ICom A-5 Question - Battery Level Indicator

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:d9Vxb.11632$ML6.10398@fed1read01...
best advice is to use the "factory charger"

BT

There is nothing magical about a factory charger giving you long battery
life, and long run times.

If you know what you are doing, about any smart charger (peak sensing),
charging at reasonable amperage will charge a battery faster, and with more
capacity than the factory charger ever thought about doing consistently.

If you are not up to speed on this type of thing, by all means, stick to the
factory charger.

I do think you are jumping the gun saying it is a bad battery. It could
just as well be a bad charger, or bad wire, or bad radio.
--
Jim in NC

"Harry Gordon" wrote in message
...
The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh. I plugged it back in
yesterday afternoon and just now rechecked it and either the charger isn't
working or the battery is no good, for whatever reason. I am going to stop
by a big electronics repair/sales store today and see if they can test my
charger and go from there. I will also look for the in-line charge meter
someone suggested.

Harry

You will have to "rig" something together using some radio shack plugs,
alligator clips, and a volt-amp meter.
--
Jim in NC

Update report for those that may be interested.

I had the charger checked this morning at an electronics store and it works
fine. As a result, I just sent an E-MAIL to ICom requesting their assistance
on resolving either the bad battery or radio. Someone mentioned that I may
have "fried" the battery. If so, all I can say is there is no meter on the
radio that reflects the condition of the battery. Sounds like a design flaw
to me.

I will let you know what the outcome is. I appreciate all of the responses I
got. Thank you.

Harry

Probably one of the most demanding uses of batteries is in the radio
controlled modeling arena. Those batteries are used to depletion and
recharged more often than you put gas in your spam can. In my opinion, the
expert when it comes to battery questions is Red Schofield. You can find Red
at:

http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/

Less you scoff at RC modeling, be careful... there are a lot of that fly
full-scale machines.

Less you scoff at RC modeling,...

Not hardly ...I use to own a hobby store. I never sold RC models, but I sold
a lot of other stuff :-).

Harry

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:34:08 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote:

The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh.

That is a very small battery. I have an A-3, that uses the same power
as yours, and I use a 1400 mAh Ni-MH battery pack. I don't have the
exact specs for your A-5, but for my A-3, it draws 55mA just
listening, with no squelch break. At 5W (PEP) transmit power, it
draws 1.0A. So just listening, with no audio output, your radio will
have dead batteries in at most, 1.4 hours of use. If the squelch
breaks, you're drawing 240mA at full volume, which is not that loud.
So if you're monitoring a busy clearance delivery, or Tower, or
Approach control, your batteries will last 30 minutes. If you
transmit, with no listening, you will run your battery down in 4.5
minutes. There is no battery charger that you could buy that will
make the basic NiMH battery chemistry do any better.

Mike Weller

Mike,

After I initially charged the battery, I used the radio on a number of
ocassions to listen to ATC from my house. While I didn't keep track of the
time, I am sure that I listened well over a couple of hours total elapse
time without any problem. I keep the squelch set where the radio is quite
when not receiving voice communications. Oh, I see the confusion. I wrote
76 - I should have written 760 mAh. :-(((( .

Harry


"Mike Weller" wrote in message
s.com...
On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:34:08 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote:

The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh.

That is a very small battery. I have an A-3, that uses the same power
as yours, and I use a 1400 mAh Ni-MH battery pack. I don't have the
exact specs for your A-5, but for my A-3, it draws 55mA just
listening, with no squelch break. At 5W (PEP) transmit power, it
draws 1.0A. So just listening, with no audio output, your radio will
have dead batteries in at most, 1.4 hours of use. If the squelch
breaks, you're drawing 240mA at full volume, which is not that loud.
So if you're monitoring a busy clearance delivery, or Tower, or
Approach control, your batteries will last 30 minutes. If you
transmit, with no listening, you will run your battery down in 4.5
minutes. There is no battery charger that you could buy that will
make the basic NiMH battery chemistry do any better.

Mike Weller

Harry

From Internet: The A-5 battery

Transmit continuous for 25 minutes
Receive full audio for 1.5 hours.
Squelched for 10 hours.

Of course if you mix you have to adjust these figures to how much you
talk and listen.

Don't know the A-5. Do they make a larger battery pack? Check E.H.
Yost who sells batteries.

I just went to Internet and he has A-5 batteries 9.6V @760 ma Ni-MH
for $49.95.

Didn't get on your thread earlier so don't know how you use your
radio. Can you plug into the A/C electrical system? If not you can
get a sealed battery of 5 - 10 amps and connect to your radio for long
time use.

Have years of experience with Ham hand helds and made a system to use
when I traveled with internal battery, car battery or AC in hotel
room.

If interested in discussion let me contact you via your e-mail and we
can go off line.

Big John KR5K

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:34:08 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote:

The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh. I plugged it back in
yesterday afternoon and just now rechecked it and either the charger isn't
working or the battery is no good, for whatever reason. I am going to stop
by a big electronics repair/sales store today and see if they can test my
charger and go from there. I will also look for the in-line charge meter
someone suggested.

Harry

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:d9Vxb.11632$ML6.10398@fed1read01...
best advice is to use the "factory charger"

I had an ICOM-22 with the NiCD, the battery lasted about 2yrs in normal
weekend operations, and would last 10hours on a charge..

I replaced it with NiMH, same charger, higher battery amp rating. No
problems, lasts 10-12 hours or more on a single charge.

We use it for "ramp operations" and "aircraft radio" at the local glider
club.

Sounds like you got a bad battery

BT
"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Harry Gordon" wrote in message
...
Cecil,

Thanks. I failed to mention that the battery that it came with is the
type
that does not have a memory. It can be recharged at any level. In the
mean
time, I have it back on my charger again. I may end up asking for
another
battery.

Harry

First of all, there is no such thing as a NiCad with no memory problems.
Any other thing being said is all marketing. If they are NiMH, then the
memory problem is about gone, but they self discharge more quickly, and
are
even more sensitive about overcharges.

If you left it on the charger all weekend, you may have grossly
overcharged
and fried the battery. The possibility exists that the charger is not
putting enough juice out.

You need to get creative, and find a way to get a meter in-line, and
measure
the volts of the charger, while it is charging, and also the milli amps
it
is putting out while it is charging.

Best advice is to get a smart charger to charge the thing. One source
is
a
place like tower hobbies, like the kind of charger used on RC airplanes
and
cars. Then you will know that you have a full charge, without frying the
battery.

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:52:30 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote:

Mike,

Oh, I see the confusion. I wrote 76 - I should have written 760 mAh. :-(((( .

Harry


Ah so! No problem, just multiply the times I derived by a factor of
ten.

I've found that for a "working" radio, you need the 1400 mAh for it to
make it through a full day. I think that you can do that with the
alkaline AA cell. What I've found best is to use NiMH AA cells in the
alkaline battery pack that came with your radio. It keeps you from
buying alkaline batteries everyday, so the charger and batteries pay
for themselves in less than a week of normal usage. Just be sure to
bring along extra alkaline batteries to give you a second or third
day's use if you need it for emergencies, i.e. where you are forced
down away from an airport.

Mike Weller

Have you left the radio on to see how long you get?

Paul

"Harry Gordon" wrote in message
...
If so, all I can say is there is no meter on the
radio that reflects the condition of the battery. Sounds like a design
flaw
to me.