Well I had to try it because I receive 2 others by mistake, what you said was right on point, everything work perfect until I plug it in the truck, not even 3 mins and it burn, so I try to contact the company but they know the problem, they talk and soon you say something about the car charger, they don't understand you and speak to another language, I pass 3 days trying but nobody seem to care or want to speak about this serious problem, now I speak with an electronic guy and say it does not make sense at all, way to much power that radio or base charger, now we have a solution, scrap all the car charger and get another one with the right power, the only thing is you have to cut the wire to keep the plug to the base, maybe I was lucky, but everything works great, I even have a solar charger that fit perfect, thanks again for your video, I lost one but gain knowledge :)
Damn! You have no idea how much heartache you could have just saved me! I'm going to do this test myself but I have absolutely no doubt I'm going to get the same results. Thank you!
I've had many Baofeng radio models with no problems and just got the GT-3TP. I got two car chargers that say Radioddity model AD-10 on them. I checked both with a Fluke 87 meter. They both put out around 10.1 volts when attached to a steady 13 volt DC source. When you read the voltage output at the charger base that the car charger is plugged into I see 8.39 volts as it should be for a battery that is a 7.4 volt Li-Ion. When fully charged that battery should be at 8.4 volts maximum for best battery life but no higher than that. So the car charger and the GT-3TP base are both right on the money where they should be. It's good you are warning people that apparently some of these were either defective chargers or bases or both but not all of them are bad.
Please note that in every your comment you stated "a steady 13 volts." I am not an electronics expert but if you take a look at about 8:15 on with the truck running and the RPMs changing you can see that the input voltage increases. Yes did I fail to check the chargers output. However with all electrical voltage conversions a bi-product is heat. I am pointing out that this charger with excess input causes this charger to dangerously overheat. Wy is it dangerous as you pointed out in order to charge a 12vdc nominal battery you need to input over 14vdc and if your 12v system is connected to an automatic charger system (i.e. solar charge controller) it may create a possibility for a fire. If you are only connected to a battery I will agree that this system could be safe. In closing I am not the only one this has happened to others if you look in the comments
the car plug i just got says by radioddity model ad10. input dc12-24 volts. output dc10 volts 1amp. is this a newer one or same as you had that burned in 2016???
I informed amazon about the safety issues with this power adaptor months ago but notice they are still selling the car cigarette lighter socket power cord for the baofeng radios. Best advice is use the standard wall 10 volt unit in an inverter. The 14.9 volts from the vehicle system is over heating the voltage regulator mounted on the circuit board in the base charger unit by 4.9 volts DC and it's creating a fire hazard. I have disassemble the plug and the power cord and the wire is connected directly to the + and - terminals inside the cig plug its only got the fuse in line no voltage reduction what so ever. DO NOT USE THIS DEVICE TO CHARGE ANY BAOFENG RADIOS using a 12 volt supply voltage. 73
Thanks for the video !!! I was finishing programming and put it in my truck, if I did not see that video I would probably lost my truck, so thanks again and you got 1 more sub :)
The gap at the front of the charging receptacle is to allow for the high-capacity battery. (Please note: I may edit this comment as I watch the rest of this video. Right now, I'm only up to 3:36) And why do you keep saying the word "literally" when there is no need or reason to distinguish what what you immediately say next from being either metaphoric or figurative? Oh, that's right, You don't really know the real meaning of the word. OK, so I'm up to the 4 minute mark, where you are measuring the temperature, (in a most unreliable way I might add). And, talking as you go, whilst pointing the laser-dot at what looks like the back of the battery towards its base, you say the temperature there is 81.3 degrees. Next, you point the infra-red temperature gun at the receptacle itself and record a reading of 77 degrees. Now? Are you in Canada where they use, (along with the rest of the civilised world), Celsius? Or are you in USA, where they use the antiquated system of Fahrenheits (sic). Without knowing which unit of measurement you are using, this whole exercise of yours becomes entirely meaningless. Up to (7:23) now where you are showing us the 12-27v car/truck adapter. That adapter outputs 12v. It is the WRONG adapter. 12v will melt the charging receptacle just as it has done. I use these radios. I have no affinity nor any association with Baofeng. I also have a car/truck adapter , but mine is rated at 10v output, not 12v. That is where your problem is at. My car/truck adapter also is rated for 10-24v input but the output is 10v. Not 12v like yours. Someone has fucked up and given you the wrong adapter mate. You just need to find out how that happened. (Apologies for the "literally" sniping back there but that's one thing that really raises my hackles. Soz.)
Thanks for the heads up. Your problem appears to be only in the lighter adapter. Did that come with the unit? It's putting the full 12 volts from your vehicle into the charger not to mention the amps a car battery can supply. Not good. I'm going to try a USB adapter available from Baofeng and plug that into the USB port of my stereo. Hope that works better.
I have changed mine for 6 hours on it's first charge on 220v in the UK in it cradle at home with no problem but I will definitely be at home when I charge it again, thanks for info.
I just bought the GT-3TP Mark iii .... how is the radio aside from the car charger? Should I send mine back in 2/days when it get here or should I just not use the car charger?
It's now (2019), does anyone know if this issue has been resolved? I just received a Baofeng GT-3TP, and a Baofeng Tri-Bander today. I haven't tried the car charger, but when I plug in the speaker/mic that came with the GT-3TP, it fits very loosely, and it also locks the transmitter. I contacted Radioddity, but haven't heard back yet. Maybe there are reasons these things cost about as much as a 'Happy Meal.' A faulty speaker/mic is one thing, getting burned alive is quite another!
dang, i bought the gt3tp about 4-6 months sooner than you posted this video, and was considering mobile charging. i see it says 10v in, and my supplied wall charger is 10v also. wew. and i was going to build a 12v to 10v regulator. GLAD I SAW THIS VIDEO. just in case i would have ever picked up the cig plug charger. thank you. i guess wall wart into an 12 to 120 v inverter 1st.
Just to add to my previous comment. There was one time when I used a different mains adapter because I thought I might be able to charge up the battery quicker. What I had was an old 10V adapter from some old router that was rated at 2 amps. That's 10V, 2A. Since the supplied adapter was rated at 10V 500mA (0.5A) I thought to plug it into that to charge the Baofeng battery up quicker. Now maybe it's because of problems like yours that my charging receptacle didn't melt or catch on fire but it certainly overheated and then cut out. (What I mean is; problems like yours got back to Baofeng and they then modified their designs). It was then that I discovered that my 10V, 2,000mA adapter was UNREGULATED. Yes! This makes a big difference. What "unregulated" means is that the current draw is expected to be exactly what it is rated for at its rated voltage, in my case, the rated output voltage would be 10V when, and only when the actual current draw was 2A. Do you follow? At a 2A current draw, the unregulated supply will, indeed be supplying 10V. But if the max current draw is only 500mA (or 0.5A), then the supplied voltage is going to be much higher. So when I connected my Baofeng charger with radio in it, because it's maximum current draw was only 500mA, the voltage was quite a bit high than its stated 10V. In fact, when I measured the actual voltage of the adapter, it was just over 14V ! The reason for such a high reading was that I was measuring the voltage under "no-load" conditions. With the correct load of 2A it would, (and did), give a reading of 10V. Anyways, I think I had a lucky escape. And the take-away is this: If you want to use an unsanctioned 3rd-party adapter, then please take note of the following advice: Avoid unregulated power supplies unless you fully understand the difference between "regulated" and "unregulated" within this domain. Now I'm off for a beer. I have blisters on the tips of my fingers...
Pat, watching this video has been one of the more surreal experiences I have had in some time. I just ordered the GT-3TP so I was looking for videos to learn more about it. I had already initiated a return with Sain Sonic because the unit that I got was used. In fact, on the inner box someone had written "Damaged Charging Base." They had also used a silver paint pen to mark the charger. I compared the paint pen markings to the ones in your video. (You see where this is going.) They sent me the unit that is featured in your video! What are the odds? If I could figure out a way to send you pics I would. Crazy coincidence. All the best to you. -Mike
Wow what are the possibility of that. I am sure that that was the one returned. At lease you know that I did my best to ensure that they were well informed of the problem. However it also goes to show that this company really does not even care about their customers options and safety. I would hope when you returned it you placed a comment that you knew where this product was originally. If you have any problems with the returns please feel free to contact me or to watch this video.
I had a Streamlight flash light that started leaking when I charged it in my jeep and I'm sure it was because it was putting out 13 volts and no telling how much when I drove down the road. I STOPPED using it in my Jeep and never had a issue. If it calls for 10 or 12 V and your truck will not do that how bout stop charging it in the truck?
I have many things that I charge while driving. This is the first time I have had an issue. If a company makes a 12vdc charging system why not use it if you are driving down the road to me this is more economical and better overall on resources.
I just bought 2 for a road trip up the east coast of Australia for some friends and I, I'm glad I saw this, I would be pissed if it burnt the dash of my car. where can you get a replacement though?
I sent mine back. I know their are some nice parts about the radios and if you are going to do mobile charging I would recommend using the wall charger with a power inverter.
If you are referring to the 110 AC to DC wall wall charger then yes. I did not have any adverse effects from using it at the house. You might be safe using the car as not running. However I was getting these for use with a solar system and when a charge controller is equalizing the batteries the voltage are pushed up to around 15V DC and this would have been a bad situation. I returned these radio due to all of the bad design aspects. I even had one that would shut off at 1/2 battery power. I put this out so others may be informed prior to purchasing them. Best of luck. I do have a true Baofeng still but it is not a Sansonic.
If you are referring to the 110 AC to DC wall wall charger then yes. I did not have any adverse effects from using it at the house. You might be safe using the car as not running. However I was getting these for use with a solar system and when a charge controller is equalizing the batteries the voltage are pushed up to around 15V DC and this would have been a bad situation. I returned these radio due to all of the bad design aspects. I even had one that would shut off at 1/2 battery power. I put this out so others may be informed prior to purchasing them. Best of luck. I do have a true Baofeng still but it is not a Sansonic.
thanks for that it happened withe me where i drive my car and i smell something burning but i thought its just in my one i rely thank you so much for this caution - but do u have another option ?? regards
How come you dont have more than 3 subs ???, Well since your a good guy I will talk about your channel, you should have couple of my friends, I hope so, you deserve more :) Arg ok sorry I just check and you have 1 video, that explain it !!!
First off, I have several of these radios, and yes their cheap. I have never had problems with charging the batteries. In your video you dropped one of your batteries on a concrete floor. if you treat all your batteries this way your going to have problems. the first battery you charged was with the wall wart, and you said you had an orange light on, that means there is a problem. Red - is charging, Green - is charged, orange - there is a problem. Kinda looked like you didn't have it seated in the cradle right. You should never over charge Li-ion batteries, or they can over heat, and start on fire. They tell you in the manual to never leave them on the charger once they are charged. With your car charger you were charging a battery that was already charged, it had a green light! That could be the reason that the battery was getting real hot. Yes the car charger had some crazy voltages, but your car charges it's battery at 15 - 17 volts. You need higher voltages then the battery that your charging or it won't charge. Don't know how much higher the voltage can be to be safe, but most 12 volt solar panels put out 18 - 22 volts to charge a 12 volt battery. That's why you use a charge controller on solar panels other wise they will just keep charging, over charging, and heating your batteries, and they can start on fire. Li-ion batteries are dangerous - they do not like to be over charged, and they might catch on fire. Many people that keep their cell phone in their back pockets have had them catch on fire in their pocket because it over heated, and they were not even charging them at the time. Companies from China don't care if their products burn your house down because you can't sue them. lol I would suggest that no one ever charges any batteries on a flammable surface, or under anything flammable, and keep an eye on them when their charging. I'm not in anyway implying that your doing things wrong. It is probably the cheap product! I was just sharing information that I have learned the last few years after getting into Ham radio, and solar systems.
For car charging I'd use a 5V USB charger connected to a 5 to 10V step up lead for the baofeng charger. Going to take my car charger apart to see if there's any regulation inside, if there isn't it's a crazy and dangerous design fault.
Many of the radios that I have do not recommend leaving the radio on while charging. I have a Kenwood and the manual says not to do this. I would recommend not doing it, it is hard on the batteries. But you can always read the manual to see what they say.
Ok so what im seeing the radio are the charger docks are fine its the car charger that is causing issues cause its not bringing down the voltage to 10v instead by the looks its just a straight connection to the cars power supply with a fuse....
Thanks for the vid. I have had exactly the same problem with the car charger, problem I have is the ones I got from Ebay is I can't use the house psu due to it not being a uk plug!!!!
Great video. Its not only the car chargers that are dodgy. I had two UV-5R regular wall wart chargers sent in the box rated at 12V. Nearly set my house on fire! If it doesn't read 10V then chuck it in the bin.
The charger stand is designed for 10VDC input. Your Car battery is about 12.5 ... 12.8 V with no motor running and 13.8 ... 14.5 with the alternator running to charge the car battery. The Car charging adapter obviously is just passing the voltage from battery directly to the charger where the probably included voltage regulator will overheat. These regulators just transfer additional voltage into heat - and thats what happening. Also important to know: the contacts at the back of the battery are always under voltage even if the radio is off! Never touch these contacts with metal strips or similar to produce a short! This could overheat and destroy the battery and the radio! And in worst case set your home on fire! Thats the offtrade of cheap and easy from china...
You got me. I was confused when you said the charger put out twelve volts. The Charger unit states INPUT 10V. Even better when you proved the 12v adapter was putting out nearly 15 volts with no load. (ie no regulation). It was even better when you were showing us how putting more than 10 volts into the charger unit showed heat issues in the base of the charger unit. So how many did you end up blowing up??? Did you learn a lesson about reading instructions??
Russell Thompson If you know how vehicle alternators work, voltage will increase to above 14V. What the man is saying, no matter voltage input, output from the charger should be stable. As it's not, voltage increase results in temperature increase.
should have better safeties, and better build, end of story. Baofeng radios are shit. Yeasu Kenwood, Motorola, and Icom FTW. Moral of the story is you get what you pay for and if you buy cheap shit you get cheap and could lose everything you own because of it.
The problem is the main distributors of the GT-3TP radios, like NicheOne, Optimum Radio (aka radioptimum), and Radioddity are selling the car charger as a package deal along with radio as a compatible and functional product.
Signum The base is fine it's the plug for the truck the problem, well I guess we're talking about the same thing, what they write for specs are way off, 3 times that is a lot, and that without talking about amps too, but now problem solve for me, tested good.
Your trucks voltage regulator needs to be replaced. At idle the charging voltage is fine but at 2000 RPM it's at nearly 15 Volts? That's too high, it should be 14V tops. Install a current limiting resistor in the + power lead that goes to your triple outlet. It will increase charging time, but keep the input voltage to your devices within safe limits. As it is your trucks electrical system is delivering about 23% more voltage than is necessary, or safe.
I bought myself two walkie talkie identical. Basis charge have an integrated circuit that exceeds 100 degrees celsius. Use them before we opened and we drill the plastic casing. If you want to throw everything in the trash i give you the address where i live. The downside is that I live in Romania. All the best.
I did not toss them I returned them and got my money back. This video was meant as an advisory. It is nice you have a suggestion about venting them. I just want manufacturers to make safe products that last.
@@tiagocp You're obviously correct. Pay Apple's ridiculous prices, and you can generally get pretty good quality products. I'm typing this comment on a MacBook Pro that's well over (10) years old, and it has never started a fire.....yet! *lol*
I would say that you should of shown a charger of this type (other than a phone charger) hooked to the multimeter that had regulation and that was only putting out 12V with the vehicle running. I bet very few if any are regulated.....
I do know that I have experimented and used a single chip voltage regulator and it accepts varying inputs and a constant out put. However you do have a good suggestion.
If your charger adapter from the car doesn't output 10V it's the wrong thing for the charger's 10V because it gives out 12v or higher. You should input the charger with 10v, silly.
This is typical Chinese "marketing" with every company desperate to steal sales away from the next guy and lacking the engineering knowledge to know what they're doing. Baofeng doesn't include a car adapter so I'm guessing someone at Sainsoni, who doesn't understand the most basic electrical principals, found the cheapest cigarette light cord with a plug that fit, likely tested it for 10 seconds seeing the charge light indicate it was charging, and said Ship It! The Baofeng charging base is already a really marginal ultra cheap design taking an unusual voltage (10v) for the wall adapter because they didn't want to spend twenty cents more to put a proper buck regulator in the charging base. Then Sain Sonic comes along and decides to throw in a car adapter that can deliver up to nearly 15 volts. It's why so many Chinese products are a giant FAIL. More people need to point these sorts of problems out so the Chinese manufactures learn from their mistakes. They know many of their products are cheap enough most customers don't bother to return them and in many cases they don't even have an office outside of China to return products to. At least if you buy Chinese junk that is shipped AND sold by Amazon you have 30 days to return it. And if they get enough returns on a product they stop carrying it leaving the Chinese manufactures to eBay and Aliexpress where returns to China cost more than the product.
THESE ARE GREAT RADIOS AND IVE NEVER HAD THAT HAPPEN EVER WITH ALL 5 THAT I BOUGHT. IF YOU LEAVE THESE ON THE CHARGER FOR DAYS THEY GET WARM. IF YOU USE DIRTY POWER THEY GET HOT. I RUN MINE ON A PURE SIGNWAVE INVERTER 220V AND NO PROBLEMS! DONT LET ONE REVIEW LIKE THIS FREAK YOU OUT! BE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR ELECTRONICS!
7.4v Li-Ion battery can be charged maximum for 8.4v!!! (google that!) So even 10v wall charger is not compatible for this radio charging and would definitely cause battery damage.
this is uncorrect. Wall charger has a 10v output and it's connect to the charger base that has a 10v input and a 8.4v output. So there is no problem using the wall charger
Alessio Pacilio, yes you are right. The docking station have dc step down chip inside, so theres no problem when input is 10v but it cant handle 14v, it heats too much
No, it is because the charging base is designed to run off of 10v dc, and the car adapter is feeding it a nominal 12v dc instead of regulating it to 10v dc. That means that the base is being fed a minimum of 20% more voltage than it was designed for.
Well I had to try it because I receive 2 others by mistake, what you said was right on point, everything work perfect until I plug it in the truck, not even 3 mins and it burn, so I try to contact the company but they know the problem, they talk and soon you say something about the car charger, they don't understand you and speak to another language, I pass 3 days trying but nobody seem to care or want to speak about this serious problem, now I speak with an electronic guy and say it does not make sense at all, way to much power that radio or base charger, now we have a solution, scrap all the car charger and get another one with the right power, the only thing is you have to cut the wire to keep the plug to the base, maybe I was lucky, but everything works great, I even have a solar charger that fit perfect, thanks again for your video, I lost one but gain knowledge :)
I have one but have not used the car charger yet. Glad I stumbled on your video!! Thanks for the heads up!
np I am glad to help
Damn! You have no idea how much heartache you could have just saved me! I'm going to do this test myself but I have absolutely no doubt I'm going to get the same results. Thank you!
I've had many Baofeng radio models with no problems and just got the GT-3TP. I got two car chargers that say Radioddity model AD-10 on them. I checked both with a Fluke 87 meter. They both put out around 10.1 volts when attached to a steady 13 volt DC source. When you read the voltage output at the charger base that the car charger is plugged into I see 8.39 volts as it should be for a battery that is a 7.4 volt Li-Ion. When fully charged that battery should be at 8.4 volts maximum for best battery life but no higher than that. So the car charger and the GT-3TP base are both right on the money where they should be. It's good you are warning people that apparently some of these were either defective chargers or bases or both but not all of them are bad.
Please note that in every your comment you stated "a steady 13 volts." I am not an electronics expert but if you take a look at about 8:15 on with the truck running and the RPMs changing you can see that the input voltage increases. Yes did I fail to check the chargers output. However with all electrical voltage conversions a bi-product is heat. I am pointing out that this charger with excess input causes this charger to dangerously overheat.
Wy is it dangerous as you pointed out in order to charge a 12vdc nominal battery you need to input over 14vdc and if your 12v system is connected to an automatic charger system (i.e. solar charge controller) it may create a possibility for a fire.
If you are only connected to a battery I will agree that this system could be safe. In closing I am not the only one this has happened to others if you look in the comments
the car plug i just got says by radioddity model ad10. input dc12-24 volts. output dc10 volts 1amp. is this a newer one or same as you had that burned in 2016???
Not sure. I returned mine back then.
Where did you get the replacement mic/ear covers for the GT-3TP radio? You mentioned you got a pack of 5. I haven't found them anywhere.
I informed amazon about the safety issues with this power adaptor months ago but notice they are still selling the car cigarette lighter socket power cord for the baofeng radios. Best advice is use the standard wall 10 volt unit in an inverter. The 14.9 volts from the vehicle system is over heating the voltage regulator mounted on the circuit board in the base charger unit by 4.9 volts DC and it's creating a fire hazard. I have disassemble the plug and the power cord and the wire is connected directly to the + and - terminals inside the cig plug its only got the fuse in line no voltage reduction what so ever. DO NOT USE THIS DEVICE TO CHARGE ANY BAOFENG RADIOS using a 12 volt supply voltage. 73
Thanks for the video !!! I was finishing programming and put it in my truck, if I did not see that video I would probably lost my truck, so thanks again and you got 1 more sub :)
The gap at the front of the charging receptacle is to allow for the high-capacity battery.
(Please note: I may edit this comment as I watch the rest of this video. Right now, I'm only up to 3:36)
And why do you keep saying the word "literally" when there is no need or reason to distinguish what what you immediately say next from being either metaphoric or figurative? Oh, that's right, You don't really know the real meaning of the word.
OK, so I'm up to the 4 minute mark, where you are measuring the temperature,
(in a most unreliable way I might add).
And, talking as you go, whilst pointing the laser-dot at what looks like the back of the battery towards its base, you say the temperature there is 81.3 degrees.
Next, you point the infra-red temperature gun at the receptacle itself and record a reading of 77 degrees.
Now? Are you in Canada where they use, (along with the rest of the civilised world), Celsius?
Or are you in USA, where they use the antiquated system of Fahrenheits (sic).
Without knowing which unit of measurement you are using, this whole exercise of yours becomes entirely meaningless.
Up to (7:23) now where you are showing us the 12-27v car/truck adapter.
That adapter outputs 12v. It is the WRONG adapter. 12v will melt the charging receptacle just as it has done.
I use these radios.
I have no affinity nor any association with Baofeng.
I also have a car/truck adapter , but mine is rated at 10v output, not 12v. That is where your problem is at.
My car/truck adapter also is rated for 10-24v input but the output is 10v. Not 12v like yours.
Someone has fucked up and given you the wrong adapter mate. You just need to find out how that happened.
(Apologies for the "literally" sniping back there but that's one thing that really raises my hackles. Soz.)
It’s definitely measured in Fahrenheit. The initial reading is a pretty normal room-temp.
Thanks for the heads up. Your problem appears to be only in the lighter adapter. Did that come with the unit? It's putting the full 12 volts from your vehicle into the charger not to mention the amps a car battery can supply. Not good. I'm going to try a USB adapter available from Baofeng and plug that into the USB port of my stereo. Hope that works better.
Yes this was with the supplied 12vdc charger. Wish you luck with yours.
I have changed mine for 6 hours on it's first charge on 220v in the UK in it cradle at home with no problem but I will definitely be at home when I charge it again, thanks for info.
I just bought the GT-3TP Mark iii .... how is the radio aside from the car charger? Should I send mine back in 2/days when it get here or should I just not use the car charger?
Best way to avoid a problem I'd buy a power converter and use the house plug
It's now (2019), does anyone know if this issue has been resolved? I just received a Baofeng GT-3TP, and a Baofeng Tri-Bander today. I haven't tried the car charger, but when I plug in the speaker/mic that came with the GT-3TP, it fits very loosely, and it also locks the transmitter. I contacted Radioddity, but haven't heard back yet. Maybe there are reasons these things cost about as much as a 'Happy Meal.' A faulty speaker/mic is one thing, getting burned alive is quite another!
They're illegal now. Don't buy them. You will go to prison.
@@MrMOLONLABE1776 this model is not illegal it's FCC Part 15 and Part 97 Certified.
dang, i bought the gt3tp about 4-6 months sooner than you posted this video, and was considering mobile charging. i see it says 10v in, and my supplied wall charger is 10v also. wew. and i was going to build a 12v to 10v regulator. GLAD I SAW THIS VIDEO. just in case i would have ever picked up the cig plug charger. thank you. i guess wall wart into an 12 to 120 v inverter 1st.
Please let me know how your regulator works out.
In case I need parts for mine where did you order them from
Just to add to my previous comment.
There was one time when I used a different mains adapter because I thought I might be able to charge up the battery quicker.
What I had was an old 10V adapter from some old router that was rated at 2 amps. That's 10V, 2A.
Since the supplied adapter was rated at 10V 500mA (0.5A) I thought to plug it into that to charge the Baofeng battery up quicker.
Now maybe it's because of problems like yours that my charging receptacle didn't melt or catch on fire but it certainly overheated and then cut out. (What I mean is; problems like yours got back to Baofeng and they then modified their designs).
It was then that I discovered that my 10V, 2,000mA adapter was UNREGULATED. Yes! This makes a big difference.
What "unregulated" means is that the current draw is expected to be exactly what it is rated for at its rated voltage, in my case, the rated output voltage would be 10V when, and only when the actual current draw was 2A. Do you follow?
At a 2A current draw, the unregulated supply will, indeed be supplying 10V. But if the max current draw is only 500mA (or 0.5A), then the supplied voltage is going to be much higher.
So when I connected my Baofeng charger with radio in it, because it's maximum current draw was only 500mA, the voltage was quite a bit high than its stated 10V. In fact, when I measured the actual voltage of the adapter, it was just over 14V !
The reason for such a high reading was that I was measuring the voltage under "no-load" conditions. With the correct load of 2A it would, (and did), give a reading of 10V.
Anyways, I think I had a lucky escape. And the take-away is this: If you want to use an unsanctioned 3rd-party adapter, then please take note of the following advice:
Avoid unregulated power supplies unless you fully understand the difference between "regulated" and "unregulated" within this domain.
Now I'm off for a beer. I have blisters on the tips of my fingers...
Is your voltage regulator going out in your alternator? Shouldn't rise and fall with rpms.
I tried to return mine to radio oddity. They refused to return it. I ended up filing a chargeback with my credit card company.
THANKS, PAT APPRECIATED. CHEERS FROM AUSTRALIA
Pat, watching this video has been one of the more surreal experiences I have had in some time. I just ordered the GT-3TP so I was looking for videos to learn more about it. I had already initiated a return with Sain Sonic because the unit that I got was used. In fact, on the inner box someone had written "Damaged Charging Base." They had also used a silver paint pen to mark the charger. I compared the paint pen markings to the ones in your video. (You see where this is going.) They sent me the unit that is featured in your video! What are the odds? If I could figure out a way to send you pics I would. Crazy coincidence. All the best to you. -Mike
Wow what are the possibility of that. I am sure that that was the one returned. At lease you know that I did my best to ensure that they were well informed of the problem. However it also goes to show that this company really does not even care about their customers options and safety. I would hope when you returned it you placed a comment that you knew where this product was originally. If you have any problems with the returns please feel free to contact me or to watch this video.
Amazon👍
Just got one and the seller opens the box a changed out the car charger I thought some one sold me a used radio I know why now thanks.
It's because you used the 12 volt adapter. You gotta find a way to step down the 12 volts from the car battery to the charging cradle
im getting reports my modulation is very low, how do i turn up my mic??? im on 70 cms and meters away from repeater!?!?
I had a Streamlight flash light that started leaking when I charged it in my jeep and I'm sure it was because it was putting out 13 volts and no telling how much when I drove down the road. I STOPPED using it in my Jeep and never had a issue. If it calls for 10 or 12 V and your truck will not do that how bout stop charging it in the truck?
I have many things that I charge while driving. This is the first time I have had an issue. If a company makes a 12vdc charging system why not use it if you are driving down the road to me this is more economical and better overall on resources.
I just bought 2 for a road trip up the east coast of Australia for some friends and I, I'm glad I saw this, I would be pissed if it burnt the dash of my car. where can you get a replacement though?
I sent mine back. I know their are some nice parts about the radios and if you are going to do mobile charging I would recommend using the wall charger with a power inverter.
ben max Thanks for this Pat. I do have a power inverter for the car (300W), so will be using this instead. Ordered radio last night.
Check the plug. that one looks different than mine. Mine is also labeled "input: 12-24v dc output 10v dc 2A"
Maybe Radioditty discovered the error
almost buying that sainsonic car charger because of the fancy look... is the batteries eliminator safe? i hav baofeng uv-82 & uv-5r
If you are referring to the 110 AC to DC wall wall charger then yes. I did not have any adverse effects from using it at the house. You might be safe using the car as not running. However I was getting these for use with a solar system and when a charge controller is equalizing the batteries the voltage are pushed up to around 15V DC and this would have been a bad situation. I returned these radio due to all of the bad design aspects. I even had one that would shut off at 1/2 battery power. I put this out so others may be informed prior to purchasing them. Best of luck. I do have a true Baofeng still but it is not a Sansonic.
If you are referring to the 110 AC to DC wall wall charger then yes. I did not have any adverse effects from using it at the house. You might be safe using the car as not running. However I was getting these for use with a solar system and when a charge controller is equalizing the batteries the voltage are pushed up to around 15V DC and this would have been a bad situation. I returned these radio due to all of the bad design aspects. I even had one that would shut off at 1/2 battery power. I put this out so others may be informed prior to purchasing them. Best of luck. I do have a true Baofeng still but it is not a Sansonic.
thanks for that it happened withe me where i drive my car and i smell something burning but i thought its just in my one i rely thank you so much for this caution - but do u have another option ?? regards
I would recommend using the wall charger with a power inverter in you vehicle it mobile charging is a must.
Thanks for the video. just bought one of these. I won't be using that plug for sure. wow
That's what I thought
How come you dont have more than 3 subs ???, Well since your a good guy I will talk about your channel, you should have couple of my friends, I hope so, you deserve more :) Arg ok sorry I just check and you have 1 video, that explain it !!!
Thanks for the heads up!
First off, I have several of these radios, and yes their cheap. I have never had problems with charging the batteries. In your video you dropped one of your batteries on a concrete floor. if you treat all your batteries this way your going to have problems. the first battery you charged was with the wall wart, and you said you had an orange light on, that means there is a problem. Red - is charging, Green - is charged, orange - there is a problem. Kinda looked like you didn't have it seated in the cradle right.
You should never over charge Li-ion batteries, or they can over heat, and start on fire. They tell you in the manual to never leave them on the charger once they are charged. With your car charger you were charging a battery that was already charged, it had a green light! That could be the reason that the battery was getting real hot.
Yes the car charger had some crazy voltages, but your car charges it's battery at 15 - 17 volts. You need higher voltages then the battery that your charging or it won't charge. Don't know how much higher the voltage can be to be safe, but most 12 volt solar panels put out 18 - 22 volts to charge a 12 volt battery. That's why you use a charge controller on solar panels other wise they will just keep charging, over charging, and heating your batteries, and they can start on fire.
Li-ion batteries are dangerous - they do not like to be over charged, and they might catch on fire. Many people that keep their cell phone in their back pockets have had them catch on fire in their pocket because it over heated, and they were not even charging them at the time. Companies from China don't care if their products burn your house down because you can't sue them. lol
I would suggest that no one ever charges any batteries on a flammable surface, or under anything flammable, and keep an eye on them when their charging.
I'm not in anyway implying that your doing things wrong. It is probably the cheap product! I was just sharing information that I have learned the last few years after getting into Ham radio, and solar systems.
For car charging I'd use a 5V USB charger connected to a 5 to 10V step up lead for the baofeng charger. Going to take my car charger apart to see if there's any regulation inside, if there isn't it's a crazy and dangerous design fault.
Can you plug the car adapter directly into the radio without using the charger base? My radios Yaesu's and Icoms do. Just curious...
Many of the radios that I have do not recommend leaving the radio on while charging. I have a Kenwood and the manual says not to do this. I would recommend not doing it, it is hard on the batteries. But you can always read the manual to see what they say.
Ok so what im seeing the radio are the charger docks are fine its the car charger that is causing issues cause its not bringing down the voltage to 10v instead by the looks its just a straight connection to the cars power supply with a fuse....
Thanks for the vid. I have had exactly the same problem with the car charger, problem I have is the ones I got from Ebay is I can't use the house psu due to it not being a uk plug!!!!
If you do the research and ask you may have a wall wart laying around that has the same output and polarity requirements. Good luck
Matt Jones Easy... If it's a US or EU plug, get a wall adaptor.....
Thanks for video, 73 !
Great video. Its not only the car chargers that are dodgy. I had two UV-5R regular wall wart chargers sent in the box rated at 12V. Nearly set my house on fire! If it doesn't read 10V then chuck it in the bin.
Wow I missed this one. I am thankful you are ok.
I found this by accident!! My charger has a melted bottom! This could be so dangerous..... Does anyone have a better car charging system?
FYI if you haven't seen the now make a USB charger.
You can also got to Walmart and get 12v adapter that has a switch for several voltages. Set it to 9v or even 7.5 and it should work.
The charger stand is designed for 10VDC input. Your Car battery is about 12.5 ... 12.8 V with no motor running and 13.8 ... 14.5 with the alternator running to charge the car battery. The Car charging adapter obviously is just passing the voltage from battery directly to the charger where the probably included voltage regulator will overheat. These regulators just transfer additional voltage into heat - and thats what happening. Also important to know: the contacts at the back of the battery are always under voltage even if the radio is off! Never touch these contacts with metal strips or similar to produce a short! This could overheat and destroy the battery and the radio! And in worst case set your home on fire! Thats the offtrade of cheap and easy from china...
You got me. I was confused when you said the charger put out twelve volts. The Charger unit states INPUT 10V. Even better when you proved the 12v adapter was putting out nearly 15 volts with no load. (ie no regulation). It was even better when you were showing us how putting more than 10 volts into the charger unit showed heat issues in the base of the charger unit. So how many did you end up blowing up??? Did you learn a lesson about reading instructions??
Mine came with a radioddity car adapter. No problems. Yes, the Mic cover is weak.
How is it a bad design? You are putting 25% more voltage than what it's designed for!
What did you expect????
I am saying that this charger has no regulation.
Russell Thompson If you know how vehicle alternators work, voltage will increase to above 14V. What the man is saying, no matter voltage input, output from the charger should be stable. As it's not, voltage increase results in temperature increase.
should have better safeties, and better build, end of story. Baofeng radios are shit. Yeasu Kenwood, Motorola, and Icom FTW. Moral of the story is you get what you pay for and if you buy cheap shit you get cheap and could lose everything you own because of it.
The problem is the main distributors of the GT-3TP radios, like NicheOne, Optimum Radio (aka radioptimum), and Radioddity are selling the car charger as a package deal along with radio as a compatible and functional product.
Signum The base is fine it's the plug for the truck the problem, well I guess we're talking about the same thing, what they write for specs are way off, 3 times that is a lot, and that without talking about amps too, but now problem solve for me, tested good.
Also you are meant to switch the radio off when charging . Leads me to believe that the radio charger works fine. its the user who hasn't got a clue.
the terminals on the base charger are trash too
Ha my 5r's the chargers pop every stray variance on voltage. Got mad and built my own charger. With a 7805 chip and 4 diodes on the line to fool the chip in to giving more volts. We happy. No more problems. Here boss. ps I found a 317 reg chip that is happy to serve. And was thrilled with the action I got from radio shack© parts. Of course I used to be a engneer in a Sylvania tv factory. So it was easy to mod the charging cradle. To be safe. To think about n it I never have seen as much as a one amp fuze. ??
Mag kaano charger VOFENG BF A58
Your trucks voltage regulator needs to be replaced. At idle the charging voltage is fine but at 2000 RPM it's at nearly 15 Volts? That's too high, it should be 14V tops. Install a current limiting resistor in the + power lead that goes to your triple outlet. It will increase charging time, but keep the input voltage to your devices within safe limits. As it is your trucks electrical system is delivering about 23% more voltage than is necessary, or safe.
Magkano Ang charger ser BF-A58
Got this a week ago with zero problems
I bought myself two walkie talkie identical.
Basis charge have an integrated circuit that exceeds 100 degrees celsius.
Use them before we opened and we drill the plastic casing.
If you want to throw everything in the trash i give you the address where i live.
The downside is that I live in Romania.
All the best.
I did not toss them I returned them and got my money back. This video was meant as an advisory. It is nice you have a suggestion about venting them. I just want manufacturers to make safe products that last.
Pat Tansey Don't think the Chinese (if it's made there) care about safety....
Don't get fooled.. many top brands are also manufactured in China... It only depends on the quality/price you are willing to pay for.
@@tiagocp You're obviously correct. Pay Apple's ridiculous prices, and you can generally get pretty good quality products. I'm typing this comment on a MacBook Pro that's well over (10) years old, and it has never started a fire.....yet! *lol*
Yeah the baofeng car charger has no inbuilt DC voltage regulator.
you need to put a fuse in line before the charger ofc!!!!
This is why I buy Yaesu made in Japan
I would say that you should of shown a charger of this type (other than a phone charger) hooked to the multimeter that had regulation and that was only putting out 12V with the vehicle running. I bet very few if any are regulated.....
I do know that I have experimented and used a single chip voltage regulator and it accepts varying inputs and a constant out put. However you do have a good suggestion.
If your charger adapter from the car doesn't output 10V it's the wrong thing for the charger's 10V because it gives out 12v or higher. You should input the charger with 10v, silly.
This is typical Chinese "marketing" with every company desperate to steal sales away from the next guy and lacking the engineering knowledge to know what they're doing. Baofeng doesn't include a car adapter so I'm guessing someone at Sainsoni, who doesn't understand the most basic electrical principals, found the cheapest cigarette light cord with a plug that fit, likely tested it for 10 seconds seeing the charge light indicate it was charging, and said Ship It!
The Baofeng charging base is already a really marginal ultra cheap design taking an unusual voltage (10v) for the wall adapter because they didn't want to spend twenty cents more to put a proper buck regulator in the charging base. Then Sain Sonic comes along and decides to throw in a car adapter that can deliver up to nearly 15 volts. It's why so many Chinese products are a giant FAIL. More people need to point these sorts of problems out so the Chinese manufactures learn from their mistakes. They know many of their products are cheap enough most customers don't bother to return them and in many cases they don't even have an office outside of China to return products to. At least if you buy Chinese junk that is shipped AND sold by Amazon you have 30 days to return it. And if they get enough returns on a product they stop carrying it leaving the Chinese manufactures to eBay and Aliexpress where returns to China cost more than the product.
12 V output is way to much out put you need a MAX only 10 .
The radio is ok but the power cord is not so buy a power cord that puts out a lower V
Yeah , I bought 4 of these radios, no problems with chargers, ur truck must have a fucked up electrical system
Never had any problems with mine.
This is normal for a lilon Accu
Dont use the cig lighter chargers they are cheap pieces of crap! If you are not buying top of the line radios then expect issues.
THESE ARE GREAT RADIOS AND IVE NEVER HAD THAT HAPPEN EVER WITH ALL 5 THAT I BOUGHT.
IF YOU LEAVE THESE ON THE CHARGER FOR DAYS THEY GET WARM. IF YOU USE DIRTY POWER THEY GET HOT. I RUN MINE ON A PURE SIGNWAVE INVERTER 220V AND NO PROBLEMS! DONT LET ONE REVIEW LIKE THIS FREAK YOU OUT!
BE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR ELECTRONICS!
why do you charge it running the car. That is stupid, because your generator overchares it logically.
7.4v Li-Ion battery can be charged maximum for 8.4v!!! (google that!)
So even 10v wall charger is not compatible for this radio charging and would definitely cause battery damage.
this is uncorrect. Wall charger has a 10v output and it's connect to the charger base that has a 10v input and a 8.4v output. So there is no problem using the wall charger
Alessio Pacilio, yes you are right. The docking station have dc step down chip inside, so theres no problem when input is 10v but it cant handle 14v, it heats too much
of course 14 volts is far too much for the docking station but it is a problem that affect the car charger only, the wall charger is fine :)
You had dirty power bro and thats why.
No, it is because the charging base is designed to run off of 10v dc, and the car adapter is feeding it a nominal 12v dc instead of regulating it to 10v dc. That means that the base is being fed a minimum of 20% more voltage than it was designed for.
Thanks for the heads-up