Refurbishing A Clansman Battery: Colin Guy G4DDI

The VMARS Newsletter Issue 27
Refurbishing a Clansman Battery

Colin Guy G4DDI
New battery packs are available for the Clansman radios, (eg www.milpower.co.uk ) but they are serious money. Used
packs are readily available, but being NiCads, they are likely to have a very limited life and reduced capacity.
The one I obtained also exhibited a strange effect in that it First, make sure the battery is fully discharged then begin by
would charge up and give the correct 24V terminal voltage, carefully drilling out the pop rivets holding the metal top of the
but if left on the shelf the voltage would fall quite suddenly case in place and ease the top away. You will find a thin
after a few minutes to around 20V, and the battery would heat fibreglass insulating layer beneath it, peel this away to reveal
up quite noticeably, suggesting an internal short. the top layer of cells, embedded in that horrible expanding
Measurement of the pack suggested that it’s internal foam material. Carefully pick this away with a small
dimensions were five ‘D’ cells by two ‘D’ cells by two ‘D’ cells: screwdriver around one or two cells in the centre of the pack,
5x2x2=20, each Ni-Cad ‘D’ cell is 1.2 volts: 20x1.2=24, the taking care not to damage the cells unduly. If, as I did, you
required voltage, so I decided to see if was is possible to find evidence that the cells have leaked, take personal
dismantle the battery pack.
Firstly, though, a word on charging NiCad batteries. A very
good description of the internal workings of these batteries is
given at
http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Batteries/Chemistry/che
mistry.html . Suffice it to say here that they have to be
charged from a constant current source; the normal rate is
1/10 th of the Ah capacity of the cell. The Clansman batteries
vary between about 3 and 5 Ah, depending on the age and
manufacturer of the battery, so for say a 3.5 Ah battery, the
charging rate would be 350mA. At this rate it would take a
theoretical 10 hours to fully charge a flat battery, in practice it
takes 14 hours due to losses. Once the battery is fully
charged, an internal process prevents damage to the battery Fig.1 The top layer of cells removed
should charging continue at this rate. Clearly, however, it is
impractical in many situations to wait for 14 hours to charge a
battery, imagine having to do this from a hand generator for protection precautions as small amounts of Potassium
instance! Hydroxide may have been released, and this is highly
However, it is possible to charge a battery in a much shorter poisonous. Eventually you should be able to loosen the cells
time by using a higher charging current, and this will not harm and extract the top layer one by one, twisting them gently to
the battery whilst it is charging. However, once fully charged break the connections, then do the same for the bottom layer.
the battery cannot store any more energy and the excess is At some point you should come across a pair of thin wires
dissipated as heat, and causes damage to the cell, and inside a piece of plastic sleeving, this is the diode sensor: take
releases hydrogen and oxygen with possible serious great care not to damage this, it will need to be replaced
consequences. Whilst charging at these higher currents, the afterwards. When all the cells are out, clean out the
battery remains substantially at room temperature but once remaining foam from the sides and bottom of the casing.
fully charged a substantial rise in temperature occurs. There is no need to remove the foam from the area beneath
The Clansman chargers appear to operate at about 1.5A the connecting terminals: there is another sensing diode
charging current, and will therefore charge a 3.5 Ah battery in embedded in this area which could easily be damaged. You
about 2½ hours. To prevent damage to the battery by should be left with a red and a black wire, as well as the
overcharging a method of detecting the temperature rise is sensor described above, which disappear into the remaining
needed. In the Clansman battery are two temperature foam around the connectors, these are of course the positive
sensors, which are in fact silicon diodes. One is embedded
amongst the cells in the pack, and one is mounted close to
the metal casing. The latter detects the ambient temperature
and when the embedded diode senses a higher temperature
the charger is signalled that the battery is fully charged and
the lamps on the charger change from ‘proceeding’ to
‘complete’. Fig 5 shows the wiring of the charger connector
on the battery pack.
Rebuilding the Battery.

As stated above, the Clansman 24 volt battery requires 20 ‘D’
cells. These vary in price, but you do get what you pay for to Fig.2 The new cells connected up
some extent. They are also available in various capacities.
The best compromise I found was to buy 2.4 volt batteries and negative connections to the cell stack. There should also
intended for emergency lighting units. These 4.5Ah units be another insulating layer on the bottom of the case, check
consist of two ‘D’ cells in-line, in a shrink-wrap, and cost £6.88 the condition of this and if it is at all damaged, it should be
each from CPC at Preston (www.cpc.co.uk ) It is possible that removed.
they may be cheaper from other sources of course. You will Lay five of the new cell stacks side by side and solder the
require 10 of these, so the cost is approaching £70, but I think tags together positive to negative (or if you are using
it worthwhile if you are seriously keen on going out /p! If you individual cells you will have to make them up into inline pairs
really want to push the boat out, a 7Ah ‘D’ cell is available for first). Tape them together then lay the other five on top and
£8.17 per cell! connect up in a similar manner. It is a good idea to place a
6 February 2003
The VMARS Newsletter Issue 27
volts unless the cells are totally flat. If it is any less,

check for reversed cells, it is easy to do if you are not
careful. When you are satisfied that the wiring of the
cells is correct, place a piece of insulating material in
the bottom of the battery case and ease the new cell
pack into the case. Then slide a suitably sized piece
of insulating material between the cells and the case
on each side and on top. Relocate the sensor diode
in the centre of the cell pack, and connect the red
and black wires to the appropriate terminals of the
cells. Refit the top metal cover but do not re-rivet it at
Fig 3. Test charging this stage, a couple of self - tapping screws will
locate it if it is loose.
Now is the time to charge the battery: give it a couple of
piece of thin insulating material between the two layers, I use hours, if the indicator lamp on the charger doesn’t change
the clear plastic sheeting in which many things are packaged over see if the cells are any more than just warm, if not give
these days, but probably better would be thin fibreglass sheet them a little longer, if they are quite hot you may have
damaged one of the diodes; they can be checked for
continuity with a multimeter, (see fig 5). If all is well clip the
pack to your radio and see how long it works for! It may be
necessary to charge and discharge new cells a few times
before full capacity is achieved.
When you are quite
sure the battery is
working properly,
remove the cover and
add some more
insulation as
necessary to make
sure the cells aren’t
loose. You can buy
Fig.5 Charging socket connections
small cans of
Fig.4 Final testing before the lid goes back on! expanding foam from diy stores and builders merchants, but I
would suggest not using this material unless you really want
to make the pack ‘squaddieproof’, as sooner or later the cells
as in the original battery if you can get it (it is more heat
will fail again!! Also, the foam is expensive and once a can is
resistant). The original battery relied only on the ‘heatshrink’
started, it ‘goes off’ very quickly and so is wasted, it’s only an
wrap of the cells for inter-cell insulation, as you can see in
economical proposition if you are doing several batteries
fig.1 this has not fared too well!
together. Either way, replace the cover, ‘pop’ in some new
When the cells are all connected up it is a good idea to
rivets and no-one will know its been apart.
measure the terminal voltage – it should be very close to 24
7 February 2003

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The VMARS Newsletter Issue 27

Refurbishing a Clansman Battery

Rebuilding the Battery.

volts unless the cells are totally flat. If it is any less,

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