UBC3500XLT Charging

[Admiral]

Okay, so finally shifted my immaculate 3500 for half of retail price, the buyer says that it's faulty because it takes 48hrs to charge the batteries internally, now I did tell him that's a known issue with these and that he would be best buying an external charger, but he wants to return it as he doesn't want that 'faffing about', fine, no problem, I'm a nice guy, but is 48hrs for a proper charge too long for these, or is it a bit too long and the thing is struggling? I made sure the little switch behind the batteries was in the right position for rechargables and it has brand new 2650mah Energizer batteries (which have had a few charge/discharge cycles).

[redman99]

Okay, so finally shifted my immaculate 3500 for half of retail price, the buyer says that it's faulty because it takes 48hrs to charge the batteries internally, now I did tell him that's a known issue with these and that he would be best buying an external charger, but he wants to return it as he doesn't want that 'faffing about', fine, no problem, I'm a nice guy, but is 48hrs for a proper charge too long for these, or is it a bit too long and the thing is struggling? I made sure the little switch behind the batteries was in the right position for rechargables and it has brand new 2650mah Energizer batteries (which have had a few charge/discharge cycles).

Is that with the radio on Rx too ? If the switch is in the wrong position it won't charge ! It has been advised many times not to charge batteries using the internal charger, some radio's have had the charger circuit fail or with the higher capacity batteries take a long time to charge.I would expect it to take 14 to 16 hrs to charge 2400 mA types with the radio switched off.

[scottyboy]

About 14hrs to get the charge complete message on mine
2700mAh batteries in use

[Admiral]

Cheers for the replies, I know they're slow, and I know upgrading from the (I think) 800mAh that came with it slows it down, I always used an external charger, sounds like mine (soon to be returned) unit may be slower than most.

[stanogs68]

you still didnt say what you wan for it put it on sale as faulty only kidding how much

[Buick Mackane]

A 2650 mah battery with a charge current of 800 ma should take around 4 hours to charge. So yip. Theres defo a problem somewhere.


**edit**, Thought you meant the charger was 800 ma but you meant the original batteries.

[Admiral]

Yeah, them shítty green things, no markings on them, presume 800mAh as that's about the grottiest they make.

[stanogs68]

thats verde green admiral ,they needed changing haha

[thelad]

Mine from new came with some 2250mAh GP cells, would take a good over night charge 5pm - 9am and that would show 4.15v on the scanner, its a very slow charger that is built in and mine never say fully charged on the screen. I now charge the cells in a smart charger and ballance them so gets me around 4.20v from 2900s. The 2250 cells say on them 'standard charge 16hrs at 220mA'

[Admiral]

I'm expecting it back today or tomorrow stan, so will check the serial to see if I've been robbed and make sure it's all there and intact, if everything is okay then I'll bundle in a smart charger and probably put it up for sale again next week.

I will also check the internal charge time with the supplied charger as I've never actually done it this way, I've always used an external one.

I'm looking for a VHF 380 or clone if you want to deal.

[redman99]

Mine from new came with some 2250mAh GP cells, would take a good over night charge 5pm - 9am and that would show 4.15v on the scanner, its a very slow charger that is built in and mine never say fully charged on the screen. I now charge the cells in a smart charger and ballance them so gets me around 4.20v from 2900s. The 2250 cells say on them 'standard charge 16hrs at 220mA'

The other thing to think about.Was the radio designed to charge Ni Cads or metal hydride cells, that can affect charging times as the radio's sometimes do not detect the V point correctly.
So may not display correctly.

[stanogs68]

I'm expecting it back today or tomorrow stan, so will check the serial to see if I've been robbed and make sure it's all there and intact, if everything is okay then I'll bundle in a smart charger and probably put it up for sale again next week.

I will also check the internal charge time with the supplied charger as I've never actually done it this way, I've always used an external one.

I'm looking for a VHF 380 or clone if you want to deal.

Admiral i would only probably use it a homebase 90% of the time any way as long as the AC is ok

[fluffypinkbunnies]

The built-in charger on the 3500 was never that good, I'd just turn it off and use a separate charger.
From what I remember it's just a timed low-current trickle charger. It only charges while the radio is off and seems to cut off after a fixed time (14 hours according to the manual) regardless of the battery voltage, and the timer resets if you disconnect the power or turn the radio on before it finishes charging, It definitely had me wondering if there was something wrong until I worked it out.