ICOM M1 Euro faulty desk charger.

MCL Marine · 12 July 2006, 01:11

Probably one for Mr Brooks, My desktop mains charger seems to have given up the ghost (about 6 months old). The LED charging light no longer comes on unless you wiggle the radio about in the charger and then goes off after a minute or so.

Not sure if it is still charging the battery but the battery indicator seems to stay full for a long time but it does get some topping up on a 12v charger?

Anyone else had any problems with the desk chargers and is the charger covered under the warrenty?

Thanks

Limey Linda · 12 July 2006, 01:36

Probaby a contact oxidisation problem. Clean all contacts with a rubber ( end of pencil type) and try again

MCL Marine · 12 July 2006, 04:07

Looked at the contacts, all ok. Radio is always kept in an aquapac bag so proteced from the elements.

Jelly · 12 July 2006, 12:13

Check the contacts on the battery pack, I find the middle one gets corroded first.
James

simonfuller · 12 July 2006, 13:46

I found with my old Icom M1EuroV that once the battery was fully charged the charging light used to extinguish, are you sure that the battery isn't already fully charged? What about leaving the radio on for a period of time (say a few hours) and then try charging it again and see if the charging light remains on?

Daniel · 12 July 2006, 15:57

we have several of these at my sailing club and the charger design is poor.

we always seam to have to "wiggle" or "shake" the radios around in the desk charger to get the light to come on. i have tried cleaning the contacts and same problem, its the design of the cradle or the manufacturing tollerances i think.

shame because this is by far the best handheld about IMHO

Paul · 12 July 2006, 20:53

I have an identical Icom and thought that I had a similar problem. However, I have found that if the battery is fully charged the light goes out quickly and relights after a "wiggle" and then quickly goes out again. If it is discharged the light takes an hour/few hours to go out. I think that your battery is probably not far off fully charged when you are recharging it but I may be wrong.

Northern Tim · 12 July 2006, 21:18

I have found that I need to wiggle the radio a bit to get the light to come on. It's just not quite as snug a fit in the charger as it could be...and yes, the light goes out when charged.

Sounds like we've all got the same experiences!
Tim.

MCL Marine · 12 July 2006, 21:43

Thanks for all your info, I am going to leave the radio on overnight and totally discharge it then see what happens. Its a shame Icom can't provide a charger that matches the quality of the radios!

Jon Brooks · 13 July 2006, 21:05

must be get at Icom week!!!

If the battery has more than about 80% charge i.e all the blocks are black in the battery indicator on the radio then the charger will not charge.

If you wiggle it you can get the light to flicker or come on for a short time.

THIS IS NORMAL!!!

You have stated that the battery indicator is showing full so we have solved the problem I guess.

Please discharge the battery fully, may take a good few days if the unit is fully charged.

The charger is infact semi intelligent and senses how much charge is in the battery.
This is so you can not over charge the battery and damage it like on a lot of the competition!!

Best regards

DM · 13 July 2006, 22:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Brooks

The charger is infact semi intelligent

Did you invent it?

DM

Jon Brooks · 14 July 2006, 14:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmanning

Did you invent it?

DM

How rude!!!

And surely I would make un-intelligent chargers

Either very funny.

Best regards

MCL Marine · 17 July 2006, 11:12

Thanks for your answers. I have come to the conclusion that the battery must be more than 80% charged, so the charger has decided not to add any more!

Semi intelligent it may be, but it would be nice if it decided to switch the charger off when the battery was 100% full. Sometimes I am away from a charging point for a few days and the extra 20% battery capacity would be useful.

Jon Brooks · 17 July 2006, 11:17

After about 6 hours the charger light should go off and stop charging!

If it is not then it may well be worth sending it all back for us to look at.
If you do please send a covering note explaining all of your symptom's.......with the radio and charger that is

Best regards

Jon Brooks · 17 July 2006, 11:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel

we have several of these at my sailing club and the charger design is poor.

we always seam to have to "wiggle" or "shake" the radios around in the desk charger to get the light to come on. i have tried cleaning the contacts and same problem, its the design of the cradle or the manufacturing tollerances i think.

shame because this is by far the best handheld about IMHO

Dan

Does the "wiggle" and the "shake" help your sailing too?

May be you should try them if you have not before, rumour has it that it can't make it any worse mate

And do you not return calls any more?
Jesus man I want to pay you money

Speak to you soon.