Battery

My X6100 started freezing up its user-interface. This happens sometimes when the radio board shuts off, but the UI board hasn’t yet. It would happen when I was transmitting, even very low power, 2W. It even did it after a long time just listening.

I unplugging the USB-C from the computer, and it would allow the UI to shutdown, so the USB-C was powering the UI board, while the radio board had shutdown. The internal battery indicator looked like it may have shown low for a moment, but I was on 12V.

I finally realized I had enabled battery charging all the time. Charging the mostly-worn-out battery caused this new shutdown problem. I disabled charging, and now the radio is running fine again.

I ordered 2 new internal battery packs from Amazon to install. I used to be able to run the radio on internal battery for a little while, but now as soon as I unplug external power, the battery will read something terribly low like 7% and about 6 volts.

When I first started with the X6100, I’d see some noise that buried real signals when plugged into AC power.

Running on battery was fine, and running on the external lead-acid 12V battery was OK too. For weeks, I used the battery to smooth the noise. I’d run an AC power supply in parallel with the battery and turn it up just high enough that I didn’t see noise in the waterfall. The battery smoothed the power.

I switched to a LiFePO4 battery, and I found the built-in charging circuit made it hard to balance input power and output power just right to keep it smooth.

I asked around on the X6100 mailing list and I got 2 suggestions I took:

• a filter I can use with any cheap power supply I already have
• a cleaner, and inexpensive, switching power supply from Ateck that puts out a fixed 12V/5A (Part#: PS120V5-D)

I purchased both to try, and both helped immensely, each on their own.

I wired up the filter with some 5525 connectors and printed a case for it. I use the filter in combination with my adjustable 24V/5A power supply on the go. That higher-voltage power supply is also useful to charge the LiFePO4 battery at 14.1V. The battery also lives in my box for portable operation.

I use the Ateck power supply on my desk by itself to power the radio at home.

I’m running FT8 on 10m with only the internal battery. I’m finding I’m only able to push ~3W. SWR looks good.

On external power supply, I can push up to 10W