XTS Series Battery

Post by **tbergman** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:28 am

Folks,

Looking for some input on a battery for the XTS3k/XTS5k radios. I currently have an XTS3k but most likely will be acquiring a 5k in the near future. I currently have a high capacity NIMH battery attached to the radio and sometimes run out of power during longer 12+ hour shifts. The radio is in a holster and outside temps are around -10f on a normal day. Is there anything besides a second battery for longer shifts I can do or is it time to switch to the impress stuff.

Hopefully someone can school me on the impress stuff as I have searched the forum and have found nothing.

Thanks

tdats · Post by **tdats** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:46 pm

I recently ordered an aftermarket LiION Impres battery from Newegg of all places.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 1HS0JZ3940

While I am not a fan of aftermarket batteries, this one has been working for me so far. It hasn't got a good drop test or anything yet. The radio reads the impress data from the battery, and my impress chargers read it as an impress battery, including a display charger I tried it in. The only strange thing I have noticed, every time I drop it in the charger, it wants to re-condition the battery. Taking it back out and putting it right back in tells it to charge it.

For runtime, I have left the radio on for 2 days straight and it was still going strong. The name brand battery that was provided to me would have issues after about 9 hours.

It's physical fit is not perfect, but it does latch on and seems to be sturdy.

As for what impress is, it is a battery maintenance system. There is a chip in the battery that talks to the radio and the charger, and with a compatible impress charger, it automates the battery maintenance and re-conditioning.

RFguy · Post by **RFguy** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:47 pm

Motorola is releasing a new, lower cost NON-IMPRES 4000 mAh Li-ion battery soon, but doesn't perform as well in lower temperature.

Motorola does have a 3000 mAh battery part# PMNN4093A. NI-MH performs better in low temperature as compared to Li-ION.

Operating Temperature:

Ni-CAD -22F to +140°F

NiMH -4F to +122°F

Li-Ion +14F to +122°F

Jim1348 · Post by **Jim1348** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:07 pm

Great information. Thank you for the posts!

Post by **tbergman** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:34 pm

Thanks for the great information, I guess I will probably start looking at Ni-Cad batteries with large capacities due to the weather. I finally got sick of the low battery tone and programmed it not to go off as it was beeping about 2-3 hours into shifts. My guess is that the voltage dropped due to the temps.

N9LLO · Post by **N9LLO** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 4:36 pm

I have been wondering about that Titan Li-Ion battery. Is it the thin light weight type like the motorola 6034A or is it in a standard size XTS battery case

Chris

CPD534 · Post by **CPD534** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 6:13 pm

I don't know if anyone has ever thought about it but I just had an idea. If you're using a holster or can use some type of vest with a pocket or whatever, maybe you can get some handwarmers and stick one in there behind the battery. That might help things in extreme situations. Thoughts?

MTS2000des · Post by **MTS2000des** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:58 pm

BigTime battery are complete ripoff artists. Look at their glowing reviews online. A bunch of rude, sleaze bags.
FWIW, the NiMH OEM RNN4006 batteries are great, have several. They are non-Impres, but they are quite affordable. Nothing beats an original Motorola battery for fit. You get what you pay for.

RFguy · Post by **RFguy** » Sun Feb 02, 2014 8:27 am

MTS2000des wrote: Nothing beats an original Motorola battery for fit. You get what you pay for.

True, We have been lured by the cheap price of knock-offs only to be disappointed in the past. They may work at first, but always have let us down in the long run.

tdats · Post by **tdats** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:36 pm

My titan battery is actually a little thicker and lighter than my NNTN4438B. So far, it is working, but long term time will tell. Whenever I deploy, I take my Motorola brand battery with me just in case. I am part of our emergency management team, so my radio does not get exposed to a lot of field conditions.

Also, for the good of the group, the titan battery I linked to on Newegg came with a BatteryJack, Inc sticker on the battery, 1-888-307-6937, part number NTN6034.

Post by **tbergman** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 7:20 am

CPD534 wrote:I don't know if anyone has ever thought about it but I just had an idea. If you're using a holster or can use some type of vest with a pocket or whatever, maybe you can get some handwarmers and stick one in there behind the battery. That might help things in extreme situations. Thoughts?

Interesting idea, although I think the cost would start to add up. I try an use the mobile in the vehicle as much as possible to keep my portable's batter as full as possible but I think the long term solution is a new battery or possibly carrying a spare with me on shift.