Scorpion NiMh battery life? Geesh!

BigWave

BigWave

Member
Had an issue a couple times with battery life on my Scorpion. My Scorpion and re-chargeables are new withing the last month and a half. All bought new from AP Calls. I charge the unit for a couple hours before use. This afternoon we went out, did the first stand of about 18 minutes, did a quick 10 minute stand in a small area, then moved to another area. We were there MAYBE 5 minutes and my caller went dead. Wouldnt turn back on so I figure that the batteries died. This has happened to me 3-4 times now. I come home and plug in the fast charger and within 20-30 minutes I get the green light on the charger indicating a full charge.
Please tell me that I should be able to get more that 2-3 stands out of a charge! Is this a battery problem or a possible unit problem, overheating, etc? Getting pretty frustrated with this thing at this point. I'll be calling APCalls and FoxPro on Monday.
 
Last edited:
I might be wrong, but just read the manual for the Scorpion on FP's site. It said the green light indicates unit is in charge cycle when on and still charging. Kind of makes sense as when batteries are low the green led comes on. Just my thoughts.

Boom
 
My units LED green light is always on while charging. Its also always on while the unit is turned on. On my fast charge unit there is an indicator light that is red or green. When I plug it in to charge the light is red, it eventually turns green which I assume means that the unit is charged.
 
BigWave,
It sounds like your charger is working correct. You should definitely be able to get a day of solid calling out the caller and probably more. I've run mine over 2 1/2 days of calling in the cold and it kept on going. Are you batteries the NiMH type made by Powerizer? I'd charge everything up at home and then start up the caller running on a medium (20 to 28) volume. See how long it will run playing a sound. If it dies very fast, somethings wrong. Give FoxPro a ring Monday and check with them.
 
Thanks for the reply snow! Those are my batteries. The lite blue and orange 2600's from APCalls. I will give that a try later today. Thank you!
 
I had to replace those batteries first thing, went to wal-mart and got the 2500 mAh energizer rechargables. they work good in my FX5.

t/c223encore.
 
I kinda doubt you are fully charging the batteries with only a couple of hours on the factory charger.
 
Quote:
I kinda doubt you are fully charging the batteries with only a couple of hours on the factory charger.



Ok. Like I said above. This is about a month old unit. I have the fast charger. When I initially charged the unit/batteries it took about 6-7 hours to get the "green light" indicator on the charger, which indicates a full charge. When I go out, its usually in the afternoon and for only a couple stands most times. I typically will come home, plug the unit in to the charger and charge until I get a green light indicating that the charge is complete. Most times I will bump charge it right before I head out just to make sure I have a full charge, again, until I have a green light indicating a full charge.
Are you saying that the light is not working correctly, or something different?
 
Batteries are just warm.
Batteries are correctly installed. I double checked that right off the bat.

Thanks for the ideas.
 
Last edited:
Next time it dies on you, get hold of a voltmeter and test the cells individually. If you have one or more that are significantly under ~1.1VDC, you've most likely got a bad cell that needs to be replaced. (It may just be taking a "surface charge" with no real capacity.)

LionHo
 
Quote:
Next time it dies on you, get hold of a voltmeter and test the cells individually. If you have one or more that are significantly under ~1.1VDC, you've most likely got a bad cell that needs to be replaced. (It may just be taking a "surface charge" with no real capacity.)

LionHo



Thank you. Did it and found 3 bad batteries with a reading of from .18 to .30 while all the good ones are at about 1.3-4. Threw them all in the trash and went down and bought some Energizer 2500's. Checked them all and they are good. I think its cured. Thanks for all the help and ideas guys!
 
I've never had an issue with the Powerizer's, but I've had other NiMH batteries that were bad. I've had good luck with the Energizers too and they're relatively inexpensive. Keep us posted if that takes care of it for you.
 
Someone owes you a set of batteries, IMO. Might be worth a phone call. Also might be handy to have an extra set of batteries.
 
I've found that rechargable batteries are kind of like a box of chocolates....

I've used Ray-O Vacs, Energizers, and Duracells, and wasn't impressed with the life of any of them. I'm currently using Radio Shack batteries and they seem to be holding up better than the others so far. I've also found that it's a good idea to carry a value pack of regular batteries in your gear just in case. They don't take up much room and can save the day.
 
Over the years I've used many brands and I like the Sanyo Eneloop cells more than any I've tried. They are NIMH and keep their charge a very long time which is not what regular NIMH batteries do. They are really neat and Thomasdistributing.com has them.
 
Back
Top