Slim Battery for XTS-2500?

Post by **hutch987** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:55 am

Hello All,

The latest info I could find on a search for this topic did not address my concerns, but I apologize if this has been asked and answered in another forum. Basically my L.E. Agency ordered twenty of the XTS-2500 radios with the NTN9858C Li-ion impres batteries. These batteries are very heavy and protrude quite far from the back of the radio. Since we are all in plain clothes, we need/want a slimmer battery. Motorla parts ID and our sales guy insist this is the slimmest battery currently available. Does anyone have any idea if this is actually true? They told me there was not a stubby VHF antenna for the radio either, but guess what, I found them, so I am a little hesitant to just take their word for it. Of course I have done an online search, etc and the only dimensions I can find indicate the other battery avaialble, a Nicad (NTN9857C) is the same size, without benefit of the impres system.

Thanks

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:32 pm

Guess what...

That battery isn't Li-ion, it's Ni-MH, hence the weight. As far as I know, there isn't a Li-ion Impres battery out for the XTS2500 yet - it's in the works, though. The only Li-ion I know of is the NNTN7032A but it isn't Impres. Nice battery, I have three.

You can always take a slim Waris Li-ion battery and use it, but it won't charge in an XTS charger. You'll have to remove the battery from the radio every time, place it in a Waris charger, etc. Gonna get old real fast.

Post by **hutch987** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:52 pm

Thanks for your reply. I was on the line with Motorola parts again and they told me the same thing, a Li-ion is due out in December they hope. I meant to type that I had a Nimh vs Li-on, so much for proof reading. You are absolutely right that my partners will whine, moan and gripe about our brand new radios if they have to separate them from the batteries to charge them. I did get the OK to go to a 3rd party supplier for the slimmer batteries if there are any made. Just to confirm that no matter who makes them they will not work in the impres chargers? It seems like there is a slight heighth difference in the batteries that keeps the slimmer HT-1250 batteries for instance from making proper contact.

Thanks again

Post by **escomm** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:54 pm

Wicho wrote:You can always take a slim Waris Li-ion battery and use it, but it won't charge in an XTS charger. You'll have to remove the battery from the radio every time, place it in a Waris charger, etc. Gonna get old real fast.

Or cut some new grooves into the battery.... :O

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:15 pm

escomm wrote: Or cut some new grooves into the battery.... :O

Very Hamsexy Jeff.

The Impres charger will also charge non-Impres batteries regardless of the manufacturer, but you won't get the benefits of the Impres system. Regarding the Waris v XTS2500 battery height, the charging contacts are indeed at different heights, the batteries are the same height, however. The inside contacts for the radio are also at different heights, but the Waris ones have two different sets of contacts if memory serves. I know they work because I've used my slim Li-ion Waris batteries on my XTS2500's. Battery life is pretty weak, though. Something like 6-7 hours before the low battery chirp comes on, but they will go a full 8 hours before giving up the ghost.

For public safety use, I'd opt for the higher capacity batteries even if they are bigger, but would go for Li-ion. Last thing you want to do is run out of juice when you need it most.

Post by **hutch987** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:30 pm

Ha ha!! I can see my Chief's face now as I break out the Dremel tool im my cubicle and start cutting into the new batteries! Now, I may have to pick up a personal battery or two and give that a try. Actually I got it to work by putting a staple remover under the battery while it is in the charger. That raised the contacts high enough.Again, I do not mind that for me, but CANNOT tell the guys they have to do the same for obvious reasons. We don't work a patrol shift so usually we don't need a full 8 hours of battery time, especially if we have two batteries for each guy like I ordered.

I think we will wait until December for the "slimmer" Li-ion as promised. If not, we will try something else. What type bit would that Dremel require?

Post by **Mfire39** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:54 pm

The HNN9013 slim Lith Ion for the Pro series works great on a 2500.. The radio and battery will fit into a Pro series charger and charge with no problem, without having to take the battery off the radio.. Just an already mentioned alternative if your not too concerned with the IMPRES features.

-Marc

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:01 am

Mfire39 wrote:The HNN9013 slim Lith Ion for the Pro series works great on a 2500.. The radio and battery will fit into a Pro series charger and charge with no problem, without having to take the battery off the radio-Marc

Hey Marc,

How are you getting it to work in a Pro series charger? Whenever I try that, I get the rapid blinking red light on the charger. I've tried it with two different HNN9013D's attached to the XTS2500. When I remove the battery from the radio and just charge the battery , no problem.

Post by **Mfire39** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:47 am

Play around with it... Make sure it's seated all the way down in the charger.. I kept getting the blinking red, and then after I played with it for a minute, I got it to take and it gave me a solid red.. It's been fine ever since..

-Marc

Post by **Grog** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:27 pm

I've always preferred to charge my battery by itself anyway. Of course I do have several batteries for my sabers and jedis, as well as a battery eliminator for the jedi if needed.

Post by **hutch987** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:46 pm

Can anyone advise what is the slimmest/lightest PRO series battery?

DES-AJ · Post by **DES-AJ** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:58 am

When I have a slim XTS impres batt on the back of my XTS2500I it will finally be complete

They did it for the 3000/5000 and it runs forever!

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:09 am

It's the HNN9013. Shoot me a PM with your email addy and I'll send you some pics of the battery and my XTS2500 with it attached so you can get an idea what it's like.

The battery weighs 5.7 ounces on my postal scale, and that's with the belt clip attached.

The radio with the battery comes in at 1lb, 2.1 ounces.

hutch987 wrote:Can anyone advise what is the slimmest/lightest PRO series battery?

Post by **Grog** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:59 pm

Wicho wrote:It's the HNN9013. Shoot me a PM with your email addy and I'll send you some pics of the battery and my XTS2500 with it attached so you can get an idea what it's like.

The battery weighs 5.7 ounces on my postal scale, and that's with the belt clip attached.

The radio with the battery comes in at 1lb, 2.1 ounces.

Wicho wrote: The thick battery is the NNTN7032A Li-ion made for the XTS2500. The thin battery is the HNN9013 Li-ion for the Waris line

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:13 pm

Thanks for hosting those Grog.

Wicho.

DES-AJ · Post by **DES-AJ** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:25 pm

Thanks Grog, How long do you find the 2500 runs on that battery with normal use?

Post by **Grog** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:36 pm

DES-AJ wrote:Thanks Grog, How long do you find the 2500 runs on that battery with normal use?

I've never had to change any 2500 batteries at all......

P.S. You might want to ask Wicho, those are his pictures

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:21 am

Grog wrote:
DES-AJ wrote:Thanks Grog, How long do you find the 2500 runs on that battery with normal use?
I've never had to change any 2500 batteries at all......

P.S. You might want to ask Wicho, those are his pictures

Hehehe...

On the slim battery, I get about six hours before the low battery chirp comes on, and by 8 hours the battery is totally dead. That's with normal TX/RX use. If the radio is just sitting there on one channel with not much activity and very little or no TX, it will go 12 hours.

The thick battery, which is made for the XTS2500, will go for a long time. I've used it 13 hours with moderate TX and the low battery chirp has not come on. I have the radios set so the low battery warning chirps at 10% capacity.

Hope this is the info you were looking for.

Wicho.

Post by **hutch987** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:19 pm

Motorola Product development informed us this week that the December 2007 release date for the thinner Li-ion battery for the XTS-2500 is still on track. No part number provided yet! Thanks for all of the help!

Hutch

Post by **escomm** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:19 pm

Item Number. NNTN7335A

FINAL ASSEMBLY, BATTERY, JEDRAY LIION IMPRES BATT
Unit of Measure: EA

Lead time (days) 5 List price $135.00 Available N

Post by **hutch987** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:26 pm

UNBELIEVABLE!!

Can Motorola ever get anything right??? I received the new Li-ion "slim" battery for the XTS-2500 today, (NNTN7335A). Guess what? It is lighter alright, but EXACTLY the same size as the standard Nimh battery. Why would they do this? they already have the right SIZE HNN 9013 battery being used on the Waris line as discussed earlier in this thread. The new battery has that same ridiculous hump in the back tha makes the radio too fat for plain clothes use.

I have never been more frustrated. I guess we will have to buy the HNN9013's (non impress) to get the right size. Of course we paid for the impress chargers for a reason.......

Post by **Grog** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:50 am

Heh, when you buy /\/\ you take your chances

libuff · Post by **libuff** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:35 pm

i found a $2 solution to getting a waris battery to sit correctly into a Impres Charger...

our two test batteries, XTS2500 battery NTN9857C, and Waris battery HNN4001A...

note the disparity between the two contacts...

the answer is $2 in quarters... its working perfectly!

cheap/practical/reproducible, it works! lol...

Post by **escomm** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:03 pm

that's quite odd... the sticker indicates an earlier warranty date than the code printed on the battery

Post by **Grog** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:13 pm

libuff wrote:i found a $2 solution to getting a waris battery to sit correctly into a Impres Charger...

our two test batteries, XTS2500 battery NTN9857C, and Waris battery HNN4001A...

http://www.incurronoctis.com/impres/2.JPG

note the disparity between the two contacts...

the answer is $2 in quarters... its working perfectly!

http://www.incurronoctis.com/impres/1.JPG

cheap/practical/reproducible, it works! lol...

You might be a /\/\ redneck if........

libuff · Post by **libuff** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:25 am

escomm wrote:that's quite odd... the sticker indicates an earlier warranty date than the code printed on the battery

that waris battery i not my own.. and i too was quite weirded out by that... it came from a local moto shop on a demo radio that i was using for a few weeks...

Wicho · Post by **Wicho** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 2:02 pm

I'm gonna have to try that $2 solution tonight...when my wife isn't looking. She already thinks I throw too much money at radios - if she sees me doing this, she'll think I've gone completely koo-koo.

Terry_Glover · Post by **Terry_Glover** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:33 pm

Jeez, I'd be a little worried about those coins gettin' bounced and shorting across the contacts when I wasn't looking. Cut yourself a little piece of wood or plastic or rubber the same thickness. Put the quarters back in your pocket.

Post by **Grog** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:28 pm

It looks like he wrapped the coins in that pic, so at least he didn't just toss a handful of coins under there

libuff · Post by **libuff** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 7:29 pm

as ghetto as it is, i've futher evolved it to a $3 solution, by adding a 3rd stack of quarters, completely wrapping the coins in electrical tape, now i can put battery & radio in the charger w/o blinking lights...

ASTROnomic · Post by **ASTROnomic** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:11 am

libuff wrote:as ghetto as it is, i've futher evolved it to a $3 solution, by adding a 3rd stack of quarters, completely wrapping the coins in electrical tape, now i can put battery & radio in the charger w/o blinking lights...

THREAD REVIVED FOR A QUICK NOTE:

You may also consider Part Number RLN5647, spacer for WPLN4111/4112 IMPRES Chargers:

FOUND HERE http://www.motcom.ch/produkte_info.php?idp=1238

noSQUELCH

N4DES · Post by **N4DES** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:11 pm

Hightower wrote:When using the slim Waris Li-Ion IMPRES is used on the XTS2500, does it show the battery icon (top of screen) as well as show battery info on the radios BATT menu?

The one that I have doesn't say IMPRES on it, so I would guess that it won't display anything until the battery is close to being fully discharged.

Post by **escomm** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:15 pm

No, the data is not sent to the radio because it's not making contact in the right spot with the battery

N4DES · Post by **N4DES** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:50 am

ASTROnomic wrote:
libuff wrote:as ghetto as it is, i've futher evolved it to a $3 solution, by adding a 3rd stack of quarters, completely wrapping the coins in electrical tape, now i can put battery & radio in the charger w/o blinking lights...

THREAD REVIVED FOR A QUICK NOTE:

You may also consider Part Number RLN5647, spacer for WPLN4111/4112 IMPRES Chargers:

FOUND HERE http://www.motcom.ch/produkte_info.php?idp=1238

noSQUELCH

This part didn't show up on MOL so I called parts ID and they said that this item is currently not available and were not able to provide a availability date.

Mark

Post by **akardam** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:48 am

As far as I know, that part is not orderable in the U.S., period. I think it is/was primarily available in Europe.

N4DES · Post by **N4DES** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 5:05 am

This interesting because I received one with the KVL3000/Impress charger combination that we purchased around 2 years ago. There is no part # on it so I have to assume that you have to by a special part # Impress charger to get the spacer.

Post by **akardam** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:20 am

KS4VT wrote:This interesting because I received one with the KVL3000/Impress charger combination that we purchased around 2 years ago. There is no part # on it so I have to assume that you have to by a special part # Impress charger to get the spacer.

What you probably have is the insert that allows you to charge a Visar battery (which is what the KVL3k/3k+ uses) in an Impres charger. That's a different beast than what people are talking about above.

Post by **escomm** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:07 am

akardam wrote:As far as I know, that part is not orderable in the U.S., period. I think it is/was primarily available in Europe.

Correct, it is not orderable by itself, but if you order the Impres battery reader you get the adapter that lets you charge Pro series Impres batteries in the WPLN4111AR and you also get an adapter that lets you charge TRBO batteries in the WPLN4111AR

FireCpt809 · Post by **FireCpt809** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:32 am

akardam wrote:As far as I know, that part is not orderable in the U.S., period. I think it is/was primarily available in Europe.

We need to find some German friends who can order some and gift us a few..

N4DES · Post by **N4DES** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:55 pm

akardam wrote:
KS4VT wrote:This interesting because I received one with the KVL3000/Impress charger combination that we purchased around 2 years ago. There is no part # on it so I have to assume that you have to by a special part # Impress charger to get the spacer.
What you probably have is the insert that allows you to charge a Visar battery (which is what the KVL3k/3k+ uses) in an Impres charger. That's a different beast than what people are talking about above.

OK it looked the same in the picture. Thanks for the info.

e231 · Post by **e231** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:03 pm

escomm wrote:No, the data is not sent to the radio because it's not making contact in the right spot with the battery

thats not right. The waris batteries I have provide two sets of contacts, high for 1550, low for 1250/750. There are three strips with separations for high and low contacts made only by the sticker with holes in it. The question is- is an impres battery an impres battery. Or, are there waris impres batt's and high tier impres batt's?

Post by **escomm** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:58 pm

e231 wrote:
escomm wrote:No, the data is not sent to the radio because it's not making contact in the right spot with the battery
thats not right. The waris batteries I have provide two sets of contacts, high for 1550, low for 1250/750. There are three strips with separations for high and low contacts made only by the sticker with holes in it. The question is- is an impres battery an impres battery. Or, are there waris impres batt's and high tier impres batt's?

you misunderstood, waris radios do not communicate with the impres battery in the way the xts series does. the xts series has battery info available as a menu item, the waris radios have a fuel gauge only and obviously that's not exclusive to the impres batteries.

e231 · Post by **e231** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:21 am

That was the answer I was looking for, no misunderstanding here. The previous answer of connecting to the wrong spot was bogus. The simple fact is the high tier impres offers addt'l functionality over the the other units. Now besides the "smart batt data not available", will the fuel guage show up-or not. That was the other guy's question. I don't have a waris impres to try it. If someone does, put this one to bed. thanks

Post by **akardam** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 7:55 am

e231 wrote:That was the answer I was looking for, no misunderstanding here. The previous answer of connecting to the wrong spot was bogus.

Well, if the set of contacts on a Pro series battery that make contact with an XTS portable radio doesn't provide Impres data, then it is indeed connecting the wrong spot. Just because there's a contact doesn't mean there's actually anything connected to it.

e231 wrote:Now besides the "smart batt data not available", will the fuel guage show up-or not. That was the other guy's question. I don't have a waris impres to try it. If someone does, put this one to bed. thanks

A Pro series Impres battery (in this case, HNN4003) shows neither the fuel gauge or smart battery data when placed on an XTS portable.

The real question is how are those contacts connected to the battery's internal flex, and if there's any differences between a Pro series Impres battery and an XTS Impres battery. If someone's really curious, they're going to have to tear apart some batteries. Other'n that, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Post by **escomm** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:34 pm

e231 wrote:That was the answer I was looking for, no misunderstanding here. The previous answer of connecting to the wrong spot was bogus. The simple fact is the high tier impres offers addt'l functionality over the the other units. Now besides the "smart batt data not available", will the fuel guage show up-or not. That was the other guy's question. I don't have a waris impres to try it. If someone does, put this one to bed. thanks

Apparently you've misunderstood my second reply as well. The contacts for communication are in fact in the wrong place, as you've noticed the XTS2500 battery does not give the fuel gauge on a HT1250. You will note the proper HT1250 battery does show up on the fuel gauge. Just because the waris firmware does not support the radio communicating with the battery and displaying the output on the display does not mean the high tier impres offers features the lower tier does not.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect Motorola to go back and re-write the firmware for the radio for a single feature not many customers are concerned about. I don't see any complaints about the XTS3000 or Astro Saber not displaying battery information and I think we can all agree that those radios would fall into the "high tier"

The batteries do carry the information, if you've ever seen the rack charger you'll notice the relevant battery information does show up. If you have an Impres battery reader you'll also notice the same exact information available for the batteries for the "high tier" radios also shows up for the "mid tier" radios

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:31 am

Hi, Hutch!

Not sure how SLIM you need, but we use the NNTN7335A IMPRES 2700 MAH (7.4V 17.8 Wh).

Larry

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:31 am

Hi, Hutch!

Not sure how SLIM you need, but we use the NNTN7335A IMPRES 2700 MAH (7.4V 17.8 Wh) on our XTS2500 radios.

Larry