Large Scale Central

Scanner Battery Replacement

Electronics
#1

My old reliable Bearcat BC120XLT scanner battery has died and won’t take a charge. I went up to Amazon to get a replacement for the:

BP-120 Nickel Cadmium, DC 4.8V, 600mAh ( data from original battery)

The Question is. I find 1200mAh NiCd sets which would give me about twice the run time. Would the unit handle the added size to charge properly? And would there be any issues with the built in charging, other then it would take a longer time to get back up to full power?

I also find 2200mAh Ni-MH units. Question is would this battery work and or charge in the unit, without damaging the built in charger? I like the thought of nearly 4 times the run time. Could I swap the NI-Cd for the NI-MH without issues?

Thoughts and opinions?

#2

Dave - chances are that you could replace the existing cells with NiMh without problems. The charger is not likely to be a smart charger that can detect what it is connected to. It will take longer to charge and, as always, don’t over charge - if you detect any warming of the battery pack disconnect the charger.

Good luck!

dave

#3

Thanks for the quick reply. The only charger for the battery pack is built into the hand held scanner. I suspect that if it “re-charges” the battery pack whenever it’s plugged in ( like the car charger, or the wall charger) then there might be issued leaving it plugged in the car for extended periods, ie:. train chasing with the Ni-Mh pack if the unit keeps charging.

How would I know?

#4

Interesting, Dave - if it is set up to continuously trickle charge it is unlikely that it would hurt the replacement cells. I wouldn’t be concerned.

dave

#5

If it charged the 600 mah pack, highly unlikely it would overcharge a pack with double the capacity, more likely undercharge.

True, a much larger pack could draw a lot more current when discharged, but in this case I would not worry, as David says, doubtful it’s a very smart charger.

Greg

#6

In the event the onboard charger is more than a simple trickle charger, I’d use a NiCad battery.

My experience suggests NiCad’s are more resilient to anything you can throw at them as compared to NiMH. The lifespan garnered of NiMH batteries I have utilized was much less than expected, if not outright disappointing.

FWIW: Trickle charging NiMH is all good, auto charging requires a charger designed for NiMH as the voltage peak is softer or harder to recognize than that of NiCad cells.

Michael

#7

I’d stick with the same chemistry and not switch.

The 1200mAh batteries will last twice as long, take twice as long to charge, and should work nicely for you.