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Alkaline battery drain on FT-817, even when off
I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the
FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O |
"Frank Olaughlin" wrote in message om... I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O Yea, that's normal. The power switch is electronic, meaning the circuitry is always watching it to see if anyone has pushed the power switch. It has to use a little currect to do this, not much, I suppose less than a milliamp, but it will drain batteries eventually. Dan, W9FCC |
"Frank Olaughlin" wrote in message om... I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O Yea, that's normal. The power switch is electronic, meaning the circuitry is always watching it to see if anyone has pushed the power switch. It has to use a little currect to do this, not much, I suppose less than a milliamp, but it will drain batteries eventually. Dan, W9FCC |
Well, an electronic power switch doesn't _have_ to draw current with the
power off (I've done it), but it's certainly _easier_ to design if you allow that. Have you checked that it isn't just the batteries aging? If it has a clock that would drain the battery. You should be able to design a clock that works off a bitty little watch battery for over a year, and consume significantly less current that the batteries natural self-discharge rate, but perhaps the saved a few pennies by using the on-board microprocessor instead of a dedicated low-power clock chip. "Dan McKenzie" wrote in message ... "Frank Olaughlin" wrote in message om... I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O Yea, that's normal. The power switch is electronic, meaning the circuitry is always watching it to see if anyone has pushed the power switch. It has to use a little currect to do this, not much, I suppose less than a milliamp, but it will drain batteries eventually. Dan, W9FCC |
Well, an electronic power switch doesn't _have_ to draw current with the
power off (I've done it), but it's certainly _easier_ to design if you allow that. Have you checked that it isn't just the batteries aging? If it has a clock that would drain the battery. You should be able to design a clock that works off a bitty little watch battery for over a year, and consume significantly less current that the batteries natural self-discharge rate, but perhaps the saved a few pennies by using the on-board microprocessor instead of a dedicated low-power clock chip. "Dan McKenzie" wrote in message ... "Frank Olaughlin" wrote in message om... I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O Yea, that's normal. The power switch is electronic, meaning the circuitry is always watching it to see if anyone has pushed the power switch. It has to use a little currect to do this, not much, I suppose less than a milliamp, but it will drain batteries eventually. Dan, W9FCC |
Frank Olaughlin wrote:
It is normal for the 817 to use power from the batteries in the off state. It is suggested that when storing the radio, any battery installed should be removed so that they don't drain and possibly start leaking. |
Frank Olaughlin wrote:
It is normal for the 817 to use power from the batteries in the off state. It is suggested that when storing the radio, any battery installed should be removed so that they don't drain and possibly start leaking. |
"Tim Wescott" wrote in message ...
Well, an electronic power switch doesn't _have_ to draw current with the power off (I've done it), but it's certainly _easier_ to design if you allow that. Have you checked that it isn't just the batteries aging? If it has a clock that would drain the battery. You should be able to design a clock that works off a bitty little watch battery for over a year, and consume significantly less current that the batteries natural self-discharge rate, but perhaps the saved a few pennies by using the on-board microprocessor instead of a dedicated low-power clock chip. "Dan McKenzie" wrote in message ... "Frank Olaughlin" wrote in message om... I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O Yea, that's normal. The power switch is electronic, meaning the circuitry is always watching it to see if anyone has pushed the power switch. It has to use a little currect to do this, not much, I suppose less than a milliamp, but it will drain batteries eventually. Dan, W9FCC Thanks guys for the replies. I probably should conduct a real test using alkalines fesh out of the box and test voltage before conducting it. Its the only way I'll know for sure that the drop is consistent. I put in 8 new AA eveready alkalines(not Energizer..could have been issue) and they were down to 8V after 10 days in the radio. Next time I'll put Energizers in there..(cheap enough these days). I'll also later..test it over a longer term using a 4ah SLA at a known starting voltage. Then I can look at it over a few weeks..taking into account any normal discharge in the SLA. thanks again for your comments. 73s Frank WQ1O |
"Tim Wescott" wrote in message ...
Well, an electronic power switch doesn't _have_ to draw current with the power off (I've done it), but it's certainly _easier_ to design if you allow that. Have you checked that it isn't just the batteries aging? If it has a clock that would drain the battery. You should be able to design a clock that works off a bitty little watch battery for over a year, and consume significantly less current that the batteries natural self-discharge rate, but perhaps the saved a few pennies by using the on-board microprocessor instead of a dedicated low-power clock chip. "Dan McKenzie" wrote in message ... "Frank Olaughlin" wrote in message om... I seem to notice that I get a battery drain on the alkalines in the FT-817, even when it is turned off with nothing else attached (ext power supply). Has anyone else noticed this condition? I've come up with a home brew case that will use a SLA battery to externally power it, but am still concerned about any (even if small) continuous battery drain. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 73 Frank WQ1O Yea, that's normal. The power switch is electronic, meaning the circuitry is always watching it to see if anyone has pushed the power switch. It has to use a little currect to do this, not much, I suppose less than a milliamp, but it will drain batteries eventually. Dan, W9FCC Thanks guys for the replies. I probably should conduct a real test using alkalines fesh out of the box and test voltage before conducting it. Its the only way I'll know for sure that the drop is consistent. I put in 8 new AA eveready alkalines(not Energizer..could have been issue) and they were down to 8V after 10 days in the radio. Next time I'll put Energizers in there..(cheap enough these days). I'll also later..test it over a longer term using a 4ah SLA at a known starting voltage. Then I can look at it over a few weeks..taking into account any normal discharge in the SLA. thanks again for your comments. 73s Frank WQ1O |
Most electronic devices use power even when off. Why? Because they're not
really off. That "on/off" switch is merely a low current device that tells the computer to turn things off, or on. But the computer must always have power applied so that it can perform this function. Not a lot of power to be sure, but power anyway. Same for computers that are left plugged in to a live outlet. |
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