DIY KX2 Battery Pack
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ต.ค. 2024
- *UPDATE 9-JUL-2017:
I did an experiment this weekend to see how reliable the battery capacity ratings are. Fully charged them and reset the amp hour counter in the KX2. Operated a mixture of SSB and PSK31 (with a PC) over the two days.
As soon as the KX2 told me the voltage on the batteries was 10V (receiving. Under XMIT load it varies down to as low as 9.5) I looked at the counter. 3260 mAH was the total. I have no doubt that I could get the full 3400 out of these batteries, but I see no need to push them.
Original Description
I needed a second battery pack for my Elecraft KX2, and I didn't feel like paying $60 for the factory offering.
Enter an assortment of parts from Amazon (listed below). Turns out that the cells Elecraft uses are plain old 18650 LiIon batteries, and there are lots of options to roll your own.
One word of caution, the official battery contains a PCB that houses some protection and battery management circuitry. We're circumventing that to a degree. Use at your own risk.
Batteries: www.amazon.com...
Holders: www.amazon.com...
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This video got me all charged up! Have a Happy 4th Matt, good to see ya back here.
Thanks Glen. Nice to be back. Early part of summer is tough with both kids playing sports and in summer band. I've got a cool project lined up to start right after the holiday though :)
At about 2:05, you mention Elecraft is the only manufacturer you knew who made an internal battery pack for HF rigs. Actually, the Yaesu 817 and 817nd were built with internal batteries, and they could be charged within the radio. The Yaesu 897 and 897d also was built with an optional internal battery back. I own the 817 and the KX2, use both, and like both; but Elecraft should have found a way to charge the battery internally - after all Yaesu figured it out 16 yrs ago. I like your enthusiasm and your battery set up, hopefully elecraft takes notice.
Thanks, Matt. I really need to get home more often (Colo)... I've been living in France for the past 20 years and hadn't run across that rig over here. Far cry from the Collins of 50+ years ago! Cheers W2RSB
Good stuff Matt. Most people are so mystified by portable power sources, but truth is, it's not rocket surgery. Cheers! Chris - NI7IN
The ridges on the PowerPoles are called Dovetails. :)
Note that some vendors sell the housings already joined with the proper orientation. I always keep one in the kit to use as a guide to get the orientation correct when mating the loose housings.
Now, I just need the KX2 to go with my DIY battery packs. Great video
A common saying used to describe the proper power pole orientation is “red right, tongue top” where “tongue” refers to the metal contact inside the plastic shell. Thus, looking at the open end of the connector, just as you do, the red goes on the right and oriented such that the tongue is at the top of the opening. I suppose there are any number of ways to describe the orientation.
They use diodes between the battery, DC inputs and the radio, which drops a little voltage so the radio's readings are lower. There is one thing about using the same battery setup externally as is used internally. Normally the external voltage is higher and so will power the radio and the internal pack will not supply current. With the same battery type and voltage range external the radio will draw power from both the external and internal battery. So the internal battery will not remain fully charged unless the external voltage input stays higher than the built in battery all the time. Making the external pack from 4 cells of LiFePO4 is one way to insure that the external input voltage remains high until the end of capacity is reached.
Thanks Matt! Another great video. I sincerely hope you make many more ham radio videos. You are great at it. I have a KX2 and didnt even bother getting the internal battery. I didnt like the cost, but even more, I didnt like the idea of having to routinely crack the thing open just to take the battery out. Worse yet, I didnt want to get a second battery and have to open it in the field - no good will come of that. I will likely build one of these.....it is just to simple. Just to let you and others know of another idea, I have been using a Lithium pack from Amazon intended to power LED lights (the brand I got is "Talentcell" but there are a few similar ones). The price is good too. It is 12V out on a standard 5.5mm plug like the KX2. You can get a simple car charger for it as well. The other cool thing of it is that it has a 5V USB outlet so I can charge/run an android phone at the same time to do PSK or logging or whatever. Just thought I would share. My batter pack is not as small and likely as light as this, so this goes on the project list for sure. Thanks again. 73s!!
No easier than this , thanks so much for your video. Just got the parts, made 2 packs and joined them in parallel using the power poles to join the wires. I now have more capacity for the kx2, still pretty light and compact. Didn’t have epoxy put used superglue and sprinkled baking soda on top of the drops, dries in a second or 2 and hardens like plastic
Instablaster
Here because I'm building a similar battery. Great video Matt!
"Try not to blow yourselves up" implies someone has blown themselves up by mistake before. Not sure if American or terrorist. Lol.
Man...am I impressed by the audio. except for the cracking. The mic picks up well.
Nice external pack. It is unfortunate that Wayne and Eric of Elecraft have such an extreme fear of charging lithium batteries inside the radio. Both the KX3 and the KX2 suffer because at this point they really should have internal rechargeable lithium batteries.
18650s are usually what are in most laptops, if theres a recycle center near you you can pick up old laptops for next to nothing in cost.
Matt, I found your comment on the Matsan channel regarding problems with the Rode FilmMaker mic cable. Did you solve the issue? I'm thinking of buying a Rode FilmMaker kit, but I do not want noise in the voice transmission.
I ended up determining that it was a bad mic. R0DE replaced it under warranty, but they made me send the whole set into them for service to get it. Overall I think the set is worth its price, but that's in a market that's generally over-priced IMHO. If I had the option of a used Shure or Sony for the same money I'd take it.
Matt thanks for replay! By the way, love your channel! Especially regarding woodworking.
Can the Elecraft charger be used with this pack?
Cool video! Did you use 15A power pole connectors on that battery pack?
Thanks Craig. I did. I wanted the shells to be compatible with other ham radio gear.
a nice video , uncle matt you look like ANDERW ZIMMERN the presentrer of bizzar foods , love uncle matt
whats the info on the charger? you recommend any other charger?
Mine's a Nitecore brand charger. Seems to work as well as any other charger and they're certainly inexpensive enough. Only change I'd make is to get one that'll do 4 cells at a time. 2 isn't enough capacity and the price difference is nothing.
I wish power poles were keyed.
Audio is crackling on this video.
Try re-loading it. It plays fine for me, and Premier is good about letting me know if the audio is clipped somewhere. Thanks for checking it out!
Sounds like a slap with a gate or compressor in audio editing, to me. It goes from being nearly silent to speaking quickly and makes it sound less natural. I probably wouldn't have noticed it without headphones.
Cool video. Not a radio guy, but good info in this video!
Thanks. You may be right. I just upgraded Premiere and the compressor is quite different. The old one had good default settings for attack and release time, but I just went and looked at the new one and it's way - way off. Will know to adjust it for the next vid.
WELL SAID crimp are better