1801 battery

Anything specifically related to the DM-1801 version of the firmware
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N1KY
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by N1KY » Tue Jul 07, 2020 1:06 pm

Higher power drain is normal. There are power saving features in the official firmwares which have not been added yet.

http://www.opengd77.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 3997#p3997

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DU2XXR
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by DU2XXR » Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:45 am

As stated by N1KY, the stock firmware does have some optimizations that result in near zero current draw during standby, which is not yet achieved by openGD77. It does compensate by allowing you more granular power output during transmit, with a 50 milliwat minimum. That should give you enough power savings, compared with 1 watt, especially when using a hotspot.

VK3KYY
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by VK3KYY » Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:44 am

Also, there are 2 more things to take into consideration.


1. The official firmware does not tell you the actual battery percentage, it just has a small icon with 3 bars.
2. When receiving signals the firmware does not take any more power than the official firmware.
3. The S meter value is displayed all the time, and this requires the CPU and RF chip to be running all the time.

In the longer term it may be possible to include some power saving modes when receiving and when the operator does not want an S meter, but its not going to be easy to add this sort of functionality and its not very high priority for me or any of the other developers, because 12 hours battery life on Rx is adequate.

IK1HJT
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by IK1HJT » Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:12 am

Yesterday evening i switched off my dm1801 with 100% battery charge. This morning i switched on and the indicator shows 88%. Is normal that battery drain even when the radio is switched off?

VK3KYY
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by VK3KYY » Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:48 am

IK1HJT wrote:
Wed Jul 22, 2020 6:12 am
Yesterday evening i switched off my dm1801 with 100% battery charge. This morning i switched on and the indicator shows 88%. Is normal that battery drain even when the radio is switched off?
No.

You'll probably find if you take the battery out of the radio it would do the same thing, as your battery is probably going dead.

If its draining the battery merely by being in the radio, then the radio has a hardware fault.

IK1HJT
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by IK1HJT » Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:11 am

Radio and battery has 1 week of life, brand new...

VK3KYY
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by VK3KYY » Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:16 am

IK1HJT wrote:
Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:11 am
Radio and battery has 1 week of life, brand new...
A new could be faulty

The firmware does drain the battery a lot faster than the official firmware, when the radio is turned on.

When its turned off, the radio should not be taking any power from the battery

IK1HJT
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by IK1HJT » Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:30 am

Yes i know. My question is only related to hardware, not to the software

VK3KYY
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by VK3KYY » Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:46 am

IK1HJT wrote:
Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:30 am
Yes i know. My question is only related to hardware, not to the software
We don't have a schematic for the DM-1801. The general design is similar to the GD-77 but not identical.

Its possible that something in the hardware design causes some battery drain, but I've left my DM-1801 turned off for weeks and don't notice a huge drop in the battery.

IK1HJT
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Re: 1801 battery

Post by IK1HJT » Wed Jul 22, 2020 8:12 am

I have both GD77 and DM-1801. Honestly, i have to say that a couple of time my DM1801 became hot, very hot, doing nothing laying on the table. I removed the battery and felt the metallic shield very hot. after few minutes temperature returned to normal...

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