Standard Horizon HX851 Battery Tray

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Dockhead,

Lithium batteries (non rechargeable) are not really high current devices. In fact, they are intended for low current long life operation such as clocks and wireless devices that are not easily accessed. The internal resistance of lithium AAA batteries increases exponentially above about 1A. Thus it's not advisable to use these in high current low duty cycle applications. There are plenty of alkaline batteries with multi-year shelf life available today.

Looks like I wasted my money on all those lithium cells

Great that the battery tray is a viable option for the liferaft. I'm still not crazy about the HX851 but at least it will work. Even a bad DSC handheld could save your butt.

[SoonerSailor]

This really surprises me. Looking at the data sheets for the Energizer AAA cells, alkaline E92 and lithium L92, the lithium clearly supplies a higher voltage at a 1000 mA drain and for longer than does the alkaline cell. The lithium AAA and AA cells are designed for higher drain applications than the alkalines are intended for.

Now 5 watts from 5 AAA cells would probably require something on the order of 1000 to 1500 mA, and maybe beyond 1000 mA the alkalines paradoxically start performing better than the lithiums, but that would be bizarre and intuitively unlikely. Energizer doesn't supply data for current draws greater than 1000 mA however.

Alkaline AAA data sheet: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/E92.pdf
Lithium AAA data sheet: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l92.pdf

I would be curious to find out if this was just a bad battery case or really reflective of what happens when lithium AAA cells are used in an HX851. I have an HX850 and will try the experiment myself when I can restock on AAAs.

Chip

[Richard_W]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Dockhead,
Lithium batteries (non rechargeable) are not really high current devices. In fact, they are intended for low current long life operation such as clocks and wireless devices that are not easily accessed. The internal resistance of lithium AAA batteries increases exponentially above about 1A. Thus it's not advisable to use these in high current low duty cycle applications. There are plenty of alkaline batteries with multi-year shelf life available today.

GOOD TO KNOW ... THANKS FOR THE INFO!

I've just got more 20-year shelf life lithium batteries for my SPOT GPS (as per their recommendation), and thought about buying even more for my other electronics.

[Jack C]

My HX851 rechargeable battery failed and I am now finding that the battery FNB-121LI has been discontinued and is unavailable nor is there a replacement model. I don't have the battery cart and anyway alkaline batteries do not have a long shelf life.

My experience with Standard Horizon has always been excellent. I Have written to them to see what they suggest.
Anyone know of a place that may still have a rechargeable battery.

A last resort is to do surgery on the old battery, remove the cells and find cells that will fit and add up to 7.5V?

Any suggestions?

[Jack C]

An update. I ordered a battery tray. FBA-38.

Cost over $70 including shipping overseas. Installed 5 new ALKALINE AAA batteries. Measured the voltage at the battery tray terminals. 7.9V. Inserted into the HX851 radio. Radio will not power up.
DEAD!
Removed the battery tray. Inserted rechargeable pack, placed in charger and connected charger to 12V. LED on charger shows GREEN = fully charged.

Turned on radio while still in charger. Radio works perfectly. LED on charger shows RED=Charging, presumably because power is being drawn by the radio.

So 7.9V from 5 ALKALINE batteries will not power on the radio.

Next, I measured the voltage on the Lithium battery pack. Zero Volts. Then I plugged the battery pack into the charger without the radio. Measured 9.0 Volts at the battery terminals that are marked 7.5 volts.

My conclusion. The battery tray DOES NOT work with 5 AAA ALKALINE batteries. 7.9V open circuit measurement from the batteries will not even turn on the radio. 9V will. Did the battery tray ever work?
Is the current draw when turning on too much for the batteries? Is my radio somehow damaged and is now hungry for a higher voltage of 9V.

Any suggestions? The battery tray has space for another battery which coincidentally will bring the voltage to 9V. This will require surgery to the plastic , adding battery connectors and some rewiring?

Very disgusted with Standard Horizon. No replacement rechargeable battery is available and their battery tray does not work. Also no responses from their support group to the email I sent.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Jack C

An update. I ordered a battery tray. FBA-38.

Cost over $70 including shipping overseas. Installed 5 new ALKALINE AAA batteries. Measured the voltage at the battery tray terminals. 7.9V. Inserted into the HX851 radio. Radio will not power up.
DEAD!
Removed the battery tray. Inserted rechargeable pack, placed in charger and connected charger to 12V. LED on charger shows GREEN = fully charged.

Turned on radio while still in charger. Radio works perfectly. LED on charger shows RED=Charging, presumably because power is being drawn by the radio.

So 7.9V from 5 ALKALINE batteries will not power on the radio.

Next, I measured the voltage on the Lithium battery pack. Zero Volts. Then I plugged the battery pack into the charger without the radio. Measured 9.0 Volts at the battery terminals that are marked 7.5 volts.

My conclusion. The battery tray DOES NOT work with 5 AAA ALKALINE batteries. 7.9V open circuit measurement from the batteries will not even turn on the radio. 9V will. Did the battery tray ever work?
Is the current draw when turning on too much for the batteries? Is my radio somehow damaged and is now hungry for a higher voltage of 9V.

Any suggestions? The battery tray has space for another battery which coincidentally will bring the voltage to 9V. This will require surgery to the plastic , adding battery connectors and some rewiring?

Very disgusted with Standard Horizon. No replacement rechargeable battery is available and their battery tray does not work. Also no responses from their support group to the email I sent.

The battery tray in my HX851 did work with alkalines (not with lithiums).


But a set of batteries didn't last long. Definitely emergency use only. I don't know why you would have spent $70 on that tray. That money could have been put towards a new HX890, which is infinitely superior. That's like 1/3 of the price of a new one.

[SirChaunchy]

Originally Posted by Jack C

An update. I ordered a battery tray. FBA-38.

Cost over $70 including shipping overseas. Installed 5 new ALKALINE AAA batteries. Measured the voltage at the battery tray terminals. 7.9V. Inserted into the HX851 radio. Radio will not power up.
DEAD!
Removed the battery tray. Inserted rechargeable pack, placed in charger and connected charger to 12V. LED on charger shows GREEN = fully charged.

Turned on radio while still in charger. Radio works perfectly. LED on charger shows RED=Charging, presumably because power is being drawn by the radio.

So 7.9V from 5 ALKALINE batteries will not power on the radio.

Next, I measured the voltage on the Lithium battery pack. Zero Volts. Then I plugged the battery pack into the charger without the radio. Measured 9.0 Volts at the battery terminals that are marked 7.5 volts.

My conclusion. The battery tray DOES NOT work with 5 AAA ALKALINE batteries. 7.9V open circuit measurement from the batteries will not even turn on the radio. 9V will. Did the battery tray ever work?
Is the current draw when turning on too much for the batteries? Is my radio somehow damaged and is now hungry for a higher voltage of 9V.

Any suggestions? The battery tray has space for another battery which coincidentally will bring the voltage to 9V. This will require surgery to the plastic , adding battery connectors and some rewiring?

Very disgusted with Standard Horizon. No replacement rechargeable battery is available and their battery tray does not work. Also no responses from their support group to the email I sent.

Jack, I also have a Standard Horizon HX 851 radio that the original lithium ion battery has gone dead on and I too couldn't find a replacement battery. So I did what you did and ordered the FBA-38 battery tray and I also ordered some Deleepow USB rechargeable Triple A Lithium Batteries, 1200mWh from Amazon at https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08QZ56X...t_details&th=1 I ordered these based on everyone's comments on this thread sort of concluding that the lithium AAAs didn't provide enough power. These seemed to have the most power for a good price. I received the battery tray and the batteries and charged them up to full power before putting them in the radio. At first when I put them in and turned the radio on, nothing happened although the battery pack measured 7.6 V, but then my son noticed that the tray was a little thinner than the original battery so we thought maybe it wasn't making contact with the terminals. We cut a piece of cardboard out of the alkaline battery box we had also ordered and laid it on top of the lithium AAAs and reinserted the tray into the radio and it worked. I'm attaching a few pictures to show the process I used. I then went sailing and left the radio on while I sailed and about every half hour or so, I made a radio check with it. It worked for about 3.5 hours with just that minimum amount of use so even these pretty powerful lithium AAAs are not a good solution for long term use. Maybe the original battery has more power stored internally and the only solutions remaining are to cut the original battery pack open and replace the cells inside, or throw this radio away and buy a new one that still has battery packs available. Jack, did you follow up and cut your battery pack apart? If so can you describe the process and what cells you used to rebuild it?

[Jack C]

I gave up. I had never tested how long the original battery lasted so maybe the radio is a power hog.

Also rather disgusted by not response to multiple emails to Standard Horizon who are reputed to have good service.

Maybe I will turn it into a helm powered radio of buy a different radio.

[Starrider]

Had the same issue with bad cells in the battery that had swelled up and died. Cut the battery open to see what cells are inside. The 2 cells are 803443 and could not locate them.

Started looking at other lithium batteries and with an amazing stroke of luck found out a SAMSUNG SPH-Z400 cellphone uses the same battery cell, 1300mAh 3.7V. These can be had brand new on ebay for $5.50 each.

First Photo is the battery cartridge inside the battery case with the samsung batteries below it. The plastic sticker is removed from the samsung battery and then the samsung circuit board is removed from the top of the battery along with the plastic cover on the bottom of the cell. The photo shows the new samsung cells installed.

Next photo is the other side of the battery cartridge with the circuit board that the batteries are soldered to.

Third photo is the battery cartridge with both case halves of the HX851 battery.

The battery is working great now with the new cells, but this cell replacement should be left to those that have electronics equipment and experience.

[Jack C]

Many thanks, will give it a try. Any idea how long the battery lasts in standby?

[Starrider]

Originally Posted by Jack C

Many thanks, will give it a try. Any idea how long the battery lasts in standby?

Jack,
Let the radio run 2 days in a row. It ran for 12 1/2 hours with GPS on and receiving traffic about 10% of the time.

After going through all of this, just found West Marine has this battery on sale.
https://www.westmarine.com/standard-...-14497663.html

[Rumrace]

I’m told leaving your batteries on charge apparently ruins them. It was the answer I got for cooking laptop nicad in 6 months. Other than house batteries the only other thing using a lithium battery is a raspberry pi. It’s 1250mA and the raspberry will drain it in 18 minutes. It’s just a backup. If a camera is on 1 minute

[maine50]

I ordered one of the batteries 3 weeks ago (from West Marine and on sale) and finally got the message they don't have any. Please let us know if you're successful.--

[Jack C]

Originally Posted by maine50

I ordered one of the batteries 3 weeks ago (from West Marine and on sale) and finally got the message they don't have any. Please let us know if you're successful.--

I ordered one a few days ago. Now I get a message it's back ordered.

So I will probably eventually get a message that they don't have them.

I guess I need to order the phone batteries and build the battery.

[Jack C]

Originally Posted by Jack C

I ordered one a few days ago. Now I get a message it's back ordered.

So I will probably eventually get a message that they don't have them.

I guess I need to order the phone batteries and build the battery.

So West Marine charge my credit card. Charge, not a hold, then the next day I get a message that the battery is unavailable.

And this is after my order was confirmed.

I will be ordering the phone batteries.