Radio Shack 23-410 User manual

Cat. No. 23-410
OWNER’S MANUAL
Please read before using this equipment.
/
Ni-Cd and Nickel Metal H
y
dride
Rechar
g
eable Batter
y
Pulse Char
g
er
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2
FEATURES
Your RadioShack Ni-Cd and Nickel Met-
al Hydride Rechargeable Battery Pulse
Charger lets you quickly charge five dif-
ferent sizes of standard nickel-cadmium
(Ni-Cd) or nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH)
batteries.
The charger’s four battery chambers let
you charge up to four batteries of the
same size and type — AAA, AA, C, or D
— at the same time, while the connector
inside the charger lets you also charge
one 9V battery.
Your charger has these features:
Intelli
g
ent Dischar
g
e S
y
stem (IDS) —
automatically discharges and conditions
cells to a suitable level before recharg-
ing, to ensure maximum charging ca-
pacity.
Microprocessor Controlled Char
g
in
g
— automatically detects the battery type
and monitors the charging process to
ensure the right amount of current is
supplied.
Soft-Start Char
g
in
g
— gradually in-
creases charging current when batteries
start charging to avoid heat build-up that
can reduce battery life.
Fuzz
y
Lo
g
ic Intelli
g
ent Char
g
in
g
Cur-
rent Control — automatically senses
when a battery is fully charged and
switches first to top-off, then trickle-
charge, to prevent overcharging.
Red LED Indicator — shows 9V battery
charging status.
Liquid Cr
y
stal Displa
y
— shows AAA,
AA, C, or D-size battery charging status.
This symbol is intended to alert you to
the presence of uninsulated danger-
ous voltage within the product’s enclo-
sure that might be of sufficient
magnitude to constitute a risk of elec-
tric shock. Do not open the product’s
case.
This symbol is intended to inform you
that important operating and mainte-
nance instructions are included in the
literature accompanying this product.
CAUTION
RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK.
DO NOT OPEN.
CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF
ELECTRIC SHOCK, DO NOT REMOVE
COVER OR BACK. NO USER-SERVICE-
ABLE PARTS INSIDE. REFER SERVIC-
ING TO QUALIFIED PERSONNEL.
WARNING: To reduce the risk of
fire or shock hazard, do not ex-
pose this product to rain or mois-
ture.
!
!
©1998 Tandy Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.
RadioShack is a registered trademark used by Tandy Corporation.
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3
SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
SAVE THESE
INSTRUCTIONS
This manual contains important safety
and operating instructions for your
charger.
Before you use the battery charger, read
all instructions and cautionary markings
on the charger, the batteries to be
charged, and the products that use the
batteries.
Warnin
g
s:
• To reduce the risk of injury, charge
only nickel-cadmium or nickel-metal
hydride batteries with this charger.
Other types of batteries might burst,
causing personal injury and damage
to the charger.
• To prevent damage to your charger
and risk of electric shock, always
unplug the AC adapter from the AC
outlet before you plug it into or
unplug it from the charger.
• Do not expose the charger to rain or
excessive moisture.
• Use of any attachments not
intended for use with this battery
charger can result in a risk of fire,
electric shock, or personal injury.
• Never operate the charger if it has
received a sharp blow or been
dropped or damaged in any way.
Have it repaired by qualified service
personnel.
• Do not disassemble the charger.
Have it serviced or repaired by qual-
ified service personnel only. Incor-
rect assembly can result in a risk of
electric shock or fire.
• To reduce the risk of electric shock,
unplug the charger from the outlet
before attempting any maintenance
or cleaning.
• To reduce the risk of damage to the
AC adapter, disconnect the charger
by pulling the plug rather than the
cord.
• Do not use an extension cord. Its
use could result in fire or electric
shock.
• Do not operate the charger if the AC
adapter is damaged. Have the
charger repaired by qualified service
personnel.
• Never alter the provided AC
adapter. If it does not fit in the AC
outlet, have a qualified technician
install the proper outlet. Improper
connection can result in an electric
shock.
• Never use the charger as a DC
power source for any electrical
equipment.
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4
OPERATION
CHARGING HINTS
To see what is happening while your
charger is charging AAA, AA, C, or D-
size batteries, watch for these symbols
to appear on the charger’s display.
Cautions:
• Remove all batteries from the
charger at least 3 seconds before
connecting the charger to AC power.
Failure to do so might cause the
charger to lock up during the power
up cycle. If this happens, disconnect
power, remove the batteries, then
reconnect power.
• All batteries loaded into the
charger’s chambers must be of the
same size and type.
• Do not try to charge a battery of a
size other than those listed in this
manual. Doing so could damage the
batteries and charger.
• Before unplugging the adapter from
the AC outlet, remove the batteries
to prevent leakage that will damage
the charger.
Load Reminds you to
load batteries.
Numeric Di
g
its show bat-
tery volta
g
e.
Bad Battery If a battery is bad
or should not be
char
g
ed, both
and appear.
Power Appears durin
g
trickle char
g
in
g
when batteries are
almost fully
char
g
ed.
Intelligent
Discharge
System (IDS)
Durin
g
battery dis-
char
g
e,
appears steadily
with blinkin
g
.
Soft-Start Durin
g
soft-start,
appears
steadily and
blinks.
FastCharge Durin
g
fast char
g
-
in
g
, appears
steadily and
blinks.
Top-off/
Trickle Durin
g
top-off or
trickle char
g
in
g
,
appears
steadily with
and alternately
blinkin
g
.
Amount of
Charge The bars illus-
trate the char
g
in
g
process and scan
inside the amount-
of-char
g
e symbol
(except durin
g
top-
off/trickle char
g
-
in
g
). The more
bars that appear
while a battery is
bein
g
analyzed,the
more char
g
e there
is in the battery.
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5
CONNECTING POWER
Before connecting power, remove all
batteries from the charger. Insert the
supplied adapter’s barrel plug into the
DC 12V 500 mA jack on the back of the
charger. Then plug the other end of the
adapter into a standard AC outlet. 00
appears and flashes on the display.
OPENING THE COVER
To open the cover, press the tab below
the cover and lift up the cover.
CHECKING 1.2V
BATTERIES
You can use this charger to check the
charge in a 1.2V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH battery.
(You cannot use this function to check
the voltage of a 9V battery.)
1. With the charger connected to AC
power, place a single battery into
any chamber. Do not close the
cover yet (this starts the charging
process).
2. Press ANALYZE.
The charger dis-
plays the estimated
charge level, with
the amount-of-
charge symbol and
the numeric charac-
ters showing the
voltage.
Notes:
• The amount-of-charge shown is
based on the normal discharging
curve of a fully charged battery. It
might be inaccurate if the battery
being checked was not fully
charged before it was last used.
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6
• If the battery is unsuitable for
charging, appears on the dis-
play. Do not attempt to charge a
bad battery. At the end of a nickel-
cadmium or nickel-metal hydride
battery’s useful life, it must be
recycled or disposed of properly.
Contact your local, county, or
state hazardous waste manage-
ment authorities for information
on recycling or disposal programs
in your area. Some options that
might be available are: municipal
curbside collection, drop-off
boxes at retailers such as your
local RadioShack store (nickel-
cadmium only), recycling collec-
tion centers, and mail-back pro-
grams.
• The checking process drains cur-
rent from batteries. Therefore,
repeatedly checking the same
batteries decreases their voltage.
3. To check another battery, repeat
Steps 1 and 2. To charge the bat-
tery, see “Charging AA/AAA/C/D
Batteries.”
CHARGING AA/AAA/C/D
BATTERIES
This graph shows the estimated typical
fast-charging time for different sizes of
batteries. Note that charging times in-
crease when more than one battery is
charged.
Note: Charging times are typical; actual
charging times might vary. The built-in
Fuzzy Logic Control automatically deter-
mines the optimal charging current,
which in turn determines the charging
time.
1. After connecting power to the
charger, open the cover and place
up to four AAA, AA, C, or D batteries
in the charger, one battery per
chamber, as indicated by the polar-
ity symbols (+ and –) marked inside
the chambers.
Insert Charging
Time Graph
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7
Caution: All batteries loaded into
the charger’s chambers must be of
the same size and type.
2. Close the cover. disappears.
First, the charger checks the batter-
ies’ condition. Then, if the batteries
are more than 60% discharged, the
charger’s Intelligent Discharge Sys-
tem (IDS) automatically and com-
pletely discharges them. The
numeric symbol shows the batteries’
voltage, the bars in the amount-of-
charge symbol scan down, and the
black triangle in the IDS icon flashes
to indicate that the charger is dis-
charging the batteries.
Note: To stop the
discharging cycle,
you can press DIS-
CHARGE. The
charger begins soft-
start charging. How-
ever, repeatedly
doing this can
reduce the batteries’
maximum capacity.
If the batteries are less than 60%
discharged, the charger starts soft-
start charging, gradually increasing
the charging current to the batteries.
The bars in the amount-of-charge
symbol scan inward and the black
bar in the soft-start symbol icon
flashes.
Next, the charger begins fast charg-
ing. flashes, and the charger
charges the batteries up to 80–90%
of full capacity. The bars inside the
amount-of-charge symbol scan
upward.
The charger then enters the top-off
charging mode to top off the remain-
ing 10–20% of battery capacity.
and and the top bar inside the
amount-of-charge symbol flash.
Finally, the charger enters the trickle
charging mode, providing a very low
current to keep the batteries at their
fullest until you open the cover.
and continue to flash and
appears. All bars in the amount-of-
charge symbol appear.
3. Open the cover and remove the bat-
teries.
4. Unplug the adapter from the AC out-
let.
Warning: To prevent damage to
your charger and risk of electric
shock, always unplug the AC
adapter from the AC outlet before
you plug it into or unplug it from the
charger.
Cautions:
• After you unplug the adapter from
the AC outlet, wait at least 3 sec-
onds before you plug it into the
AC outlet again.
• Be sure to remove all batteries
before you unplug the adapter to
prevent battery leakage that will
damage the charger.
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8
Note: The charger can activate or revi-
talize some chemically dormant batter-
ies. If you have new batteries (or
batteries that have not been used for a
long time) that cannot be fully charged
(charged to more than 60% of battery
capacity) singly, recharge them three or
four at a time, then discharge them com-
pletely through normal use. Repeat this
process five times. Then, if the batteries
will still not fully charge singly, this
means you will always have to charge
them three or four at a time.
CHARGING A 9V
BATTERY
Refer to the graph on Page 6 for charg-
ing times.
1. After connecting power to the
charger, simply push the terminals
of the 9V battery onto the connec-
tors inside the charger, matching the
polarity symbols marked next to the
connectors. The charger begins
charging the battery and the 9V
charging indicator flashes.
Notes:
• The cover does not need to be
closed to charge the 9V battery.
• You can charge up to 4 AA or
AAA batteries, or 2 C or D batter-
ies at the same time as you
charge a 9V battery.
2. When charging is complete, the 9V
charging indicator lights steadily.
Remove the battery.
Note: If other batteries are still
charging after the 9V battery is fully
charged, the 9V charging indicator
continues to flash until the other bat-
teries are fully charged.
3. Unplug the adapter from the AC out-
let.
Warning: To prevent damage to
your charger and risk of electric
shock, always unplug the AC
adapter from the AC outlet before
you unplug it from the charger.
Cautions:
• After you unplug the adapter from
the AC outlet, wait at least 3 sec-
onds before you plug it into the
AC outlet again.
• Be sure to remove all batteries
before you unplug the adapter to
prevent battery leakage that will
damage the charger.
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9
CARE AND MAINTENANCE
Your RadioShack Ni-Cd and Nickel Metal Hydride Rechargeable Battery Pulse
Charger is an example of superior design and craftsmanship. The following sugges-
tions will help you care for your charger so you can enjoy it for years.
Keep the charger dry. If it gets wet, wipe it dry immediately. Liquids can
contain minerals that corrode electronic circuits.
Use and store the charger only in normal temperature environments.
Temperature extremes can shorten the life of electronic devices, dam-
age batteries, and distort or melt plastic parts.
Handle the charger gently and carefully. Dropping it can damage circuit
boards and cases and can cause the charger to work improperly.
Keep the charger away from dust and dirt, which can cause premature
wear of parts.
Wipe the charger with a damp cloth occasionally to keep it looking new.
Do not use harsh chemicals, cleaning solvents, or strong detergents to
clean your charger.
Modifying or tampering with the charger’s internal components can cause a malfunc-
tion and invalidate your charger’s warranty. If your charger is not performing as it
should, take it to your local RadioShack store for assistance.
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10
SPECIFICATIONS
Number of Channels for 1.2V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH Batteries ............................................... 4
Number of Channels for a 9V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH Battery .................................................. 1
Input Power Rating ............................................................. DC 12 V, 500 mA, 6.0 VA
Output Power Rating ...................................................... DC 2.0 V, 2.0 A max. 4.0 VA
DC 10.5 V, 25.0mA max. 0.3 VA
1.2V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH Battery Charging Current ............................................. 2.0 A max.
9V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH Battery Charging Current .......................................... 17.5–22.5 mA
Discharging/Negative Pulse Loading ............................................................. 0.5 ohm
Discharging Current Rating ......................................................................... 2.5A max.
Battery Sizes ................................................................................ AAA, AA, C, D, 9 V
1.2V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH Battery Rated Capacity ........................................... 180 mAh min.
9V Ni-Cd/Ni-MH Battery Rated Capacity ....................... 65 mAh min./120 mAh max.
Operating Temperature ................................................ 32×F to 104×F (0×C to 40×C)
Recommended Charging Temperature
for Optimum Charging Performance ............................ 68×F to 86×F (20×C to 30×C)
Storage Temperature ............................................... –4×F to 158×F (–20×C to 70×C)
Specifications are typical; individual units might vary. Specifications are subject to
change and improvement without notice.
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