PSR-800 Eats Batteries

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zzdiesel

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My 800 ran two set of batteries down in less than 30 minutes on each set. I set the back light to only come on a few channels. One set is 2900's & the others are 2700. What would kill them so fast?
 

Highpockets

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troymail

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Did you really fully drain the batteries or base the drain time on the battery icon?

I ran for about 9 hours on a set of Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries yesterday - backlight off but active on voice for all talkgroups, recording audio (2 1/2 hours of recordings to the SD card).

The battery icon showed nearly or completely empty for 4 hours but kept going; from the time of 1-2 bars to shutdown was about 7 hours.

The icon is a bit misleading and some adjustments are probably needed.
 

Ensnared

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Eneloop Batteries Rule

Did you really fully drain the batteries or base the drain time on the battery icon?

I ran for about 9 hours on a set of Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries yesterday - backlight off but active on voice for all talkgroups, recording audio (2 1/2 hours of recordings to the SD card).

The battery icon showed nearly or completely empty for 4 hours but kept going; from the time of 1-2 bars to shutdown was about 7 hours.

The icon is a bit misleading and some adjustments are probably needed.

I concur about Sanyo batteries. They worked well with my PSR 500. I've used mine so much that the protective backing is starting to come off. I've had mine for over a year.

Beyond the issues with the latest update, some batteries don't work well with digital scanners, particularly if you want to store charged batteries. I made the mistake of going to Batteries Plus & buying a set. The shelf life was about 48 hours, then they were completely drained. I forgot the brand, but they were worthless.

With the Sanyo batteries, they can stay charged for a very long time. They are hard to find in a retail store. I purchased mine online.
 

BeerNutz

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+1 for Sanyo Eneloop batteries. Like the AA, AAA Sanyo charger that came with them. Bought at Amazon.
 

Farscan

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The 2450 Duracell's i bought at target, are a great buy at under $10. They will go almost 10 hours after a couple hundred charges.
 
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mine are DURACELL 2650MAH i got them new two sets and use a slow charger and i still see the scanner eating them up i'm lucky to get a hour on them.
 

Farscan

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I would get a new maha charger as it's impossible to eat up a good set of batteries in an hour unless the radio is too hot to touch. It is that much juice you would have to dissipate.
 

Baskt_Case

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I would get a new maha charger as it's impossible to eat up a good set of batteries in an hour unless the radio is too hot to touch. It is that much juice you would have to dissipate.

Its the battery life indicator. The radio interprets battery life based on available voltage. Most rechargeable batteries are ~1.2v but regular Alkaline batteries are 1.5v.
 

mikev

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A great new feature of the latest desktop software update (1.05, posted 1/17/12) is the ability to adjust the battery meter voltages, so you can control how many bars in the battery appear for what voltages. You can do this separately for both alkaline and NiMH battery types.

BTW, I've had my PSR-800 for 2 days, with easily over 6 hours of use time, mixed between digital trunked and analog conventional scanning, backlight on low nearly all the time, occasional recording to the memory card (probably about 45 minutes total), on a set of alkalines.The battery meter is showing no bars left, but I don't have a low battery alert yet.
 

tbags

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batts & light

Did you really fully drain the batteries or base the drain time on the battery icon?

I ran for about 9 hours on a set of Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries yesterday - backlight off but active on voice for all talkgroups, recording audio (2 1/2 hours of recordings to the SD card).

The battery icon showed nearly or completely empty for 4 hours but kept going; from the time of 1-2 bars to shutdown was about 7 hours.

The icon is a bit misleading and some adjustments are probably needed.

wre do you get them batt's & what do you set the setting for the back light to come on for transmissions only
 
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