SAT Battery Replacement

[Rob & Helen Goodale]

Your accu-tuner is an expensive instrument and part of your livelihood. 
DON'T experiment with it.  Replace with the exact type of batteries that 
were in there.  There should be four NiCad size AAs.  Go to a large local 
electronics supply, (a real one, not radio shack).  Tell them you want four 
NiCads with terminals for soldering.  Connect them together in series by 
soldering the terminals appropriately together.  Put the completed bundle 
into some tight fitting heat-shrink tubing.  When heated and shrunk you 
should have a tidy and professional looking replacement battery.  Glue the 
whole thing inside the accu-tuner with a generous amount of PVC-E  glue and 
let dry over night.  Charge it a full 24 hours the first time.  For the 
first couple times of use the batteries may not hold to full capacity but 
thereafter they should take a full charge nicely.

As an alternative you can use a replacement portable phone battery pack, (a 
home wireless, NOT a cell phone).   Many of these use 4 AA and are already 
wired and bundled together  You will have to cut off the connector they come 
with and then connect the ends to the accu-tuner battery wires.  Again make 
sure you get NiCad and not NiMh.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV




>>List,
>>I finally got my batteries to be put in the SAT II, but now another 
>>question
>>is raised; The original batteries were NiCad's. Will the charger built 
>>into
>>the SAT II be compatible with NiMh batteries? It appears that they are NOT
>>compatible because of this information I found at
>>http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-21.htm  which states; "A charger
>>for nickel-metal-hydride can also accommodate nickel-cadmium, but not the
>>other way around. A charger designed for nickel-cadmium would overcharge 
>>the
>>nickel-metal-hydride battery." However, I found an old post where someone
>>used the NiMH batteries and said they worked well in the SAT II. (I can't
>>relocate that post, or else I would repost it here). The NiMH batteries
>>supposedly have much less memory issues and last much longer. Any 
>>thoughts?
>>Larry