this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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Amateur Radio

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do portable radios balance charge? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I noticed a difference between my lithium Yaesu/Wouxun HTs battery packs and some Motorola part 90 units.

It looks like there are 3 contacts on the back of the ham radio packs (I think 1 is for sensing temperature?) and 4 on the Motorola packs. The Motorola packs are "smart" IMPRES batteries that go through a "conditioning" cycle periodically.

I feel pretty confident that the IMPRES packs are doing cell balancing, but I'm wondering if ham lithium batteries do the same. I'm pretty religious about keeping my Li-poly packs balanced, so am just curious how these are working.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I dont think so. Most people just put the battery on charge until the charger says its full. Maybe the charger is balancing the cells, but i have my doubts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could always do a check with your multimeter to see if it is.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

BMS boards can be very small for the currents demanded by HTs. I'd br surprised if they're not integrated into the packs, even if there's only two contacts.

As to if our HT batteries are... I don't know! I haven't seen a teardown of a Yeasu SBR-24LI but maybe I'll tear mine down when it kicks the bucket.