Sanyo battery pack
 

Hi
Need to replace a rechargeable battery pack from a 18 year old radio
scanner( Black panther/challenger bj200).. the label on the batteries says
sanyo but cant see any part number.. its a row of 5 AA size looking
batteries sealed in plastic with a red and black wire exiting.. the charger
is for 6V .anyone any ideas for a replacement?

Thankyou Daryn Lee

In article ,
Pompey © wrote:
Need to replace a rechargeable battery pack from a 18 year old radio
scanner( Black panther/challenger bj200).. the label on the batteries
says sanyo but cant see any part number.. its a row of 5 AA size
looking batteries sealed in plastic with a red and black wire exiting..
the charger is for 6V .anyone any ideas for a replacement?

If you can't source a replacement check the actual physical sizes against
lists from a electronic supplier.
They might be industrial rather than domestic types so slightly smaller.
You can then buy the correct cells with tags that may be soldered. Use
some heat shrink sleeving to hold the whole lot together. You should be
able to re-use the existing wire and connector.

--
*Speak softly and carry a cellular phone *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Pompey ©" wrote in message
.uk...
Hi
Need to replace a rechargeable battery pack from a 18 year old radio
scanner( Black panther/challenger bj200).. the label on the batteries says
sanyo but cant see any part number.. its a row of 5 AA size looking
batteries sealed in plastic with a red and black wire exiting.. the
charger is for 6V .anyone any ideas for a replacement?

Thankyou Daryn Lee


You don't give any clues about your electronics/soldering skills, so I'll
assume they are limited.

You can probably replace them with nice new 2500mAH NiMH cells, which should
give around 5 times the running time of your old cells. Old NiCad AA cells
are usually somewhere between 450-650mAH, probably most commonly 500mAH.

However, you will run into a problem. The new cells will require 5 times the
charging current over the same charge time, or the same charging current as
your old ones for 5 times as long.

Increasing the charging current 5 times is probably a non starter with the
same charger, and if the charger is a 14 hr type, well, increasing the
charging time is a non starter as well!

You can get AA cell holders which are so compact they use little more space
than custom assembled packs, so you *might* be able to use that approach. If
the batteries are easy to access you could pop them out of the holder and
charge them in a conventional charger, which would solve the problem of the
old charger not being up to scratch.

An easy substitute for your old cells might be using AAA cells instead,
which nowadays are sold in capacities from around 700mAH to 950mAH, not too
far away from what you probably have. Fitting these will mean they are
basically a drop in replacement, aside from the physical fit. You won't get
the full capacity out of them without a modification to the charger, but
there's a good chance the charger will easily handle alteration so it
charges at 70-95mAH instead of 50-60mAH, as it is probably capable of quite
a lot more than that.

The upside of using AAA cells, apart from the fact that it wouldn't be
necessary to mod the charger unless you really wanted the extra capacity, is
that these cells, even fitted into a holder, will fit into your scanner with
room to spare. AA cells might be a squeeze in a holder.

If you are skilled in electronics, I personally would opt for AA 2500mAH
cells, glued/shrink wrapped together in the same way as the old pack, with a
new wall adaptor and modified charging circuit. Even the cheaper
conventional (ie non-tagged) cells can be soldered as long as the contacts
are given a quick rub with fine sandpaper and soldered very quickly with a
hot iron.

Dave

"Dave D" wrote in message
...


Just to add to my last post, you can still get AA NiCad cells, I've seen
them at 700mAH which while far lower capacity than NiMH cells, is still
going to be higher than what you had, and they will charge OK with your
existing charger, though not to absolutely full capacity. Your choice of
cell depends on your soldering/electronic skills and whether you want to up
the running time of your equipment.

dave