[Motorola] NTN1171A Rapid Charger for HT1000 Radios

tvsjr at tvsjr.com tvsjr at tvsjr.com
Sat Jul 5 17:08:56 EDT 2014 

The 1171s are NiCd only. Even for NiCd, they were a poorly designed charger
and were prone to failures (the transformer brick going wonky and generating
improper voltage was a favorite)

The NTN1168, then the NTN7209, then the RPX4747 charger (all styled
IntelliCharger 2) were released when the factory NiMH batteries for Jedi
became available. There were aftermarket NiMH batteries for Jedi that came
out before the newer chargers did... these were all poorly regarded, likely
because they were charged with 1171s!

These days, the right answer is to buy the WPLN4111 impres charger. This
will safely charge both "dumb" and impres batteries in the NiCd, NiMH, and
LiIon flavors. You can charge anything from Jedi forward to XTS5000, plus
Saber, in these natively... adapters are available for APX and Visar (for
KVL3000/3K+). Just make sure the firmware version is at least 3.40,
preferably 3.90. Flashing these isn't hard, but it requires a special $150
box that is rather uncommon unless you find someone who has a large fleet of
impres hardware to maintain. There are several up on ebay, for instance:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-IMPRES-Battery-Charger-Model-WPLN4114AR-NIB
-V3-90-/321413232429?pt=US_Radio_Comm_Device_Batteries_Chargers&hash=item4ad
5b8b72d

-tvs


-----Original Message-----
From: Motorola [mailto:motorola-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of eric
lemmon
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2014 3:48 PM
To: 'Discussion of equipment manufactured by Motorola'
Subject: Re: [Motorola] NTN1171A Rapid Charger for HT1000 Radios

Scott,

Thanks for the response.  I, too, know of folks charging NiMH batteries with
the 1171A charger, but Motorola states unequivocally that the 1171A is for
NiCd batteries only, and has been replaced by the RPX4747A for NiMH and
NiCd.  The three-contact models do, in fact, monitor the temperature sensor
inside NiCd batteries.  However, as Bob Meister wrote in a Repeater-Builder
article, the trip points in some such chargers must be modified to avoid
damaging a NiMH battery, unless the charger can detect which battery
chemistry is in the pocket.

Before even experimenting with an expensive NiMH battery, I'd like to know
whether the four-contact NTN1171A is an early production version of the
RPX4747A charger that is appropriate for NiMH, or not.

Monday morning, I will open a case on MOL to get Motorola to answer the
question.

73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY



-----Original Message-----
From: Motorola [mailto:motorola-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of KB0NLY
Sent: Saturday, July 5, 2014 10:28 AM
To: Discussion of equipment manufactured by Motorola
Subject: Re: [Motorola] NTN1171A Rapid Charger for HT1000 Radios

I know of 1171A's being used to charge NiMH batteries but I don't know for
sure if its Motorola recommended.  I do know that generally the ones with
four contacts are rapid chargers with the thermal sensor input that can
handle NiMH, the three contact models are just dumb slow chargers though
some of the three contact models had a circuit in them that would light an
LED and turn it green based on battery voltage or current draw to indicate
fully charged, its been a long time since I went over the schematics for
one.

One thing I always hated about the 1171A is that when the light goes green
the battery is only about 80% charged, so most people that are in a hurry to
charge it won't ever fully charge the battery.  You have to let it go green
then wait another hour or so.  What I would do is put your NiMH battery in
the 1171A and closely monitor it and see if it starts getting hot, if it
does then don't use it for NiMH.  The NiMH chargers really only add a
thermal sense input to let the charger know if the battery is too cold or
too hot and stop charging.


73,

Scott KB0NLY


-----Original Message-----
From: eric lemmon
Sent: Saturday, July 5, 2014 9:20 AM
To: Motorola-Radius at yahoogroups.com ; 'Discussion of equipment manufactured
by Motorola'
Subject: [Motorola] NTN1171A Rapid Charger for HT1000 Radios

I have several NTN1171A Rapid Chargers for HT1000 portable radios.  I
noticed that some of them have four spring contacts while others have only
three.  I opened one of each to see what was different.  The three-contact
PCB has a part number of 8480648C01-P6, while the four-contact board has
part number 766V-A.  There are significant differences between them in
component count and layout.

I know that the NTN1171A charger is to be used only with NiCd batteries, and
was replaced by the RPX4747A charger, which can charge both NiCd and NiMH
batteries.  The RPX4747A is now NLA, so I can't examine its PCB to see if it
might resemble the 766V-A PCB.  Neither my HT1000 nor my Visar manuals
include any information about the NTN1171A or the RPX4747A chargers.

I am well aware that a NiMH battery can be toasted if placed in a NiCd-only
charger, and I don't want to risk damaging a new NiMH aftermarket battery.
I wonder: Is it possible that the four-spring version of the NTN1171A is
actually an early embodiment of the RPX4747A?  Moreover, is it safe to use
the four-spring NTN1171A to charge NiMH batteries?

73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY


______________________________________________________________
Motorola mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/motorola
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Motorola at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 

______________________________________________________________
Motorola mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/motorola
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Motorola at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

______________________________________________________________
Motorola mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/motorola
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Motorola at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

More information about the Motorola mailing list