one for the tech heads

[Anonymous]

hi
guys i have a sov- elite and want to know if
i can run my elite on 8 2300 mah nimh batterys
in my alkaline pack. will it run on full power
like the minelab 12v 1000 mah rechargeable battery pack??. or will it just not have the power
to run the same as the minelab pack??.

 

[Anonymous]

8 X 1.2V = 9.6V
I've heard Sov's don't like anything less than 12V, so I would guess "no", it won't work.
However, if you could use 10 cells, it would work fine. But the problem is that the 4/5 AA size cells haven't followed the high mAh ratings like the full AA size cells. Maybe you could find a 10 cell holder somewhere?

 

[Anonymous]

hi
what do you think of this?????????
Yes, for most high drain electronic applications NiMH batteries are ideal substitutes and you needn't worry about the apparent voltage differences. Even though alkaline batteries are rated at a nominal 1.5 volts, they only deliver 1.5 volts when they are fully charged. As they begin to discharge the voltage of alkaline batteries continuously drops. In fact, over the course of their discharge, alkaline batteries actually average about 1.2 volts. That's very close to the 1.2 volts of a NiMH battery . The main difference is that an alkaline battery starts at 1.5 volts and gradually drops to less than 1.0 volts. NiMH batteries stay at about 1.2 volts for most of their discharge cycle.

 

[Anonymous]

The 2300 nimh s will work but wont last long, maybe 4-5 hours in warm temps. The Sovereign will let you know when they are to low. The unit will function at the same level from fully charged until you get the low battery warning.. wildherre

 

[Anonymous]

hi
thank you rhodermand and wildhere for your input
on running the sov on rechargeable 2300 mah nimh
in my alkaline pack. i will be looking in to ways of modding my alkaline pack to take 10 nimh batteries maybe attaching a small box to the back of
the battery pod to take 2 more niamh batteries to make up a 10 pack to run the sov at full power for
15-20 hours if any of you guys have any input please
let us know and maybe come up with a good mod for sov . who knows ??? and thank you
from dick83 here in the uk.

 

[Anonymous]

My comment would be the same as Wildherre's..yes, they will work but you won't get a lot of time from them. If they start out say at 1.3 volts per cell (typical, even though the nominal is 1.2 volts for NiMH) you will have a battery with 10.4 volts terminal voltage. If you view my schematic of the power supply section of a Soveeign that is posted on Wildherre's website, you will see that a +5V and a -5V supply is generated from the potential across the battery plus some overhead loss across a series regulator. So you basically start out with no battery voltage reserve and once the terminal voltage of the cells drops, you are no longer going to be working with a regulated supply, things start to get erratic and unpredictable. So, the extra 2.5 volts is critical to ensuring a well regulated supply.
I run both of my Sovereigns from a belt-mounted 2.2 AH SLA (sealed lead acid) pack that they sell at Ham Radio Outlet. I have added a curly-cable from an old cell phone automobile/cigarette lighter adapter from my battery compartment to the cigarette lighter receptacle on the battery pack (I stripped out the regulator guts in the plug and bypassed them). This gives me more battery time than I have ever been able to use, removes the battery weight from the control box, and allows easy connect/disconnect of the battery pack to the detector. Sovereigns work fine with SLA packs, and the shelf life of the battery is the best of any of the rechargeable technologies. A little bit heavier in mass per ampere hour but you don't even notice the difference when it is on your belt.