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KXBC3 charging

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VE3WDM

KXBC3 charging

Good afternoon all, I installed the KXBC3 in my KX3 last night and it had no error messages or problems.....up until now.
Here is what I did and what is happening.
1. Batteries that are installed are Ansmann 2850 MaH NiMH brand new min charge on them if any.
2. Put time on KX3 for 16 hours of charge time and left the Astron power supply for full 16 hours.
3. In the morning after charge time tried to turn KX3 on with just battery power. It would not and found out needed to lower min voltage from 10v to 8.5v.
4. After doing this the rig came on and was fine on battery power.
5. Took rig to the park this morning and it failed to start again. Double checked at home to make sure the new min volt setting saved and it did. I then moved the min
setting to the lowest value which was 8.2 volts.
6. On the display I am getting the following now PS. 13.6 volts (not sure way that as voltage on my Fluke meter at the Jack before it goes into the KX3 reads 13.8v)
BT is reading 8.8v but is is fluctuating from 8.1v to 8.8v at times.
Now even with an internal battery reading of 8.8 or a little less the rig should still turn on?? The only other thing I can think if is the 2850 MaH batteries need more than 16 hours of charge time?
Mike
VE3WDM

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k7sss

Re: KXBC3 charging

Hi,
I believe your PS reading is too low. The PS reading on the KX3 should be
at least 13.8 volts. There is a polarity diode so your ext power supply
should be 14+ volts.
At least this what my KX3 needs to charge.
73
Jim H K7SSS

In a message dated 1/27/2013 11:59:51 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[hidden email] writes:

Good afternoon all, I installed the KXBC3 in my KX3 last night and it had
no error messages or problems.....up until now.
Here is what I did and what is happening.
1. Batteries that are installed are Ansmann 2850 MaH NiMH brand new min
charge on them if any.
2. Put time on KX3 for 16 hours of charge time and left the Astron power
supply for full 16 hours.
3. In the morning after charge time tried to turn KX3 on with just battery
power. It would not and found out needed to lower min voltage from 10v to
8.5v.
4. After doing this the rig came on and was fine on battery power.
5. Took rig to the park this morning and it failed to start again. Double
checked at home to make sure the new min volt setting saved and it did. I
then moved the min
setting to the lowest value which was 8.2 volts.
6. On the display I am getting the following now PS. 13.6 volts (not sure
way that as voltage on my Fluke meter at the Jack before it goes into the
KX3 reads 13.8v)
BT is reading 8.8v but is is fluctuating from 8.1v to 8.8v at times.
Now even with an internal battery reading of 8.8 or a little less the rig
should still turn on?? The only other thing I can think if is the 2850 MaH
batteries need more than 16 hours of charge time?
Mike
VE3WDM

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Greg Troxel

Re: KXBC3 charging

In reply to this post by VE3WDM

Mike Weir <[hidden email]> writes:

> 1. Batteries that are installed are Ansmann 2850 MaH NiMH brand new
> min charge on them if any.
> 2. Put time on KX3 for 16 hours of charge time and left the Astron
> power supply for full 16 hours.

16h * 200mA = 3200 mAh. That's not enough to fully charge 2850 mAh
batteries, but it's close enough that it doesn't explain what else you see.

> 3. In the morning after charge time tried to turn KX3 on with just
> battery power. It would not and found out needed to lower min voltage
> from 10v to 8.5v.

Did it indicate that the charge time completed successfully? While you
may want lower BAT MIN, batteries coming off charge should be above 10V.

> 5. Took rig to the park this morning and it failed to start
> again. Double checked at home to make sure the new min volt setting
> saved and it did. I then moved the min
> setting to the lowest value which was 8.2 volts.

8.2V is 1.025 volts per cell. This is pretty discharged, and that kind
of voltage is only reasonable under TX load. If it's at that voltage on
receive, I don't expect TX to work.

> 6. On the display I am getting the following now PS. 13.6 volts (not
> sure way that as voltage on my Fluke meter at the Jack before it goes
> into the KX3 reads 13.8v)

That sounds ok, given the protection diode.

> BT is reading 8.8v but is is fluctuating from 8.1v to 8.8v at times.
> Now even with an internal battery reading of 8.8 or a little less the
> rig should still turn on?? The only other thing I can think if is the
> 2850 MaH batteries need more than 16 hours of charge time?

You should see close to 11V after the batteries are charged, but not yet
used. After light use, say 10 min of RX, no TX, they should still be
well above 10V, almost 11V (BT reading while there is external power, so
there isn't battery load). A fully-charged NiMH resting voltage will be
about 1.3V (of course dropping under load).

So I would say that either one or more of your batteries is defective,
or they didn't really get charged. Check to make sure they are all
installed the right way.

I'd recommend a refresh-analyze cycle in a Maha C9000 charger to qualify
the batteries before use, and annually or so to see if they are still
ok. (I'd also recommend Maha/Powerex Imedion or Sanyo Eneloop, and to
avoid off-brand batteries.)

73 de n1dam
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Don Butler

Re: KXBC3 charging

In reply to this post by VE3WDM

You should have greater than 10.0 volts after a full charge.... I would check the batteries individually....you may have one or more bad batteries

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 27, 2013, at 12:59 PM, Mike Weir <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Good afternoon all, I installed the KXBC3 in my KX3 last night and it had no error messages or problems.....up until now.
> Here is what I did and what is happening.
> 1. Batteries that are installed are Ansmann 2850 MaH NiMH brand new min charge on them if any.
> 2. Put time on KX3 for 16 hours of charge time and left the Astron power supply for full 16 hours.
> 3. In the morning after charge time tried to turn KX3 on with just battery power. It would not and found out needed to lower min voltage from 10v to 8.5v.
> 4. After doing this the rig came on and was fine on battery power.
> 5. Took rig to the park this morning and it failed to start again. Double checked at home to make sure the new min volt setting saved and it did. I then moved the min
> setting to the lowest value which was 8.2 volts.
> 6. On the display I am getting the following now PS. 13.6 volts (not sure way that as voltage on my Fluke meter at the Jack before it goes into the KX3 reads 13.8v)
> BT is reading 8.8v but is is fluctuating from 8.1v to 8.8v at times.
> Now even with an internal battery reading of 8.8 or a little less the rig should still turn on?? The only other thing I can think if is the 2850 MaH batteries need more than 16 hours of charge time?
> Mike
> VE3WDM
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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VE3WDM

Re: KXBC3 charging

In reply to this post by VE3WDM

Good evening all. I believe I solved the problem I had put the rig on charge (so I thought) last night for 16 hours. Once I turned the rig off the LCD just went to it's normal black screen. After posting my question I wanted to try a 4 hour charge and once the rig was shut off the display light up with a timer action. This did not happen last night. This leads me to believe the charging did not happen last night at all. I cancelled the 4 hour charge and its back to 16 hours. Now the the 2850 MaH batteries the charge period will have to longer than 16 hours (around 17.1 according to the calculations in the KXBC3 manual.
Let see what happens now
Mike
Thanks for all your help with this by the way.
73

Rich Heineck

Re: KXBC3 charging

In reply to this post by k7sss

The recommended 13.8V minimum is for the external supply, and does take
into account the diode drop.

73,
Rich AC7MA

On 01/27/2013 03:42 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

> Mine charges just fine from a 13.8 VDC supply.
>
> 73 Ron AC7AC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Hi,
> I believe your PS reading is too low. The PS reading on the KX3 should be at
> least 13.8 volts. There is a polarity diode so your ext power supply should
> be 14+ volts.
> At least this what my KX3 needs to charge.
> 73
> Jim H K7SSS
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>