Topic: UA-5 Run Times on 9.6 R/C battery

[utahtaper]

What is the run time for one of these? Rat Shack has the 1600ma batteries and I'm going to build one. Should I pick up two?

[DaryanLenz]

Yes, get two.  I think about 4-6 hours of run time on each.  You can get them much cheaper off of ebay if you are willing to wait...high capacity batteries as well!

Daryan

[Kindguy]

This battery rules the UA-5

http://www.batteryspace.com/product.asp?3=209

[utahtaper]

Can you get away with one 3000 mah? I only need a battery to last 3 hrs.

[Kindguy]

From my testing at the house that battery lasts over 7 hours. anything over 7 would be pushing it though.

[caymanreview]

i believe the ua5 draws 450 ma / hour, so just take the size of the battery divided by that

[mirth]

Ya, the 3000mAh will last you about 6.5 hours with phantom on. Using that math, the 1600mAh Rat Shack batts will get you 3+/ea.

[Nick in Edinboro]

I have that Rat Shack 1600mah battery, never had it die on me yet (until the next time I tape now that I said that).. Have recorded 3.5+ hours with it, haven't really pushed it though--never had a chance just yet.

[dklein]

Go for the NiMh battery (battery space or other) instead of the NiCad (rat shack).  They're the same size and roughly the same weight but the NiMh lasts twice as long.  You never know...like the other night when I had a 2 show conflict...and fortunately the 1st one ended before the 2nd one started.  Off I went with lotsa battery left!

p.s. when you're doing the math you don't get all the capacity.  And when I measured current consumption on the UA-5, I never measured over 400mA even with phantom on.

Conditions                               Battery (mA)                        AC  (mA)
phantom off                              260                              280
phantom on, no mics attached     290                              320
phantom on, Rode NT-4 attached 360                              390

and add 20mA for headphone monitoring if you use it.

[Nick in Edinboro]

Oh forgot to mention, I was using the NiMH RatShack 1600mah version.. the one that has the little "race flag" on the battery..

[mirth]

Conditions                               Battery (mA)                        AC  (mA)
phantom on, Rode NT-4 attached 360                              390

So, one could expect to get 9+ hours out of the NIMH 3600mAh battery pack with a 48V phantom draw. Way cool!

[dklein]

to be safe, I wouldn't count on getting more than 85% of the rated capacity...also different mics draw different currents on phantom.  I don't know if my mic is high or low.  But 7 hours is definitely safe

[phishn]

here's a nice battery and charger. +T to BCostigan for showing me this one...

http://www.batteryspace.com/product.asp?3=209