Radio trouble, CHECK YOUR WIRES AND BATTERY!

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
This is meant as a little tutorial on wires, and batteries. Feel free to add to it.
Check voltage of battery. An expanded scale volt meter is needed. I use both digital, and analog, (analog has needle).
A fully charged battery has 13.2 volts.
A discharged one is around 11.5 volts. I like one that is above 12 volts.
Watch for early voltage drop. If range is diminished, towards the end of a day of work, check voltage.
The best time to check voltage, is after a day of work, WHILE ITS STILL BROADCASTING. In fact, if you have radio troubles, always check at the beginning of a session. Check it both before it's turned on, and after.
A GPS radio broadcasts every second. This means it will cycle every second.
13.1v - 12.8v
The 13.1 volts is the "no load" voltage.
The 12.7 is the "under load" voltage. This under load voltage is what you are after.
A return to base at noon, and check should yield something like:
12.7v - 12.5v
At the end of the day, it should read something like:
12.2v - 11.9v
If you have a large capacity battery, it will show less drop, (overall, over 8 hrs) and maybe less difference, (no load vs load).
Be sure to check voltage at the closest connection to the radio. A bad wire, or corroded fuse will drop you by a volt or two.
If your battery is dropping below 12.0 v, at the end of the day, you have a weak battery.
If you want to be a modern, GPS surveyor, you must learn to use a volt meter proficiently.
Keep a watch on your wires, connectors, and if you have a wind whipping your wires around. Sometimes it is necessary to tape up the connections, to keep them from wiggling and flopping in the wind.
Also, keep a small wire brush handy and a spray bottle of silicone spray lubricant.
The key here is to eliminate all issues, and to feed your radio clean power, at a voltage of 12.5 or more, with no intermittency.
Also, your battery charger needs to be looked at. I use a 2 amp charger. I've burned out maybe 3 or 4 through the years. I recommend 2 charger plan. So that if after charging, your voltage is not above 13v, you can put it on another charger, to see if your charger, or the wires between charger and battery have bad connection.
There are many things that can poke a hole in your surveying schedule, and one that you must manage is your power problems. They never fully disappear. They just fail at odd times, or when you are not looking.
Keep a watch on things, and you will have an overall better experience with your surveying gear.
Thank you,
Nate
 

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
I was on this job recently. My radio suddenly quit. I drove back to base. There were 2 calves there. One of them had scooted himself under the fence, and grabbed the power wire, and un-plugged it.
What's proper protocol to restart radio?
I unplugged the twist connect at the radio, re-plugged the flat connector at battery, then in one move, plugged in the twist-lock.
This led me to think.
What's the right protocol, if battery voltage drops too low?
I'd like to know in advance.
Thanks,
Nate
IMG_20201227_104238.jpg
 
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Andrew Zimin

Member
JAVAD GNSS
Dear Nate,

If power cable was disconnected from radio, the need connect it back and radio will connected to GNSS receiver again and will be started transmitting corrections.

Best regards,
Andrew Zimin
 
Nate:

As I think back over the years since we (mostly) all went 'electronic', the biggest loss of productive field time was always battery problems. Your list of suggestions is much needed and very helpful.

However, if your pole contacts that hi-tensile fence, you could have a significance boost in voltage!
 

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
@Andrew, I once plugged, then unplugged, then replugged. Later on, I discovered that I was pushing maybe one watt. I blew out a diode.
So, I think plug it in, and leave it. IF you need to work on corroded connections, DON'T do it without UNplugging the OTHER end of the wire, so it does not make and break the connections, when you do this.
(the old Pac Crest radios were as tough as could be. Not these radios)
So, Life is like this.
Thanks
N
 

Nate The Surveyor

Well-Known Member
Its that time again. Cold weather in USA will start soon. Use a volt meter, and check your UHF base battery voltage, when returning to base.
A low voltage condition will reduce range.
Get that volt meter working! It may be time for a new base battery.
It's good to check while the radio is still running, at the end of the day.
Nate
 

avoidthelloyd

Active Member
I was on this job recently. My radio suddenly quit. I drove back to base. There were 2 calves there. One of them had scooted himself under the fence, and grabbed the power wire, and un-plugged it.
What's proper protocol to restart radio?
I unplugged the twist connect at the radio, re-plugged the flat connector at battery, then in one move, plugged in the twist-lock.
This led me to think.
What's the right protocol, if battery voltage drops too low?
I'd like to know in advance.
Thanks,
Nate
I've had voltage drops several times before you talked me into buying a big battery. The one Javad sent just wouldn't last.

I would no get corrections but when I got back to the base I would have them and the radio seemed okay because the transmit light was flashing. I could get corrections standing that close, but the voltage was too low to get any range.

I would just pull the truck up and connect my jumper cables and unload the 4-wheeler to finish the job. It was annoying and buying the bigger marine battery was so helpful.
 

ZTkowasz

Member
Has anyone tried Lithium deep cycle batteries to run the radio yet? Sometimes in remote areas we have to hike to an area with an open enough sky to set our base, lugging that battery along with the receivers and a few tripods is less than desirable...
 
Dakota Lithium Powerbox 10, weighs maybe 3 pounds and will run the HPT401BT (1 watt) for at least 2 days without re-charging (which takes only 2 hours)
There is no drop-off with these batteries, they provide 100% power until fully discharged.
 
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