Psr500 Low Battery Indicator

[don333]

This may have been previously answered so my apologies. What would cause the low battery indicator to come on when the batteries are fully charged? This has begun to happen over the last several days. It also comes on when the radio is operating on AC power with no batteries in the unit.
Thanks.

 

[HowD]

I noticed this problem this morning. I did an initialization reset (back up your data first--clears the memory and sets to factory defaults) and it was fine after that.

 

[ch40n1k]

I also have this issue.

 

[mikey60]

This may have been previously answered so my apologies. What would cause the low battery indicator to come on when the batteries are fully charged? This has begun to happen over the last several days. It also comes on when the radio is operating on AC power with no batteries in the unit.
Thanks.

On the last part, the battery icon will flash to indicate that the battery charger circuit is active. It doesn't matter if there are really any batteries in the unit, or which battery holder is in the radio, the icon will still blink.

On the first part, what software, if any, are you using to program the radio?

Mike

 

[HowD]

Just an clarify what I had written:

My battery low (beep as well as the battery icon) would come on even though the batteries were charged. When I went into the GLOB settings and checked the battery info, the readings looked OK, yet the low battery indicator was coming on. I did the reset and that took care of the problem.

I was thinking that perhaps I had somehow changed the warning threshold levels but that's not the case because I sent down the same exact information as I had backed up, and after that reset all was OK.

As mikey60 wrote, the battery charging indicator will blink when the radio is on, to indicate that the charging circuit is active. That setting has to do with the amount of time the PSR-500 is supposed to charge the batteries, based on the GLOB setting.

Speaking of battery levels, somebody else had posted (different thread) on just what the readout means for the battery level (for example, 597 and 5.32v). I read it a few times and still don't get it. They wrote that the 597 type of number is a "digital" number. What do these readings mean, and how can it be that the reading is 5.32v yet the 4 AA cells are 1.2 volts each? (1.2 x 4 = 4.8)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tobarger]

If you used a digital volt meter to measure the actual voltage of a fully charged battery that is marked as 1.2v, it would typically read over 1.4v per battery.
If the total voltage of all 4 batteries in series is 5.32v, than the average voltage per battery is 5.32v divided by 4 which equals 1.33v.

The scanner can not read what is printed on the battery.

 

[whitmec]

I too had this same problem. I had a set of Energizer rechargables in for some time. Then I got the battery sign....then the flashing batt sign and the beep. Plugged the radio into the wall plug and expected it to recharge. When I took it off the wall plug...expecting fully charged batts...I still got the flashing batt with beep.

I think if you look, you'll find other posts where people have said the internal charger is "too hot" or doesn't give a 'deep' charge.

I don't know what any of that means, but what I did do is use an external charger to charge my batteries. All I can say now is that I no longer get the batt light and get a significant life...using the same set of batteries.

My recommendation, pick up a cheap-o wall outlet charger, put your current batts in there and see what happens.

Good luck.

 

[HowD]

The scanner can not read what is printed on the battery.

Got it

Thank you much for the information on the voltage information, tobarger.

 

[wa8pyr]

My recommendation, pick up a cheap-o wall outlet charger, put your current batts in there and see what happens.

An even better idea is to pick up a good quality charger like the Maha/Powerex C801D. It's kind of pricey, but very, very worth the expense.

This charger will read the battery status and charge accordingly; it will also allow you to do a "soft' charge, which is much friendlier to the batteries, as well as condition the batteries if they need it.

I get excellent performance out of my "un-brand" NiMh cells (not really un-brand, I got them at DC Ace and W&W, but they're unmarked other than small printing with the seller's name and the battery capacty and type) by using the soft-charge option, and conditioning them every so often. In fact, the two sets I bought four years ago are still going strong; I bought two more sets at Dayton Hamvention this year and they're even better.

 

[BOBRR]

PSR 500: Battery Icon Questions

Hello,

a. I just took the battery holder out of the unit as I find I am using it nearly all the time as a base unit with the AC wall-wart.

Is there any way (with the batteries & holder now gone) to eliminate the battery icon from being on the screen, and blinking, all the time ?

b. Seem to have contradictory results with this: IF there is fully-charged battery pack in the unit, what should the battery icon look like ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[marauder6]

Hello,

a. I just took the battery holder out of the unit as I find I am using it nearly all the time as a base unit with the AC wall-wart.

Is there any way (with the batteries & holder now gone) to eliminate the battery icon from being on the screen, and blinking, all the time ?

b. Seem to have contradictory results with this: IF there is fully-charged battery pack in the unit, what should the battery icon look like ?

Thanks,
Bob

The blinking icon indicates the charger is on. To disable it press PGM, F3, then scroll down to charge time and set it to zero. When it's set to anything other than zero the charge timer will reset when the radio is rebooted, or when Glob changes are saved.

SMG

 

[Skud]

I too now am having the problem that I am getting low battery even after I fully recharge the batties and do not have the 500 connected to a wall plug. I notice this after the last firmware upgrade. I even went out a bought new 2500 mah batteries and recharged them in their charger and after 15 minutes got low bat. Even though I have no changed the settings on all 5 of my v folders. I will try the reset to see if that helps.