STANDARD HORIZON HANDHELD VHF: No 12V lead!

nigelmercier

nigelmercier

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Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
www.bavariayacht.info
I've just bought a STANDARD HORIZON HX851E (HANDHELD DSC VHF). I was rather shocked to discover that it doesn’t come with a 12VDC charging plug, which is surely the main source of power on a boat?

The US site (none on UK site) lists two DC cables, which I think are universal for their range: E-DC-19A (with a cigar plug) and E-DC-6 (DC Cable; plug and wire only). It's the latter I want, but can't find it anywhere, and shops want £10 + P&P for the one with the cigar plug.

I also tried to get a right-angle yellow 4mm DC plug, can't find any of those either, only straight ones, like this.

Has anyone found a charge lead for Standard Horizon handheld units at a reasonable price?

Failing that, can anyone think of a reason why I can’t just cut the lead off the 230VAC to 12VDC adaptor? The output measures 12.2V and the charging base says DC 12V to 16V 200mA. I'd rather not do this of course.
 
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If you only want to charge it from the boat batteries then I'd chop off the transformer and fit a cigar light plug on the cable. That's what I did with my LED lights and they work fine.

Strange that you didn't get one - I got both with my SH ordinary handheld but it can only be charged sitting in a cradle so I can't take it home and charge it as the cradle is screwed to the nav table.
 
If you do snip it, put a resistor in the cable to limit the current to the 200mA as nicads can be damaged by uncontrolled charging. Allowing for voltage rise with the engine on that would be a 75 ohm resistor.
 
Hi Nigel,

It tends to be an odd fact that these days most H/H VHF's come with a 240v charger only...a constant niggle I come across...

The official Standard Horizon Cigarette lighter 12v lead will set you back around £11

But I agree with Moody, can't see a reason why you can't slice the adaptor off the cord and solder on a 12v connector...
 
penfold said:
If you do snip it, put a resistor in the cable to limit the current to the 200mA as nicads can be damaged by uncontrolled charging.
Click to expand...

Presumably, though, the wide range of input voltages allowed by the base means it has some kind of regulator in it? Which would make sense if a "dumb" 12v power lead is one of the input options.

Pete
 
prv said:
Presumably, though, the wide range of input voltages allowed by the base means it has some kind of regulator in it? Which would make sense if a "dumb" 12v power lead is one of the input options.
Click to expand...

Quite correct - the charging base has all the electronics in it. There's no need for a resistor in the lead! My HX471 uses the same lead.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Yes, this radio takes the same charge lead as the Yaesu VX range, so that is a good option to avoid the 100% marine mark-up. :o

All the eBay sellers of reasonable priced leads are of course in HK, and I need it this week. If I had know there wasn't one in the box, I could have ordered it two weeks ago when I placed the order. :mad:
 
If you charge it up on the mains lead then you should be alright for a few weeks. I only charge my HH once or twice a year. Brilliant radios :)

Anyway post from Hong Kong is probably quicker than Royal Mail!
 
Nigel, have you a Maplin's near you?

I suspect if you go into a branch of maplins with the 240v adaptor and ask them if there's anything you can get hold of to do the same job as a 12v DC, you should be able to walk away with something....
 
Have you tried phoning the UK agents in Winchester? I needed items for my HH (another charging cradle and lead!) and they were very helpful and I picked the items up from their office.
 
How about this then?
Cut the PSU adapter lead off, but leave about 200mm of wire on the transformer.
Fit a male cigarette lighter plug to the end of the cable which you require to connect to your boats 12V DC supply (the opposite end to the small connector which plugs into the radio)
Then fit a female cigarette lighter socket onto the 200mm of cable from the PSU.
You then have the oppurtunity to charge via 12V DC via cig lighter plup, or plug the male into the female and charge via the 240V PSU.

Chepest, easiest solution, just make sure you get the polarity of the male/female connectors right!!
 
It is one of the more common connector sizes, I use one of the inexpensive leads normally intended for laptops that comes with various adapters and varying output voltage, a few pounds from ebay...
 
Interesting as mine I bought about 4 years ago comes complete with spare battery pack for non charging AA batteries and a DC charger.
I had mine out several weeks ago after two years stored away and without a fresh charge quite happy.
 
I cut the mains transformer of my lead and connected straight to the ships batteries a few weeks ago. Have charged the handheld with and without the engine running with no problems so far!
 
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