Tecsun PL-660 Battery Life: erratic or just my batteries?

[sholt]

Hello,

[size=-2]I recently got a Tecsun PL-660 and I've been really enjoying starting SW/HF listening, and I'm glad the radio reference forums were here to help me make my decision on my first SW radio, thank you![/size]

Now, to the point - I would like to ask those of you out there with a Tecsun PL-660 what their experience has been with the battery life of the supplied Ni-MH batteries when charged inside the radio.

I believe I am having inconsistent behavior in that some days they seem to last forever and on other days I might get an hour out of them before the battery meter tanks within 30 seconds and it turns itself off (clock mode) and the battery meter shows 2/3 full until I turn it on again.

In general, I use the batteries until they run out (as above), then I plug the radio in to charge overnight. I prefer not to use the radio plugged in because it is unsure whether it charges while in use, and it also causes RFI when using the built-in whip antenna which is my primary antenna for this radio at this time.

Is this an experience anyone else is having or does anyone have any insight as to whether I got a bad batch of batteries or other solutions?

Thank you for your help!

 

[nanZor]

If I remember correctly, the oem nimh batts in the 660 were only 1000 mah rated - I would highly recommend better quality AA's, like Sanyo Eneloops or the like.

Don't forget to turn the unit on holding down the battery key - CHA ON and NIMH-battery should show up in the display. But don't hold me to this, as I had to sell my 660 for a different toy.

 

[sholt]

Thanks hertzian,

I have a set of eneloops and a charger on the way already as backups for my scanner so I'll try them out in the PL660 for a while to see how that works out.

What, out of interest, was the different toy?

 

[Zaratsu]

radios make poor chargers, and will hasten both the life of your batteries and your radio.

Charge them in a real charger. Preferably an intelligent charger that can properly cycle the cells and shut off when they are full.

 

[sholt]

Charge them in a real charger.

I had a feeling that would be the case. I skim-read somewhere that charging in series also isn't ideal so the PL660 is probably doing a pretty bad job overall.

The charger I will use comes with the eneloops so hopefully that'll do a much better job.

Thanks for your tips!

 

[nanZor]

The eneloops should works fine - keep them used and charged together as a "pack", and not randomly picked from other devices, and they'll work even better.

What, out of interest, was the different toy?

Heh, wish I could keep all of them, but I'd need about 4 more ears. Actually, I picked up an Alinco DX-R8T HF receiver - mainly to keep tabs on SFO radio on 10.057 and 11.282 mhz (usb) while my R75 is doing other chores. So far, so good!

 

[sholt]

To quickly sum up, I left the radio on overnight by accident and woke up with it still on with "full bars" on the battery indicator.

If you have trouble with the stock batteries, I would highly recommend the eneloop batteries as a replacement.

 

[mitaux8030]

I had no such troubles with my old PL660.
One of the good things about these radios built in chargers is they're trickle chargers, and don't charge much, if at all, above the very safe 1/10 C level. When you do charge at this level, it gives old tired batteries the best chance of accepting the maximum charge they are able to, without cooking the battery. This is a major drawback of most fast chargers: they charge so fast the battery will get hot, batteries don't like heat at all. And if the battery is old, the fast chargers tend to miss the point at which the battery can't accept any more charge and continue to pump in the electrons and seriously overcook the battery - sending it to an even earlier grave. If you leave a battery in a trickle charger for too long, the battery will get warm (not hot) and can safely shed this excess low level of heat. While not recommended, it won't destroy your battery anywhere near as fast as a fast charge would.

 

[majoco]

If the charging system in the 660 is anything like the one in the Degen/Kaito 1003 - and I see no reason why it shouldn't be - then I was rather astonished to find that the charge rate was only 100mA. You should charge NiCads (and NiMH?) for 140% of their rated capacity - therefore with the 2400mA/hr cells I have in my radio, I have to charge them for 2400/100 x 1.4 = 33.6 hours!

Not forgetting that NiCads like to be totally discharged every so often so that they don't get a "memory".

 

[py2mr]

Same here

Found your question on google when i was trying to understand what is happening to my PL-660, my old Tecsun PL-600 was perfect at this point but, the PL-660 charges battery very quickly always shows fully charged, but the battery life lasts less then the PL-600 and turns off the radio (back to the clock), minutes later the radio shows again battery fully charged but does not last long and back to the clock, Never shows half or less battery life.

73

Marcos

 

[pb_lonny]

Found your question on google when i was trying to understand what is happening to my PL-660, my old Tecsun PL-600 was perfect at this point but, the PL-660 charges battery very quickly always shows fully charged, but the battery life lasts less then the PL-600 and turns off the radio (back to the clock), minutes later the radio shows again battery fully charged but does not last long and back to the clock, Never shows half or less battery life.

73

Marcos

Best bet is to buy some better batteries and charger them in a normal charger out of the radio.

 

[majoco]

The battery voltage indicator (that's all it is) will quickly show full when charging, as it's almost reading the output voltage of the charger circuit. Look at the charging current in the handbook and calculate how long you should leave the radio on charge and add 40%. If it's a low charge rate, say 100mA, then you won't overcharge or overheat the batteries.

 

[kalel410]

So, I just got a PL 660. If I decide to go with the Eneloop batteries instead of the stock, I have three questions (and a bonus question)...

1) Should I not allow them (the Eneloops) to charge within the radio,

2) If I did allow them to charge within the radio, will the PL660 actually charge the Eneloops? Will they or the radio be harmed by doing so? (since they're not NiMH).

3) (probably most importantly), if I want to use the Eneloops in the radio, but I want to charge them using an external Eneloop charger, do I then treat the Eneloops as normal alkalines and therefore, should I turn off the radio's charging function before using them? (I wonder if the radio remembers my "to charge, or not to charge" setting.)

And a bonus question!... What kinds of batteries will the PL 660 charge? NiMH of course... how about NiCads? And as referenced earlier... rechargeable alkalines? Anything else?

Thanks! Kal

 

[kalel410]

Never received a response for my prior post (from about a year ago.) Figured I'd liven up the thread again. Anyone with info about whether charging mode should be off or on when using Eneloops? Thx! Kal

 

[LCRay]

Never received a response for my prior post (from about a year ago.) Figured I'd liven up the thread again. Anyone with info about whether charging mode should be off or on when using Eneloops? Thx! Kal

I am glad you did revive the thread as I had posted question about the 660 a couple days ago

Someone indicated a 100 mAh charge current which is preferable to a high rate
My question was, does the charge ever stop?, peak voltage ? ,temperature?

I have not figured out the charge function fully yet, but only turn it on when batteries are low
It doesn't matter whether using the supplied 1000 mAh batteries or eneloops ( 1900 mAh )

I will likely switch to my Maha 9000 smart charger and switch out fresh sets of 4 Eneloop batteries

BTW- I listen mainly with battery power only in an attempt to receive better

 

[kalel410]

Hi LCRay. So, this is interesting. When I first got the 660, it came with its stock batteries. And they charged for a while. But, then I hadn't used the radio for some time (months). Next time I tried to use the radio, the batteries were dead, and plugging in the unit for a while, the batteries never charged. The display always read full when plugged in and blinked out quickly when unplugged.

I then got a new set of NiMH batteries (Amazon brand) and they seemed to perform better. And they were charging normally. Again, I took a several month hiatus from the radio. When I tried the radio again this morning, the batteries were dead (expected, since I hadn't used the radio for months), but not only were they dead... 3 out of the 4 were really dead. One was down close to 0 volts. Another was maybe at .2 volts, another at .4 volts, and one was .9v. I attempted to let them charge within the 660, but after several hours, they either read the same or less. Interestingly, again, the battery meter show full all that time of futile charging. I just dropped the batteries into my eneloop charger (I had some old, unrelated AAA eneloops, which is why I have that charger), and these Amazon AA's came right back up to 1.3v. So, I'm not sure why the 660 wasn't able to charge them. Maybe they were too low in voltage, and there's some threshold where the 660 is unable to charge them. (Still, weird that the 660 always showed full when plugged in with the dead batteries.)

Anyway, I just put the mostly fully-charged Amazon batteries into the 660, and they're working fine. In fact, when I turned the radio off after using it for a while (but plugged in), the battery indicator on the 660 display shows two solid bars and the third (top) bar flashing... in other words, charging! (Hopefully.) So, it does seem like at some low battery voltage threshold, the 660 won't charge the batteries. I'll post if I experience anything odd. Again, though, I might switch to Eneloops, so I'll still need to know whether they'll be ok if they get charged in the 660. --Kal

 

[LCRay]

Kalel
I am using Eneloops in the radio right now after using the Tecsun's charger on them
Running off the DC wall wart with batteries alone
The battery graph has been on" full " for several days now with limited daily use of radio
So I am waiting to see how long the " full " stays on

To your question , I don't see a problem with using the radio's charge system , I just don't know if
I like it yet. I need to be convinced the charge graphic actually works correctly
It would make things easier to just plug in DC adapter and switch over to "charge" mode, switch off when
"Full"
Use quality rechargeable batteries, highly recommend Eneloops

Hope that helps

 

[pb_lonny]

I still recommend buying some good quality rechargeable batteries and charging these in a separate charger.

Regards
Paul
Ultralight Medium Wave (MW) DXing

 

[LCRay]

I still recommend buying some good quality rechargeable batteries and charging these in a separate charger.

Regards
Paul
Ultralight Medium Wave (MW) DXing

I would agree
As I tried to say, I am really just testing the charge function to see if its worthwhile
Will post anything significant

BTW- interesting Blog

 

[gregtheham]

Hi Sholt
I recently purchased the Tescun/Kaito PL-660 from Universal Radio in the USA. (March 2014)

I find the battery life is very short, regardless of the type of battery used- but yes, especially with Ni-MH that are charged by the radio. I have yet to try an outboard charger. It also appears the batteries only charge in the radio off postion. Make sure you turn the NiMH charge feature ON , by holding down the orange "battery" (memory) button with the power off. It will cycle the NiMH charger feature.

Also, are you SURE your radio was shipped with Ni-MH rechargable batteries? Mine were not labled as NiMH, but Alkaline, yet appeared to be the original part- all 4 together in the same self contained plastic shrink-wraped package. Although it looked like the box was opened previously- possibly to test the unit before shipping, it was in perfect cosmetic condition and wraped, so I don't believe it was used or a store display unit. Maybe my batteries where changed by the Vendor for shipping reasons? Maybe others can comment on what they got.

I purchased some inexpensive Sunbeam Ni-MH 800mAH jobs, just to check out the charge feature and the life of them is worse than alkaline. But the point is, I think this radio, even with backlight off, is a bit of a power hog.

It is an nice radio for the price. But a few other small things are a bit differnt from a NON- SDR radio. Yes, this radio is based on Sotware Defined Radio Reception methods, using a soundcard-type chip for part of the demodulation process. Perhaps this is what contributes to its power use.

You can read about those annoyances on my "eham" website review.

I too will try other charging methods and higher Amphour batteries, but I find NiMH are usually very reliable, close to alkaline performance and that most built-in, wall-wort low amperage "trickle only" supplies seem fine for charging in my other devices. So with enough charge time, I dont see why the built in charger should be the problem. The fast battery consumption (regarless of battery type) seems to be the problem.

If you can live with that, it is otherwise a nice radio for the price.

73 es GL
Greg