Charging ICOM VHF on a Trip

[mintokames]

Hi

Anyone got any experience of charging ICOM handheld VHF's during a long trip, where a 240V supply won't be available. Thinking about the likes of powermonkey type devices, solar charging ....etc ... Or any other thoughts ....

Cheers

Rob

[journeyman]

Rob - I'm in the process of looking at this myself.
You can charge the ICOM in their base units by running 12V into the unit's supply input.
I'm looking for a small sealed rechargeable 12V batt to act as a recharging unit, which will be charged from a solar blanket. Anybody know of a supplier of small units?

[sleepybubble]

Rob - I'm in the process of looking at this myself.
You can charge the ICOM in their base units by running 12V into the unit's supply input.
I'm looking for a small sealed rechargeable 12V batt to act as a recharging unit, which will be charged from a solar blanket. Anybody know of a supplier of small units?

Maplins, or Farnell. Maplins would be your best bet if there is one local to you then you can handle stuff. I would not rely too much on a solar charger system though. You'll probably find anything small enough to carry around to be underpowered. For your trip Eurion maybe look into battery trays from Maplins. It could intially be loaded with rechargable batteries and if the solar gain is not cutting it then you can easily get replacement non rechargeable batteries all around the coast.
Presume it would also be powering a bail pump too.

Just my opinion of course, I've spent a bit of time messing around with micro solar stuff.

Mark

[andyE]

This what Freya has for charging her kit, it will not be cheap by the looks,
http://qajaqunderground.com/my-sponsors/brunton/
Depending on how long your trip will be, I think it would be more cost effective to buy a spare battery or two. The Icom M71battery will last a good 4 days, if you don't transmitting a lot.

[journeyman]

I'm considering using something along the lines of one of these solar blankets linked to a sealed 12v batt, as with the exception of my camera batt all other stuff can be charged from 12V (AA, AAA and ICOM batt), using a foot pump so no requirement for power on that front - incidentally the batt on the Icom M71 only lost one bar on it's scale during a 9 day trip - it was on every day about 6hrs but was used for reception only - it's when transmitting that the main power is used. I'm sure there will be a few opportunities to plug in to the grid while refreshments are taken on board at various coastal hostelries. A tray able to hold x10 2650mA rechargeables would be a good idea as well as a spare radio batt.

[andyE]

Two items on e-bay that "might" be useful . Will need to be adapted, with a little Ingenuity.

12V-9800mAh-Super-Rechargeable-Lithium-Battery

Semi-Flexible-Solar-Charger-5W-12V

[TechnoEngineer]

A tray able to hold x10 2650mA rechargeables

Beware that the higher capacity rechargeables have a slightly wider diameter than others. Probably won't make a difference in this instance, but I've found that some AA recharageables (2800mA) do not fit into a Tektite light.

[Taran Tyla]

I use a Plastimo SX200 & just bought a spare battery for it, (about £30). I used it several times a day for 17 days checking the weather forecast & didn't evan need the spare. I do leave it off when paddling though.

[PeterG]

The M71 battery has done me 17 days around Skye, just the forecasts and a half day of use when I was separated from my companion -long story- with plenty of life still left. I also had it all around Corsica, nearly a month, but only used it at the set hours for the forecast about 10 minutes a day and no transmitting, but it still had plenty of capacity if we had hit a problem.

[mintokames]

Hi

Many thanks for all the replies. I already have a spare battery, so sounds as if that may see me through most of the time. I also phoned ICOM UK but they couldn't offer any advice.

I'll have the same issue with the phone and the camera, but these will be easier to resolve.

Thanks to all that took the time and trouble to respond.

Cheers

Rob

[PSK]

If you have access to a soldering iron perhaps you could make your own solar charger?



http://electroschematics.com/4809/solar-based-multipurpose-charger/

http://electroschematics.com/4746/solar-charger-circuit/

JW

[mintokames]

err...aye... right .... It's at this point that another spare battery becomes very appealing ....

:-)

Cheers

Rob

[ruralweb]

I have a 20 amp/hr lead acid battery which when fully charged will keep an Icom and iphone running for over a month. Its heavy but Ive tried power monkeys and solar chargers and they just dont work - the sun is rarely powerfull enough and an iphone drinks power.

[CharlieS]

Sorry to divert a bit but how long should an icom battery last?
I've not had any problems of the dreaded disappearing contacts variety. It's just not holding a charge any more. (Charges fine, shows full bars but the moment you try and scan or speak it goes to single bar and displays 'low batt')

I've had it a few years so I'm not grumpy (though I don't use it very often) but I guess I'm weighing up £50 new battery against getting a new unit, maybe one of the gps ones.

Is a new battery every 3 years or so standard replacement or have I been unlucky?
And if I get a spare battery as well, will that need replacing after the same time even if I don't use it?

Thanks,

Charlie

[Daker]

Rob,
Screwfix do a range of sealed lead acid batteries from 1.2 to 7.0 Ah and just £10 to £18 which my be an option to trickle charge your ICOM ? I have the 1.2Ah to power my elecrtric kayak pimp and its small and light enough to not be an issue and holds a charge for absolutely ages. Maplin etc have similar batteries but in my experience are significantly dearer.

http://www.screwfix.com/search.do?fh_search=lead+acid+battery

I have a 12V car cigarette lighter socket adaptor for my ICOM which plugs directly into the standard ICOM charging cradle so (presumably ?) the input voltage from the mains charger is also 12V as there is no other gadgetry to step the current down other than what is in the charging cradle itself. I'll check this tonight if I remember.

If this is the case, buy (or make up) a 12V adaptor with a couple of crockodile clips on the end, attach to above 12V lead acid (or more expensive but smaller + lighter 12V NiCad battery), job done.

Im no expert in these things so welcome the more technically minded to advise if this would / would not work.

[Daker]

Further to my last post, I had a play around with this the other night to see if it would work and took a few output readings.

I wired the Sealed Lead Acid to the Lighter plug with some test leads and croc clips, plugged into ICOM charging cradle and charge ligh came on as expected. Obviously if doing this for real you would use some spade connectors or a proper power coupling.
Couple of hours later and light turned green to show fully charged.

Im no expert but am assuming the electronic gadgetry within the charging cradle steps down the power it is drawing once the ICOM battery has reached almost full so cant see that there should be any problem with this approach over-charging the battery, especially as the voltage is the same as a vehicle would provide.

It may charge a little slower than the mains and with the ICOM battery being 2Ah, would need a sizeable battery if to provide repeated charges but seems to work OK and is cheaper than multiple spare dedicated VHF batteries.

Similarly, any other electronic gadgets which you have 12V / USB adaptors for should work in exactly the same way, phones, GPS etc although I suspect laptops would take way too much power to be viable.

Over to the techies amongst you to point out any major issues with this ?

For info -
Output from ICOM Mains adaptor before going unto charging cradle - 14.8V
Output from ICOM Lighter Socket adaptor before going unto charging cradle (engine off) - 12.8V
Output from ICOM Lighter Socket adaptor before going unto charging cradle (engine on) - 14.8V
Output from small Sealed Lead Acid battery used for my kayak pump (and not charged recently) - 12.5V

[ruralweb]

I simply added a 12v charging socket to my 20Ah battery - that way I take the 12v car charger lead I have for my icom and plug it in. All the technical stuff is done in the lead so the radio charges correctly - I also take the 12v charger lead for my iphone.