uniden home patrol and nimh batteries

[carddude99]

Are the batteries and unit supposed to be a bit warm all the time? Does the radio know when the batteries are fully charged? Please advise.

Thanks

 

[N0WEF]

Your best bet is to not charge the batteries in the scanner, too many bad things can happen.

Just grab a external charger, it will save you issues in the future.

 

[scanchs]

Are the batteries and unit supposed to be a bit warm all the time? Does the radio know when the batteries are fully charged? Please advise.

Thanks

The unit will run a little warmer than usual when the batteries are charging. The radio does not know when the batteries are fully charged. The HomePatrol has a charging circuit based on a timer only, which can be set to different charge times by the user. If you run the unit on the AC adapter most of the time, you would be well advised not to charge the batteries every time you turn it on.

ScanCHS

 

[kruser]

Are the batteries and unit supposed to be a bit warm all the time? Does the radio know when the batteries are fully charged? Please advise.

Thanks

To answer your questions, yes, the radio case and batteries will be warm while they are charging and especially as they approach full charge.

The radio itself kind of knows the battery status but not fully.
You set the charge time in one of the menus and that time is based on the mAh rating of the batteries. The problem here is if you send a new database to the radio causing it to reboot or if you unplug and replug the power plug, that timer will start over from zero again.
So say you had a chage time of 12 hours set and you have been charging 10 hours already and then unplug the power plug for some reason and plug it back in, the unit will try and charge for another 12 hours even though you only needed two more hours.
It does monitor the batteries and will stop the charge if it detects they are too warm or maybe the voltage is too high. I'm not sure which it detects and it may detect either condition. It will throw a charge or battery error up on the screen and shutdown the charging circuit. I've seen mine do that when I've accidently told it to charge a set that were already charged. It still charged them about two hours before it gave that message and shut the charger circuit down though. And yes, the entire thing was very warm. Not so warm that the plastic was about to melt but it was very warm or what I would consider hot.

So the advice that N0WEF gives is good advice for not just the HP1 but most expensive devices that charge batteries in the unit. Charge batteries in an external charger. And also be careful to say no when you plug it in and it asks if it should start charging!

It does determine if you have inserted alkaline batteries and prevents the charger from running but I'm not sure how well that works.
I think you can also run it without any batteries using just the ac adapter. I guess that would be the safest if you are worried about it.

 

[OCO]

I think you can also run it without any batteries using just the ac adapter. I guess that would be the safest if you are worried about it.

It'll run but there are a number of functions that won't work without the batteries installed..noted in the manual.

 

[t_shuffle]

I think it would be in everyone's best interest if the next firmware update did away entirely with the option to charge the batteries. It's just annoying, and no good can come of it.

 

[OCO]

I think it would be in everyone's best interest if the next firmware update did away entirely with the option to charge the batteries. It's just annoying, and no good can come of it.

I don't need more of someone else deciding what's best for me...
How about you worry about your best interest and I'll worry about mine?:roll:

 

[BayArea777]

I always charge the batteries out of unit as i do with any thing that has removable rechargeables,just as my own safety precaution.

 

[t_shuffle]

I don't need more of someone else deciding what's best for me...
How about you worry about your best interest and I'll worry about mine?:roll:

I was being a little sarcastic there, but it would be nice to be able to just turn it completely off. It's just not a good way to charge your batteries.

 

[nbacich]

Had one of my batteries blow up inside the unit... Had it a week when this happened. Now I charge the batteries outside the radio... One annoying thing is the radio will not record without the batteries installed. I suppose this is to prevent corruption of the SD card in the event power is lost but still annoying.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk

 

[UPMan]

Corrupted SD card would be much more annoying.

 

[digitalanalog]

well my 2 cents is this.

It was designed to charge with the batteries left in the scanner, if it is unsafe, why doesn't Uniden just mount the battery on the outside of the scanner?

Why does the battery explode in the first place?

Is it charging at the proper rate?

It it charging at the proper voltage?

This is nothing more then a Major Design Flaw on SOMEONES part.....

Are the Batteries To Blame?

There are Much Better Batteries on the market and they Do Not Blow Up, Why hasn't All portable device mfg. gone to a better battery?

Why should anyone have to remove a battery to charge it, just cause the cheap battery compartment door to be broken at a much fast rate,not to mention the wear and tear on the battery connections.

of all the fancy things scanner technology can do and no one can get the battery correct?

Now that I have banned digital from my hobby, I think I will ban anything that requires a battery as well.

remember this is just my 2 cents worth, let the "My Battery Blew Up" discussion carry on now...

 

[bfpdb]

I never turn my HP off, will this destroy my batteries. I just turn it down at nite.

 

[ST-Bob]

@digitalanalog:

Unless you know the limitations of NIMH batteries charged in series, you have no business saying there's a design flaw. Without per-cell charging you cannot automatically charge an NIMH fully or safely IMHO. The circuitry to do this is simple in an external charger since each cell is usually on its own sensor circuit and charging circuit. In a radio which requires 4-6 volts to operate you cannot individually monitor each cell or charge them as if they were separate from the others in the series string.

You think you can do better - get a job designing scanners. Otherwise I suggest you take the advice of those more knowledgeable than you.

 

[kruser]

@digitalanalog:

Unless you know the limitations of NIMH batteries charged in series, you have no business saying there's a design flaw. Without per-cell charging you cannot automatically charge an NIMH fully or safely IMHO. The circuitry to do this is simple in an external charger since each cell is usually on its own sensor circuit and charging circuit. In a radio which requires 4-6 volts to operate you cannot individually monitor each cell or charge them as if they were separate from the others in the series string.

You think you can do better - get a job designing scanners. Otherwise I suggest you take the advice of those more knowledgeable than you.

That is all correct. One thing though, Uniden did design the HP where each cell does have its own contacts. I've not looked but they may just use wires or jumpers to jump from one terminal to the next. Or maybe they do break the cells down for monitoring. Maybe in groups of two cells.
But, with the compartment setup like it is, it would have been fairly easy to get a monitor on each individual cell for proper charging plus shutdown in the event of an error detection on any cell. Accurate cell temperature may be a bit tough but I suppose they could have laid a thermistor under each cells slot. I'd imagine this would have raised the cost some and people would complain about that so its a no win regardless for Uniden. Then of course there is still a chance something could fail and cause a cell meltdown. An internal short that cannot be detected. That could happen even for those that charge externally. Most of todays cells can produce a lot of current into a short causing one hot battery.

 

[Essexscan]

Now you know why quality Ham radio Li-iOn and NIMh battery packs cost so much, they have charging circuits to monitor and not over charge the batteries plus good quality cells. Motorola puts alot into their battery packs custom circuitry without wires and topnotch cells even old NICD packs can last for years and still give good service.

I charge my cells outside my HP-1 and have 3 sets to rotate 1 set always on charge 1 installed and 1 ready, for storm or emergency duty I have extra cells or alkalines if needed and can charge 12 at a time in my chargers

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

Now you know why quality Ham radio Li-iOn and NIMh battery packs cost so much, they have charging circuits to monitor and not over charge the batteries plus good quality cells. Motorola puts alot into their battery packs custom circuitry without wires and topnotch cells even old NICD packs can last for years and still give good service.

I charge my cells outside my HP-1 and have 3 sets to rotate 1 set always on charge 1 installed and 1 ready, for storm or emergency duty I have extra cells or alkalines if needed and can charge 12 at a time in my chargers

For my current crop of scanners I rotate 2 sets; one set in the radio and one charging. However, with my HP1 on the way, I like your idea of 3 sets. That pretty much guarantees continual battery power.

 

[digitalanalog]

This is NOT rocket science, it has been done many times and done the Correct Way and it is a Design Flaw. If the Mfg. can't protect from over charging, they need to redesign it The Correct Way.

I have worked in the Battery Industry for about 15 years now and I know it can and has been done the Proper way.

It's a Flaw....................................
and besides NIMH batteries are JUNK....IMHO

@digitalanalog:

Unless you know the limitations of NIMH batteries charged in series, you have no business saying there's a design flaw. Without per-cell charging you cannot automatically charge an NIMH fully or safely IMHO. The circuitry to do this is simple in an external charger since each cell is usually on its own sensor circuit and charging circuit. In a radio which requires 4-6 volts to operate you cannot individually monitor each cell or charge them as if they were separate from the others in the series string.

You think you can do better - get a job designing scanners. Otherwise I suggest you take the advice of those more knowledgeable than you.

 

[Essexscan]

For my current crop of scanners I rotate 2 sets; one set in the radio and one charging. However, with my HP1 on the way, I like your idea of 3 sets. That pretty much guarantees continual battery power.

Especially since i use the HP1 as my weather alert radio now too, this thread remined me to find the 12volt adapter plug and keep it in with the HP-1. The extra set SouthSide keeps you running just in case the charger turns off/power outage/fuse blows. just a little extra cheap insurance plus you never know when a battery may go bad, you'd go from 2 sets to none if the set inside need charging and you have 3 good charged cells and 1 bad one, the extra set gives you time to fix/troubleshoot. don't forget when you get your new HP-1 to update the sentinel software-firmware and database to bring up to date. then get ready to have fun. Welcome to the HP-1 club

 

[MTS2000des]

I'm sorry but many of you are much ado about nothing. First off, I am GLAD Uniden got away from the stupid proprietary battery packs. STANDARD "AA" cells allow you to EASILY change them out, or put in Alkalines, or if you're rich, Lithium cells if you need to on the fly. No proprietary packs, or explosive lithium ion batteries that don't play nice in low or high temperatures.

As far as NiMH batteries being junk, Mr. Battery Engineer- I disagree. I've got some good quality GE/Sanyo cells from 2006 that I've used in my cameras, scanners and recorders that still analyze at 100 percent capacity- after hundreds of charge/discharge cycles.

They'll work in ANYTHING I have, no proprietary connectors to break, or expensive shells to contain them. A good quality 8 cell intelligent charger with condition mode will make batteries last years, not months. There are some good 2500,2600 and even 2800mah NiMH cells on the market, and they'll run a power hungry scanner or digital camera for much use per charge.

A battery cover costs HOW MUCH? and if you're that rough on it, maybe you should just keep it plugged in.