regarding radioshack pro-64 battery pack

[Ecollector]

hi, i have a pro-64 400 channel scanner. in the battery compartment it says it is capable of charging a nicd type battery with a model no. as 23-288b.

My question is whether or no i can just pop in some regular nicd AA batteries into the battery case supplied with the scanner and use the wall adapter to charge them. i already charging them for 8 hours+, still no enought power to turn on by itself. Maybe it need more time like those cordless phone? i can't find any info regarding to the battery pack i am looking for.

i got it for 30 buck from local ham swapmeet. good deal for this 10 years+ old scanner?

thanks for all your reply.

 

[davidmc36]

hi, i have a pro-64 400 channel scanner. in the battery compartment it says it is capable of charging a nicd type battery with a model no. as 23-288b.

My question is whether or no i can just pop in some regular nicd AA batteries into the battery case supplied with the scanner and use the wall adapter to charge them. i already charging them for 8 hours+, still no enought power to turn on by itself. Maybe it need more time like those cordless phone? i can't find any info regarding to the battery pack i am looking for.

i got it for 30 buck from local ham swapmeet. good deal for this 10 years+ old scanner?

thanks for all your reply.

If it is that old the pack could easily be toast.
From a quick run-down it looks like you could use ni-cads in it as if they were the rechargeable battery pack.
http://support.radioshack.com/support_electronics/36549.htm

 

[WayneH]

Topic is scanner model specific so moved to the RadioShack forum. Please observe forum stickies (at the top of forums) in the future. Thanks.

 

[k5xs]

I don't think you can do that...

hi, i have a pro-64 400 channel scanner. in the battery compartment it says it is capable of charging a nicd type battery with a model no. as 23-288b.

My question is whether or no i can just pop in some regular nicd AA batteries into the battery case supplied with the scanner and use the wall adapter to charge them. i already charging them for 8 hours+, still no enought power to turn on by itself. Maybe it need more time like those cordless phone? i can't find any info regarding to the battery pack i am looking for.

i got it for 30 buck from local ham swapmeet. good deal for this 10 years+ old scanner?

thanks for all your reply.

The way I read the support information pages on that model, I think the charger is intended only for the 23-288B battery pack. It doesn't appear the charger circuit charges AA batteries in the AA battery shell.

Here are the links to the PRO-64:

http://support.radioshack.com/support_tutorials/communications/cfq-2000564.htm

http://support.radioshack.com/support_electronics/doc38/38253.htm

What you might want to do is buy an inexpensive NiMH AA charger and a couple of sets of batteries. You could cycle the batteries that way.

As to whether $30 was worth it, that's up to you. It is a low price, but the scanner is old. I looked on ebay, and there is one asking for $20 minimum bid that no one has bid on. But if you like it, then it was obviously worth the $30 you paid!

73

 

[robbinsj2]

Pro-64s originally came with two AA battery cartridges, a black one for regular batteries and a yellow one for rechargable batteries. You may put rechargable AAs into the yellow battery pack and use the standard A/C power supply to recharge those batteries in the scanner while it is on or off. Generally you should put standard batteries into the black cartridge only; if you put them in the yellow cartridge then connect the external power supply then the scanner will try to charge those standard batteries. (You can put rechargables into either cartridge but they won't charge in the black one.)

I'm guessing you're trying to charge nicads in the black cartridge. The Pro-64 used the same yellow cartridge as the Pro-92, Radio Shack part no. 12100442 (they may now be called RSU numbers) if you want to try ordering it. Or look inside the scanner and you'll see a third, smaller contact on the end. To turn the black cartridge into a recharging cartridge, modify the contact nearest the corner of the cartridge to also make contact with that third contact to close the charging circuit. I've used a bit of aluminum foil to accomplish this in the past.

Be very careful doing this. Others will counsel against charging batteries inside scanners and they may have good points but I, in my laziness, have done this for years without a problem. If you make the above modification then it will be very easy to forget about it down the road and do exactly what I warn against in the first paragraph here.

If any of the above isn't clear, please post back or PM me. I believe that the 23-288-B reference is to a fully-contained rechargable battery pack that you could have bought from Radio Shack back in the day, but you can charge batteries in that compartment using the yellow cartridge.

Jim