EMail SubscriptionRegistered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted. Rating:2005-10-23It worksTime Owned: 6 to 12 months.I like this charger because it is really 'universal'. I regularly use it to charge my HT batteries and AA's. The part that is most annoying is the voltage sensor. I've noticed most of the time it is incorrect. I usually have to charge the pack half way at a lower voltage then disconnect and reconnect a few times to recognize the correct voltage.
Then it takes longer on the conditioning and recharge. The charger does work OK, but it could do a little better.Jon KC9AXZwww.kc9axz.com. Rating:2004-06-02Works good.Time Owned: more than 12 months.I've had one of these for over 2 years now. It pretty much works as advertised, and hasn't given me much trouble. Most of the time, it does what it says it does.Occaisionally, the embedded processor in the thing gets confused and doesn't know what to do.
This can happen when the AC mains drop out during a charge cycle. It can also (but doesn't always) happen when you inadvertently place a fully charged pack on the unit. But those occurrences are fairly rare from my experience.I've got one, had it for a little over 2 years, and use it regularly. I like it, and would buy another one if I needed it.73 de N8AUC. Rating:2004-05-28Save money against OEM charger!Time Owned: more than 12 months.THis will do you well for just the normal HT batteries for alot less than the OEM quick charger costs-you buy an HT cheap and then take it in the shorts for the add ons! I decided I could get by without the fancy LCD screen and such for everyday use.
I use it mostly for ICOM packs. Just be sure to get the terminals set up correctly and it is easy.
NOte: you need to go to the more expensive model for 3.3 volt packs, this one does not charge below about 4 volts apparently. But the VX 1 packs quick charge in the radio, with the wallwort, anyway.
The packs do not get that hot, with the sensor attached correctly. Overall good for the normal HT owner and does some other stuff, if you want to charge/analyse exotic battery packs, you'll have to get the more expensive unit with the LCD! Rating:2003-05-28Really Nice ChargerTime Owned: 0 to 3 months.works great on my 600mA to 1100mA HT batteries. Charger and batteries get a bit toasty when charging 4-1800mA NIMH AA's though. Battery conditioning feature is terrific! Works very well on cordless power tool packs.
What makes this charger great is that it can charge all kinds of batteries. Sure it takes a little while to set up the charger, but it's pretty intuitive and not that hard to do. Good investment if you charge a lot of non-Lithium Ion batteries. Rating:2002-09-05Inexpensive, but cheap.Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.I had one of these for exactly one week. While it seemed to charge batteries in an acceptable way, it wouldn't handle my Nokia cellphone batteries (voltage too low), and the little pivot-out brace for the contact arms would not stay closed unless the arms were fully retracted, making that feature somewhat useless.
Universal Charger Station
I returned it and bought the MH-C777PLUSII, with which I have been quite pleased - but that's another review.Incidentally, it appears that Batteries America is marketing this same charger under the UDQ-9000 model number. Rating:2002-05-26FYI: RS vs MAHATime Owned: more than 12 months.Just FYI.Several years ago I called Maha to find out what the difference in specs meant of the Radio Shack version and the Maha branded version. I did note different charging specs between the two at least at that time. A gentleman at Maha explained to me that the RS version was made up to RS's spec to handle the range of non-amateur rechargable batteries in the RS catalog. I chose the Maha version because the product I believed directly addressed our market, it was more appropriate for Amateur HT batteries, my hunch.My memory is vague in this whole thing because it has been some years since I did this, but those curious should check out the specs for any differences. Don't exactly remember what the differences were or what that meant, but I opted for the Maha version.I did find that setting up the unit, as others have noted here, is very sensitive, and care should be taken to do everything right. Usually unplugging and plugging back in sets things correctly.
Rating:2002-05-02Works well for battery packs, but.Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.I use the C777 primarily to charge my HT battery packs. One pack is the stock Icom BP173 (9.6V, 650mAh) NiCd that came with my W32A, the other is a Kendoo NiMH (1000mAh, 9.6V) third market battery for this radio. For these purposes, the charger works rather well. Both batteries get 'comfortably warm' during charging, but that's to be expected. I don't worry much due to the magnetic tempearture sensor.Sometimes the charger does get confused about what voltage the packs are (based on the number of LED 'blinks' you get when first attach the pack to the charging terminals).
This is easily rectified by just unplugging and replugging in the charger. The discharge/condition button works as advertised.However, I'm a bit concerned about this charger's function when it comes to charging high mAh batteries. When attaching 8AA 1500mAh NiMH batteries (via an external battery holder attached to the alligator clip leads that are included with the charger), the charger itself gets very warm.I noticed this significantly when trying to recharge four PowerEx C (3500mAh) NiMH batteries! The charger base gets.very.
warm, quite a bit more than I feel comfortable with, when recharging these batteries while the batteries themselves don't get that warm. A couple times when recharging these C batteries, the unit shut itself off or indicated 'full charge' on the batteries when in fact, they weren't fully charged.So, I feel the C777 charger works just fine for battery packs and a AA batteries, I must say tread with caution when trying to charge larger capacity batteries.
Though I don't have any, I would NOT feel comfortable recharging D cells on this device.A couple of other reviewers have mentioned they've had serious problems with this charger burning up. I can see that as a serious potential problem, though I've not had any problems with packs and AA so far.An.excellent. product improvement suggestion that was previously made is to allow users to select a range of charging amperage. This might allow the unit to recharge larger capacity batteries (over a longer period of time) without any fears of overheating.
Rating:2002-03-20CorrectionTime Owned: 6 to 12 months.I found a string of 12 cells in my shack and found I was wrong on my last review stating that the MH-C777 did not support 8.4 and 10.8 7 and 9 cell packs. I found out they do and also the charger will charge 11 cells in series as a bonus. 4 led flashes indicate the 7 cell 8.4 packs 5 flashes indicate 9, 10, and 11 cell packs 10.8 to 13.2 packs.
The pack getting hot problem was due to me learning to get a reliable connection before starting to charge or a power interuption to the pack and the charger tries to charge a pack to the next higher voltage. I haven't had a pack get hot since my last review was posted. On higher voltage packs I found that the charger will automatically set to the next higher voltage if the pack is deeply discharged and all the cells respond to the charging current. I hope that helps clear up my last review. 73 Gerry-Earlier 4-star review posted by VE7BGP on 2001-12-31In Oct.
I bought this charger at Radio Shack, It is identical to the MH-C777 charger I don't know if it is available in USA Radio Shack Cattalog # 23-250. I am using batteries that I have thrown into the recycle box I use a 4 AA holder I bought from Radio Shack years ago to charge the standard AA cells. I also have several packs fot 2 handies an older Sanyo camcorder and other toys.
I like the fact you charge the packs you put the standard AA cells into. At $79.95 it is way less costly than the Icom accessory fast charger and I am sure it does just as good of a job. Only complaint I have is the led flashes way too fast to indicate the pack voltage, I wish the flashes were a lot slower. You have to make sure the correct voltage is indicated or the battery will overcharge and the temp sensor will shut down the charger another snag is that it does not support 8.4 and 10.8 battery packs 7 and 9 cell used in older HTs. The temp sensor will shut them down when the batteries get very hot after being overcharged. I really rate this unit 4.5 for this reason.
I hope this helps you. 73 Gerry. «.PLEASE READ.PRODUCT REVIEWS TERMS & CONDITIONS-NOTES.