[Elecraft] KX3 and charging batteries (when, and why do they get hot?)

[Arno Dienhart]

So I got a new, factory-assembled KX3 yesterday, with charger installed. 

I bought eight Rayovac Platinum NiMH 2000mA cells “ready to go”, inserted
them, and ran the radio on batteries for just a few minutes, when I got the
LO BATT message. So I started charging them, with timer on 12 hrs.

 

After about two hours, they had gotten over 40° and charging halted until
they had cooled down again. The next morning, charging was in its last 7
minutes, so it must have halted more often over the course.

 

Is this normal? Or is my ingoing voltage too high, coming from a wall wart
rated at 13-15.8V @ 960mA?

Are the batteries (or one/some of them) defective? I bought them in two
packs of four each.

 

Were the batteries still way too full when I started charging? I didn’t
check voltage at the LOW BATT warning. When should such batteries get
charged, at what voltage level?

 

Other than that, I cannot say much because I am still working on an antenna.
But the CW code practice setting works really nice :-). It even goes up to
700 Hz (not 600 as per manual).

 

Thank you for your expert advice.

 

73,

Arno