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For information about operating the FT-817 with other types of cells, go here.
One of the more recent innovations in battery technology is the development of the Lithium-Ion cell.
Unlike the previous (well-known) lithium cells (such as the coin cells used in watches, computer battery
backup, etc.) it contains no actual metallic lithium - an element that is highly reactive - but rather a
Lithium-Cobalt Oxide is typically used - a material that poses less of a hazard. The major advantage of
Lithium-Ion cells is that they have a good power-to-weight ratio (i.e. "more watts per pound") as
compared to almost any other common rechargeable battery technology. Note that even though
Lithium-Ion cells are light, they aren't necessarily smaller that other types. These desirable properties
come at a price: Lithium-Ion cells are a real pain to work with. They do not take kindly to abuse - and
any abuse that you insist on meting out will likely result in permanent damage - to the cell - and possibly
the user! (But more on this later...)
First off, how many cells are required to run the FT-817? The nominal voltage for each cell is 3.6 volts
or so, so it would seem that either 3 cells (10.8 volts) or 4 cells (14.4 volts) would be ideal. The reality is
quite different, however.
More conventional rechargeable batteries (such as NiCd and NiMH) have the rather unique property (in
the battery world) that they maintain a fairly constant voltage over their discharge cycle - around 1.2 volts
- although they start out in the vicinity of 1.5 volts when "fresh out of the charger" and very quickly settle
down to the lower voltage. They maintain their voltage fairly well (within a few tenths of a volt,
depending on load and battery condition) until their charge is nearly depleted - and then the voltage
suddenly nosedives.
Differences in Li-Ion cells
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What about our "4 Cell" Li-Ion battery pack? At a cutoff A Word of warning: If you chose to
voltage of 2.5 volts per cell, this would mean that the '817 assemble a 3-cell Li-Ion pack for your '817
gets 10 volts - plenty of margin there. What about the
(heeding all other warnings, of course) you
"full charge" voltage? With 4 cells at 4.2 volts, this would must determine if your cells are coke or
apply 16.8 volts to the radio - nearly a volt beyond the
graphite types anddesign your pack to
radio's rating - something that is a definite no-no.
disconnect the cells appropriately - something
done with a "protection circuit", a device
The upshot of all of this? You may not be able to use a easily found at many of the same places that
Li-Ion battery to directly power the FT-817 and get both sell the LiIon cells in the first place!
full battery life and stay within the radio's voltage
ratings. With 3 cells (using coke anodes) the radio will shut down before the battery is fully discharged,
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and with 4 cells, the full-charge voltage exceed the rating of the radio.
There are several options to get around this:
Use a 3 cell (coke anode) battery pack and just live with diminished capacity. This could amount to
a loss of up to as much as 25% in battery capacity, as the radio will shut down before the battery is
fully discharged. (This doesn't guarantee that you won't "hurt" the cell that runs down first and
goes to a battery-damaging low voltage!)
Use a 4 cell battery pack and reduce the voltage using a low-dropout regulator when the battery is
near full charge (i.e. above 16.0 volts.) Such a low-dropout regulator could be constructed using
conventional bipolar transistors or (better yet) power MOSFETs. (Perhaps I'll build one and put the
design here... some day...)
In the case of the 4 cell pack, put enough diodes in series with the battery pack to prevent over 16
volts from reaching the radio when the battery pack is fully charged and the radio is off. Note that
this drop represents extra power loss.
Use a switching regulator that can operate over the entire voltage range and output the radio at the
voltage at which it is most efficient - Such a regulator is described on the Optimizing the Power
Consumption of the FT-817 when using Battery Power page.
Charge the 4-cell pack to only 4.0 volts/cell (e.g. 16.0 volts for the entire pack.) As noted in the
section near the bottom of the page, this will likely lead to longer battery longevity, anyway.
The most energy-efficient option is the last one and the reasons for this are described on the linked page.
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Note: Disassembling any battery pack can be hazardous and I cannot recommend that you do so. If you
insist on doing so despite my warning, you assume all risks in doing so. You must take care to avoid
shorting, puncturing, or otherwise damaging any cell(s) or associated circuitry in the pack, nor should
any safety device be defeated.
Several years ago (at the 1999 Dayton Hamvention, to be precise) I picked up three Li-Ion battery packs
(HP model F1193A) that were intended to power a laptop computer. These are rated at 14.4 volts with a
capacity of 2.5 amp/hours. More recently, I was given a defective (but fairly new) battery pack (the
circuit board was blown up, but the cells were just fine) that happened to use the same type of cells (Sony
US18650.) Each pack is arranged in a 2 x 4 array (4 pairs of cells in series.)
A few chips you might be able to use
with Li-Ion cells
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recommendation or endorsement of a
particular manufacturer or IC, but
rather to help steer someone toward the
right place. If you find some useful,
information please let me know.
http://www.ka7oei.com/ft817_roar.html
How do I charge these cells? Actually, the built-in circuitry makes it quite easy: I have a power supply
set to precisely 16.80 volts and the circuitry prevents overcharge. Ultimately, I plan to build a "smart"
charger (so I don't monopolize my workbench power supply when charging these things) but in the
meantime, this method works.
You might also wondering if the cells above are rated at 1.5 amp
hours, and there were two in parallel in the original packs, then
why was the original pack capacity 2.5 amp/hours instead of 3
amp/hours? My guess is that it has to do with the property of
any battery pack: The higher the load, the lower the capacity. In
the case of, say, a 100 amp/hour battery, you can probably draw
1 amp for 100 hours, but you can't pull 100 amps for 1 hour.
Why? The chemistry is less efficient at this higher current end
of the world. The same goes for the Li-Ion packs: The laptop Exterior view of the two 6 amp/hour 14.4
for which they were originally intended probably pulled several volt Li-Ion packs. As-packaged, these
amps - and the amp/hour ratings of the cells is based on a much packs weigh 32 oz (approx. 900 grams)
smaller load - approximately 0.2C. Since the FT-817 generally
each
pulls about 300 mA on receive, I would guess that the actual
Click on the picture for a larger
capacity of the packs will be closer to 6 amp/hours.
version.
How long will one of these packs power the FT-817? If the '817 is just sitting there on receive in a
squelched state, using the switching supply, one could reasonably expect about 26 hours of operation.
Without the switching regulator, this would drop to 20 hours or so.
Notice: The information contained on this and related pages is believed to be accurate, but no guarantees
are expressed or implied. The information on this and related pages should be considered to be "as-is"
and the user is completely responsible for the way this information is used. If you have questions,
additional information, or you find information that you believe to be incorrect, please report it via email.
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it!) While one will get, perhaps, 15-20% less capacity when charge to that lower voltage, the cell
will degrade less quickly and the literature indicates that the "crossover" point at which you will be
ahead of the game is between 1-2 years where the lesser-charged cells are in better condition than
the higher-voltage charged cells. Whether or not this turns out to be true, if you construct a 4-cell
LiIon pack like above, if you charge it to just 16.0 volts (4.0 volts/cell) then you will not have to
worry about exposing your radio to excess voltage! The obvious problem is that unless you
construct your own charger or modify one, you will have difficulty acheiving this lower cell
voltage. (Note: Some chargers will automatically drop the voltage if the battery pack is left on the
charger for long term.)
Store the cells at a less than fully-charged state. Various manufacturers suggest that it is best to
store LiIon cells if various types at, perhaps, 30-60% of full charge. The idea is that a fully-charge
cell will chemically degrade more quickly than one that is only partically charged. The important
caveat to this is that you DO NOT let the cell's voltage get TOO LOW - that is, below 2.5-3.0
volts/cell, EVER! This can happen due to self-discharge of the cell and/or from the small amount
of current from the "protection" circuit attached to it. As noted above, if the cell voltage gets too
low, it may be permanently damaged!
It is better to avoid deep discharge and frequently recharge the cell. This may contradict some
of the above - and it does, to an extent. With most battery technologies disproportionally more
"life" is taken out of a cell if it is deeply discharged than if it is only partially discharged. For
example, if a given cell is discharged by 80% 500 times, it will likely be degraded more than the
same type of cell that is discharged by 40% 1000 times. An example of this in the real world is
with electric cars: When their batteries are "dead", they still have a very significant charge on
them, but it is only by limiting the overall depth of charge that maximum reliability and lifetime can
be obtained. If you are not careful, this can contradict the previous statement about storing the cells
at a "less than fully-charged state" if you charge them again immediately after using them, but this
can be mitigated by planning ahead.
As you read the above, something may have occurred to you along the lines of "The entire reason that I
have these batteries is for emergency/backup/portable use, so how do I justify keeping them around if
they aren't fully-charged?"
That is a very good question, and if you find that this applies to you, the most pertinent advice is probably
the first point, above, about not "fully" charging them. If your needs are such that you must keep your
LiIon battery packs charged at all times, your best options are:
Keep them connected to the charger knowing that at a full 4.2 volts, their lifetime will likely be
reduced by 1/3-1/2 due to the constant exposure of the high voltage.
Top them off occasionally to the "normal" voltage (e.g. 4.2 volts/cell). The reduced exposure of the
high voltage will likely reduce their rate of degradation.
Top them off occasionally to the "lower" voltage (e.g. 3.9-4.0 volts/cell).
Remember: With casual use it can be difficult to tell how badly a cell has degraded. Having used a
variety of LiIon (and other types of) cells for several decades now and having the equipment on-hand to
analyze the actual capacity of those cells I have observed that it is not immediately obvious that a NiCd,
NiMH or LiIon battery pack for a radio such as a Handie Talkie - or even a lead-acid battery - has
degraded until it gets down to 15-25% of its original amp-hour capacity. Even at such diminished
capacity it will "seem" to work OK - even at high transmit power - but it is not until it is used "heavily"
for several hours or days that it suddenly becomes obvious that it is a shadow of its former self - and then
it's too late!
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For additional information about charging Lithium-Ion cells, visit these pages:
Battery University - Charging Lithium Ion Batteries
Proper Care Extends Li-Ion Battery Life
For information about operating the FT-817 with other types of cells, go here.
Another "battery" page:
The NiCd/NiMH page - This page describes in some detail the care and feeding of NiCd and
NiMH cells and batteries. This explains how to keep NiCd cells going, and what that "memory" affect
really is! (Hint: It's not the "memory" effect at all!) This page also has Links to manufacturers'
information about various types of cells (NiCd, NiMH, Li-Ion, Alkaline, etc.)
Go to The KA7OEI FT-817 "Front Page" - This is, well, the "front" page of the '817
pages here...
Any comments or questions? Send an email!
This page maintained by Clint Turner, KA7OEI and was last updated on 20150415. (Copyright 2001-2015 by Clint Turner)
Since 12/2010:
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