Saber "Clamshell" Battery?

[Osprey]

I've seen HT1000 battery packs that are basically AA cartridges. Thales has one for their P25 radio. Does such an animal exist for the Saber?

[Osprey]

Okay, let me revise this.

Let's say I've got a battery eliminator and a rechargable AA/C/D Cell battery box with a cigarette lighter output. How can I power the Saber without killing it?

[Tom in D.C.]

Spend the $20 or so for a Saber battery eliminator with the required built-in voltage regulator and cig. lighter plug. They're listed on eBay all the time and many of the battery manufacturers also sell them.

I've never seen a Saber battery case that was made for replaceable batteries, if that's another part of your question.

[AEC]

I was thinking the same thing Tom, I've never run into an alkaline case for Sabers, if there is such an animal, I'd buy one just to have an emergency spare that will always have power.

ProStar sells a lot of the eliminators on Ebay, they work well but are prone to RF shutdown of the radio, as this has happened to me several times while being forced to use my Saber inside the van, but they are worth the $20.00 for them, although they 'should' have lengthened the cord, it's too short and is not very flexible, which causes the plug to pop out of the outlet if you have to stretch the cord to it's length limit.

I placed a ferrite choke over the power cord and so far, I have had no trouble with RF getting into the cable and causing the radio to power cycle.

They appear to be using genuine Circle-M battery cases and fitting their own base plates onto them with their regulator boards.

One flaw I see with the design, is the tiny aluminum 'square' used as a heatsink, I've replaced mine and enlarged it by using a CPU heatsink that has fins, then readhered it to the case with velcro and a little dab of rubber cement to keep the board well retained inside the case.

Alkaline packs for Sabers...MY-OH-MY, what would they think of next?

I'm shocked Circle-M DIDN'T offer one for sale, they could charge $49.95 for it.....Too bad B/K offered them for their portable line.

Some think forward, and outside the box, Circle-M thinks LIKE a box!

[kb0nly]

Or just build your own with a dead battery and a few dollars worth of parts. I just use a fixed voltage regulator and diode across the input for reverse polarity protection.

Haven't had any problem with RF getting into it.

I had one of the ProStar eliminators from ebay for my MT1000's, that thing would go nuts in the presence of RF.

[Osprey]

I had a Prostar for my Saber. I must've gotten one from a bad batch, because it never worked right. It'd randomly turn the radio off, and it rarely transmitted right. It'd give you a beep (Securenet sidetone or TX on Non-TX channel), and then it'd change pitch like crazy. Eventually, it died. Those Multiplier ones look a bit better, albeit more than twice the price.

I might try that dead battery thing, some day.

[kb0nly]

If you build one go with a 2.0a fixed 7.5v regulator. I use the L78S75 series. $.73 each!

The Prostar one i had used a 1.5a regulator with a small heatsink, as mentioned by AEC, and i thought about rebuilding it with better components but just said the heck with it.

They may have changed their design by now for all i know. It didn't provide a very steady voltage output either, around 9v under load, and about 9.8 with no load.

[Will]

While you are at building one, use some RF bypass caps directly on the regulator pins. A ferrite bead on the + lead is a benifit also.

[AEC]

Will:
How DARE you suggest good bypassing practices here!

You should be ashamed of yourself for even making such a comment..HA HA!!

just kidding of course, it's a great idea and is highly recommended for quiet operation!

Surface mount tantalums on the leads work well, low inductance, minimized reactance values and no weight.

*My power supply is resonant on 1.2 Ghz.!*

[kb0nly]

Yep, i just followed the data sheet's applications notes and built from there.

And don't forget a fuse!

[Tom in D.C.]

One of the regulator circuits I've used for many years is to put a variable pot between the middle pin of the regulator and the output pin. If I recall on a 13VDC
circuit it would be something like 500 ohms. You adjust the no load output
voltage using a DVM and set if for whatever your system is designed for. In
my cases it was usually 13.8VDC. Nice thing is you can go back months or
years later with the DVM and the regulated voltage will still be 13.8 volts.
If you're operating the regulator within its current limits the difference between
the load and no load voltage will be very small.

If I were to build a Saber mobile power source I'd probably use a 7.5 volt
regulator and crank it up to something like 8.3 volts to simulate a fully
charged battery.

[kb0nly]

I was thinking about using an 8v regulator also, just so happens i had some 7.5v units on hand.

Might have to order a few 8v units and build one that way.

[AEC]

Forget RS parts, they carry only the normal TO-220 devices, such as 5 Volt, 12 Volt and the like in negative regulators, but never see any odds like 6 Volt or 8 Volt ones, I wish they did.

Too bad, they used to have a great parts selection, but no more, Consumer junk has taken over and now you can buy gizmos you have no use for, and toys that break the day after you buy them...So sad, I loved when they were Allied, I bought so many of those nifty radio construction projects and panel meters, MRF-901 transistors for pre-amps too.

Those WERE the days!

[kb0nly]

Forget RS parts, they carry only the normal TO-220 devices, such as 5 Volt, 12 Volt and the like in negative regulators, but never see any odds like 6 Volt or 8 Volt ones, I wish they did.

Too bad, they used to have a great parts selection, but no more, Consumer junk has taken over and now you can buy gizmos you have no use for, and toys that break the day after you buy them...So sad, I loved when they were Allied, I bought so many of those nifty radio construction projects and panel meters, MRF-901 transistors for pre-amps too.

Those WERE the days!

Yep, now its "You've got questions, we've got blank stares."

I went in there one day and the guy didn't know what a PL-259 is. I finally got him to understand me by saying "the connector for a CB antenna".

The other problem is they not only have a poor selection of parts now, but nothing really useful at all. I looked through their selection of regulators once at a local store, most of them were 5 and 12 volt, and only 2 to 5 hundred milliamp. They used to carry 1 to 1.5 amp versions but it seems they have got down to eliminating anything useful to me.