Batboard

I just recently purchased an HT1250 VHF HT off ebay. It did not have a charger so I purchased one off ebay as well. The problem I am having is when I try to charge the battery with the radio attached to it, the light flashes red. When I remove the battery from the radio, the battery charges just fine. The other thing that is wierd, if I turn on the radio while it is setting in the charging cradle, the battery begins charging. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks By the way, I know the battery is brand new!

Ok, how long ago did you get the "new" battery, or did it come with the radio? I just purchased some batts from the maumee swap and found that even though they were all still in the plastic wrap, all three batts were bad. They're all going back to the distributor as well. My VFD is pretty much running on some very old batts now, and alot of time wasted, not to mention there's that time they will need it most and that radio won't be there for them because of a bad battery, thus , putting that FF and citizens live's on the line. I've found with the 1250 and other radios as well, if the battery was laying around or a first time charge after months of sitting around the charger may do this.
Jimmy

sheriffe9 i had the same problem with my ht 1250 check the date code on the batt. might need a new one. when i got a new battery the problem was solved. hope this helps.

The date code is 422. The battery is brand new, I just bought it at my /\/\ Dealer. I will try running the battery completly down and see if that helps. Hopefully it isn't the radio itself!

Ok, M dealer, 422 date code. Sounds like it's a good battery. Best thing to do is run it down and then stick it in the charger.
jimmy.

sheriffe9 wrote:I just recently purchased an HT1250 VHF HT off ebay. It did not have a charger so I purchased one off ebay as well. The problem I am having is when I try to charge the battery with the radio attached to it, the light flashes red.

try the same battery on someone elses HT in the same charger, that will let u know if the radio is somehow screwing with the logic circut in the charger and getting you the "charge error" red flash indicator. If every radio does it while it's turned off, then it's the charger causing the beef. oh, and are those contacts clean?

sheriffe9 wrote:When I remove the battery from the radio, the battery charges just fine.

leads me to believe the problem lies in the radio, maybe some kind of current leak or short...

sheriffe9 wrote: The other thing that is wierd, if I turn on the radio while it is setting in the charging cradle, the battery begins charging.

Ok, that's not a good practice to get in to doing (leaving the radio on while in the charger. you WILL substantially shorten your battery life). But it shows that what ever was causing the charger fault, is not anymore .... or else the charger would not charge. So the problem goes away when the radio is on....i'd start to think that purty new HT is the issue.

Yep, it is definitely something with the radio! I took it to work and stuck it in a charger and the same thing happened. I stuck a fully charged battery on the back of it and it still would not charge with the radio attached. I sure hope it doesnt cost $200+ dollars to fix!

Case closed..............?
Jimmy

sheriffe9 wrote:Yep, it is definitely something with the radio! I took it to work and stuck it in a charger and the same thing happened. I stuck a fully charged battery on the back of it and it still would not charge with the radio attached. I sure hope it doesnt cost $200+ dollars to fix!

Yes, there is something wrong with the radio. If you do send it in for repair, let us know what /\/\otorola did and how much $$$ to fix.

I am trying to get a hold of my radio tech about this, I am definitely have him get it taken care of, I will be sure to report back to you on what I find out. Thanks for your assistance.

04/13/04

Off to the depot today!

I took the radio to the depot, the guy told me he has never heard of the problem! He then continued on about the radio probally being hacked... He then told me I could send it into the /\/\ depot to fix it but... there flat rate for an HT1250 is $310, I am just going to save my money and deal with it! So much easier to just detach the battery to charge it then to shell out that kind of money when everything else works fine.

sheriffe9 wrote:I took the radio to the depot, the guy told me he has never heard of the problem! He then continued on about the radio probally being hacked... He then told me I could send it into the /\/\ depot to fix it but... there flat rate for an HT1250 is $310, I am just going to save my money and deal with it! So much easier to just detach the battery to charge it then to shell out that kind of money when everything else works fine.

the guy is probably a n00b if he's never heard of a radio having a current leak or some kind of low drain - short...you can either get creative with a multimeter and backpin the terminals to find out if there's a leak, some of the radio gods here will probably know resistance to ground values and such, or you can save your money and just charge the battery sans-radio in the meanwhile....and if it's yours, and you're careful, you can always diagnose on your own, if you're brave (or stupid, like me)

This problem most likely came from the original owner hooking up the radio backwards - either a incorrectly wired battery eliminator, or someone tring to somehow rig the radio to power without a battery (alligator clips, etc). Once hooked up backwards (and depending on how long it was left to smoke), the internal pico fuse blows and takes out the polarity protection diode(s) as well. Unfortunally the battery monitor circuit is usually blown as well and needs to be repaired.

A good indication of this "battery monitor circuit" is blown or otherwise defective/damaged is that the battery indicator (on the LCD display) will not function properly. It might not show up, or always show a full charge reguardless of the batteries charge state.

Because of the fact that you can leave the HT1250 on while it's charging, in the charger, the radio itself needs to monitor the charging reguardless if the radio is on or off while in the charger. <----read that one a few times, it does make sence.....
That's why a battery by itself will charge just fine.

Save the $310 and use that to buy a new HT1250 OR spend $60 or less and just get a spair battery to have ready at all times.

Enjoy your radio

Hightower wrote: A good indication of this "battery monitor circuit" is blown or otherwise defective/damaged is that the battery indicator (on the LCD display) will not function properly. It might not show up, or always show a full charge reguardless of the batteries charge state.

Yep, that's what it is, battery has been on radio for 48 hours with the radio turned on. Battery still shows 100% even though I hooked up my Fluke to it and it read 6.19VDC. Definately not worth fixing.

I just ordered a new one with 2 year /\/\ warranty... $810
Don't buy an HT-1250 from him!!! BE FORWARNED!