UBCD396T - Illegal Voltage

[vk2pwsham]

The radio has just come up with "Illegal Voltage" on the screen whilst just scanning a GRN site with the Uniden AC adaptor plugged in. All scanning stopped until I unplugged the adaptor. I have rechargable batts in it. Will have to try with different rechargables and even just powering it without any batts in it and see what happens

Anybody seen this happen before?
Wayne

[Bigfella237]

No offense to Uniden as they make a great scanner, but their in-built charging circuits have always been crap. I've heard of batteries being over-charged and therefore over-heated, even to the extent of warping the plastic battery compartment cover!

You will find most hardcore users have multiple sets of batteries and charge them externally so mains-power never goes near your investment.

There are many brands available but I use Energizer 2450mAh rechargeable batteries and the wall charger that comes with them, they're fairly cheap and available at most supermarkets. Although I'm sure everybody will have a different preference?

Andrew

[rustynswrail]

The radio has just come up with "Illegal Voltage" on the screen whilst just scanning a GRN site with the Uniden AC adaptor plugged in. All scanning stopped until I unplugged the adaptor. I have rechargable batts in it. Will have to try with different rechargables and even just powering it without any batts in it and see what happens
Anybody seen this happen before?
Wayne

Wayne,

It could also mean that one or more of your rechargables has failed. Replace them all with fresh secondary cells, it should come good.

R

[criten]

No offense to Uniden as they make a great scanner, but their in-built charging circuits have always been crap. I've heard of batteries being over-charged and therefore over-heated, even to the extent of warping the plastic battery compartment cover!

You will find most hardcore users have multiple sets of batteries and charge them externally so mains-power never goes near your investment

I agree the charge circuits are totally crap - they're an ideal way to ruin batteries.

Although I run without any AA rechargeables, I use the Uniden powerpack but running off a UPS. If I take it out in the field I use AA's of course, but I always charge with an Energizer charger as I know the Uniden will overcharge initially and if left plug in will never top up any discharges.

[vk2pwsham]

Thanks guys for the heads up.
Just for a test I pulled all the batts and ran it only on the ac powerpack and for a little while I got the "illegal voltage" message, but it now seems to have corrected itself............"touch wood"
Oh well back to using the recharges. thanks again

[Bigfella237]

In that case it sounds like the wall-wart is malfunctioning, is it the genuine charger?

If you have a multimeter you can test the output voltage and compare it to spec, although that might be difficult if it's an intermittent problem?

Andrew

[vk2pwsham]

its the genuine charger, and I've tested the output voltage when the illegal voltage message came up and it seemed okay (about 6.5volts unloaded) and it could be intermittent like you said, but it really needs to be tested under load conditions. Well its been powering the 396t all day without the batts in it, so tomorrow might put some batts back in, and see how we go.

At least the wall-wart is a real transformer, not one of those noisey broadband switch mode thingos!

Wayne

[Longreach]

Hi all,

I learnt years ago about charging batteries in scanners after i half melted down my first PSR500. Fortunately i was able to rebuild it and get it going again. However its never been the same.
Theres been various posts about this subject all over the intergoogle, RR and the like. The generally accepted answer is DON'T charge them in scanners no matter what the brand, type whatever.
Nowadays im reluctant to even power them off wall warts or any power source. only exception is my PSR800 which i run off the USB of the computer, however i drop a AA out so it wont charge them.

Cheers all
Matt

[vk2pwsham]

good food for thought there Matt. I've taken to just running it off the batts, and not be lazy and leave it plugged into the wall wart!

Wayne