Saber / Astro Lithium Ion Battery Pic

[515]

A while back, I asked about the lithium ion battery for the astro saber NTN8818. I finally bought one, and thought I'd post a picture so everyone else can see what it looks like. There aren't any pictures of it in any Motorola catalogs I've seen.

It seems to work pretty good. Transmit power is a little lower than of an equivalently charged 1800 mAh Ni-Cd, but thats what I expected. My astro saber put out 5.2 W with a hot off the charger Ni-Cd, and put out 4.7 W with a hot off the charger Li-Ion.

The NTN8818A is a little shorter than 2.5 inches, and much lighter than the 1800 mAh Ni-Cd.

I've been using the Motorola Impres charger (the one that works with both the Astro Saber and XTS) with it, and it seems to work fine.

Here's the pic showing it next to the 1800 mAh Ni-Cd NTN4595:

[Dale Earnhardt]

I dropped mine down to 4 watts, it was eating up my battery so fast, I found out mind was putting out 5.6watts, ouchh!!!

[alex]

Now thats a reasonably sized saber!

-Alex

[Pj]

Ewwwww......but its so.....little!

That definatly won't look cool with my wideband VHF antenna...maybe with my UHF radio with the little stubby.

What did the impress chargers and battery cost you (curious)


....Long time user of the ultra-high cap batteries......

[515]

For the battery, I got lucky and "Bought It Now" on Ebay for $35. Looks like I could have got it new from Motorola for about $126.

The WPLN4111AR Impres Charger is about $140. The catalog I have indicates that a 5889254E01 "insert" adapter is needed for the NTN8818. MOL can't give a price for this (could be a no-charge item), but I don't think it's completely necessary. I believe this adapter is supposed to ensure that the battery fits squarely in the charger, since it doesn't "bulge out" on the left side like the NTN4595 does. The pic I posted is a little dark in that area, so it doesn't illustrate that clearly. I don't believe the Impres charger I have has this adapter, so sometimes I have to move the NTN8818 around a bit to get it to line up with the charging contacts--no big deal.

NTN1667 Tri-Chem charger is a cheaper option for about $85. The picture in the catalog of this one seems to suggest that this would work with the XTS as well. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, I just learned that Multiplier makes a 2700 mAh Ni-MH Saber battery. I was told it's the same size as the NTN4595. Anyone ever used this one? It's Multiplier part M4595H.

[USPSS]

The Multiplier M4595H works great, it makes the radio no larger than the 1800 MaH 4595 or 4596 batteries but gives much more duty cycle for the radio (especially ASTRO's) LiIon are also made by Multiplier for those products as well as the XTS with a 4000 MaH battery, I am using the LiIon from Multiplier also and they work great.

[Motofanatic]

Yep we use 'em too. Have probably a dozen of them in service with no problems. Definitely gives you more Rx/Tx time on the radio instead of having to change batteries half-way thru the day.

[515]

I just fixed the link to the pic in my previous post...

Also want to mention that I have two of those Motorola lithium-ion Astro Saber batteries now, and would never consider going back to the Ni-Cd's. The lithium-ion battery really makes the radio a light and practical one.

[clavo]

I cant tell from your pictures... is your lion battery the same size as the short moto battery (NTN 4592C) ?

-c

[515]

I never seen a NTN4592C, so I'm not sure how the size compares. The only other Saber battery I'm familiar with is the pictured NTN4595...

[va3wxm]

Looks about the size of the short NiCd battery.

Is the drop in RF power due to the lower Li-ion voltage or is it 7.5 as well?

[515]

"7.2V LITHIUM ION BATTERY" is what is stamped on to the bottom of the NTN8818.

I think the reduced power is mainly due to the limited output current of a lithium ion battery.

[EngineerZ]

NTN1667 Tri-Chem charger is a cheaper option for about $85. The picture in the catalog of this one seems to suggest that this would work with the XTS as well. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, I just learned that Multiplier makes a 2700 mAh Ni-MH Saber battery. I was told it's the same size as the NTN4595. Anyone ever used this one? It's Multiplier part M4595H.

Iuse the Multiplier 2700 mAh battery on my Sabers and it works great. Talk about going and going... FWIW, I use my Saber on an intermediate basis and I can't ever recall grabbing my radio at the last minute and having a dead battery.

I also use the NTN1667 tri-chem charger with Ni-Cds and the above NiMH battery and haven't had any problems with that either. (And yes, you can use it with XTS radios as well...) Cosmetically, it's a little on the cheasy/cheap side but functionally it's fine. The NTN1667 has a removable insert that you must use when using the smaller, square-ended Saber batteries. If you don't use the insert with the square batteries, the charger's spring-loaded contacts push the battery into the space in the front of the charger intended for the XTS radio. When this happens, you don't get a good connection and your battery doesn't charge. The larger Saber batteries (with rounded sides) that most folks use are wider than the XTS space in the charger and don't have this problem. The only issue is that if you switch between different size batteries, you have to keep track of that little piece of plastic as you pop it in and out...

--z

[alex]

Yeah, I have one of those chargers too... I think it was like 60 bucks or so. Good charger, but I already lost the spacer for it but, well, then again, I don't have much demand for using sabers...

-Alex