adapter. If it is a 9 Volt adapter with enough current capability, 500 ma or so, the scanner should work just fine.
When the scanner is powered "ON" and has rechargeable batteries in the yellow holder, the following settings in the scanner menu control the charging on-off circuit:
1. Charge time is set to some value 1-16 hours. Note, if you power the scanner off and back on with the charge time set to 0 the circuit will not use the timer and just charge as long as it's turned on (and more).
2. The battery type is set to either NiCd or NiMh battery type. Setting to Alkaline disables the charge circuit. Theres another caveat here I'll cover later.
3. AC adapter working and plugged into the scanner.
OK, that's the operation of the scanner for charging with power on. At best, the unit will take about 10-12 hours to nearly charge a depleted NiMh, 2000 maH set of batteries.
NOW, all the gotchas.
This unit has NO safety circuits for limiting time (except the timer) so it will happily overcharge the hell out of your batteries till self destruct. It has no smart current limiting for the batteries so again, it will happily jam this current into a depleted battery as well as one with shorted cells turniing your scanner into a space heater except its plastic turns into jelly or worse and the batteries can explode. Happened to me!
Last major gotcha - ALL safety circuits (limited or not) go away when the scanner is turned off with the AC adapter plugged in. Timer, battery type, nada. The scanner will deliver full charge current constantly when turned off. Hopefully, you have smoke detectors and extra money to buy another scanner.
Strong recommendation is buy a good external recharger and a couple of sets of quality rechargeable batteries keeping one charged and at the ready. Put the rechageables in the Black holder to prevent accidental or unintentional overcharge so you don't have to remember whether you pulled the adapter out or not when you left for work this morning.
With a good external charger both your batteries and scanner will last for a much longer time.
