Do yourselve a big favor and install NiMH instead of NiCads. They do not have any of the problems Nicads have, are lighter, have almost twice the capacity, and can use the same trickle charger. I replaced the Nicads that were in my SAT2 with NiMH and they work great. I bought a plastic battery holder that holds 4 batteries, and installed that in the tuner. Be careful about deep discharging Nicads. All the batteries in the pack are not identical in nature. If one battery goes completely dead before the others, and you keep discharging it, it will be repolarized and damaged permanently. NiMHs are your best bet. Richard -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Paul McCloud Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 11:40 AM To: 'Pianotech' Subject: RE: SAT batteries 9 volt? Diane: I have replaced my SAT I batteries with a 6 volt battery pack (NiCads) which is an exact replacement for the battery pack that Inventronics installed many years ago. Originally, there was a sealed lead-acid battery, and the nicads were installed by them when the original battery went bad. I don't know if they changed the charging circuit at that time, but I suspect that it was. Lately, I removed the internal battery pack and now use an external battery pack which I velcro'd to the back of the unit. I change the individual batteries and charge them in a separate charger. This way, if one battery goes bad, I don't have to replace the whole battery pack. Maybe this is overkill, but I got tired of replacing the battery pack. Nicad batteries need to be deep cycled. They should be discharged as far as possible, and this way they will be conditioned to hold a long charge. When we recharge the internal batteries of the SAT, they may not be discharged much, so they get used to having a short use before recharging. Then if we try to use the SAT over a longer time, the batteries discharge more quickly. I think you know what I mean. The low battery indication circuit on the SAT doesn't necessarily give the deepest cycle. It only tells us that the battery voltage is insufficient to power the unit. When I remove the batteries to recharge them in my charger, they will still run my AA flashlight for a good while. This is after the low battery indicator has shown the need to charge them, and after the unit has shut down. The circuits in the SAT can run on 9 volts, or the 6 volts that the regular batteries supply. I've seen 9 volt batteries installed on the back of a SAT so that when your batteries are dead, you just put the 9 volt in there, and it will get you through the day until you can charge them again. Many electronic devices will run on a range of voltages. Using 9 volts will work, but it takes more room, and more batteries, to get there. And there's not a whole lot of room inside the SAT. I hope this helps. Paul McCloud -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of DIANE HOFSTETTER Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 9:45 PM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: SAT batteries 9 volt? Our apprentice, using my Dad's old SAT 1, tried to replace the batteries. We searched the pianotech archives and he followed the instructions found, but still he gets "LoBat" message after charging it for four days. Now our question is, when he used 4 AA batteries, that only gave him at the most 4.5 volts, but the charger we used with the SAT was a 9 volt charger. Are there some kind of industrial quality batteries that give 2.5volts in an AA size? Thanks for the help! Diane Hofstetter _________________________________________________________________ Find high-speed 'net deals - comparison-shop your local providers here. https://broadband.msn.com _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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