Icom BP-84 Repair

1 Scope

A close friend of mine is a navigator as I am, and he needed a handheld marine radio. I did have an Icom M9 in my wonder box, however only the core device, without battery and without charger. So I purchased an Icom BP-84 battery from an Italian Ebay seller.

I expected at least some voltage, but it became clear that the battery was totally empty. When trying to charge it with my lab power supply at 7 volts, I expected at least some charging current, but there was none either. This was a clear indication that the battery must have been totally broken.

I opened the case and found some red dry powder all around the battery cells, obviously electrolytic loquid dried a long time ago.

The option to throw it away was not an option, since these battery cases are hard to find these days, and even though it could be a rewarding and interesting 3D printing project. So I decided to bring it to new life again.

2 Components

I chose to use six Eneloop AA NIMH rechargable batteries with a capacity of 1900 mAh. Since they would go in series to reach the 7,x volts, the final capacity would also be 1900 mAh, and thus nearly double the original capacity. The BP-84 is rated for 1000 mAh.

Other components were three small leftover double sided PCB boards and a great number of spacers and screws.