[MFJ-Ameritron] Re: MFJ-259B charger problem

[Richard Keller]

Gentlemen,
Since I do not have all of the e-mail addresses in one place, I will
send only to the group.

I called MFJ support yesterday and the man said he is only a
technician and knows nothing about the 259B, he will refer my info to
the engineer. Hmmmmm. As I explained all the observations and input
from other owners, he said all I have to do is leave the charger
disabled; problem fixed. NOT! Why should I take out the eight screws
if I need to enable the charger when the batteries are discharged or
remove them for recharge?!

One of you said to just dummy out the charger input jack. Well, that
only works if the charger is disabled inside with the jumper. If that
is the case, there is no problem to begin with since it only draws
current with the charger circuit inline. Good thinking though.

MFJ is going to have to come up with a reasonable explanation for the
charger drawing current during unit-off condition. It sounds like a
recall fix is in order. There would be no easy way to solve this bug
short of leaving the charger disabled, but then why have a charger and
to recharge the batteries means removing them.

Will keep you advised. Thanks for the input from one and all.
73, Dick KF4NS
St. Petersburg, FL 33714 USA
Keep the glow!

---- Original Message ----- |

| Message: 1
| Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:30:49 +0100
| From: Charles B <ka4prf at us-it.net>
| Subject: Re: [MFJ-Ameritron] Re: MFJ-Ameritron Digest, Vol 2, Issue
4
| To: Richard Keller <rkeller at ij.net>
| Cc: mfj-ameritron at mailman.qth.net
| Message-ID: <40FCD839.1030905 at us-it.net>
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
|
| Richard,
|
| Good work.  Let us know when you find out something.
|
| Chuck
|
|
| Richard Keller wrote:
|
| > Ok Guys,
| > I have more info on this after watching closely after I charged
the
| > NIMH batteries I installed several months ago. Here is what is
| > happening.
| >
| > After a full charge of 14V I let it sit for two days and the
voltage
| > dropped rather steady until it reached 12.6V, then it stayed there
for
| > the last 3 days.
| >
| > Now we are on to something. It seems that the battery charging
circuit
| > built into the unit has a fault/characteristic that drains down
the
| > voltage to that precise level and then stops drawing current. I
will
| > contact MFJ and see what chip they use for the charger. Either
they
| > made a mistake in adding the external components or the chip is
not
| > being used in the correct configuration. No way to tell without a
| > schematic. Will try to get that also from MFJ.
| > 73, Dick KF4NS
| > St. Petersburg, FL 33714 USA
| > Keep the glow!



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