If you are looking at longevity, a deep cycle (including wheel chair batteries) is the way to go.
They are built differently than a regular "starting" battery. A starting battery is made for the heavy load of staring an engine and then to be recharged right away if you want the battery to last. Running a "starting" battery down to near dead will significantly shorten it's life.
A deep cycle is made for a smaller load, but to run that load all day, which is exactly what you need for your base radio. A deep cycle is also made to be drawn down to dead or almost dead (hence the name "deep cycle") before being charged, and not damage or shorten the life of the battery by doing this
Any battery is only good for so many recharge cycles, so going way oversize and then recharging them everyday isn't necessarily doing yourself any favors. If you got a great big group 31 deep cycle (the standard heavy truck/equipment size) you can probably go a couple or even several days running your base radio before needing a charge (depending on the power setting you use it at)
If you have to carry it a ways, a smaller battery is of course better and looking into a lithium or similar could be worth the extra cost.
For the most part I put the base station somewhere that I can drive to so carrying the battery isn't a huge deal. A standard group 24 (size) deep cycle battery will more than cover any day in the field and since it is a very common battery the price isn't bad and it's easier to pick up than the big group 31's (tho if you don't mind lifting the big ones, they are often a lot more capacity for very little more cash)
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Re:Changers
PAY the extra for a good charger.
Must haves here include:
You also want something that actually has a setting specifically for deep cycle
A computer controlled automatic shut off (over charging, even at a trickle will kill a battery)
This will usually mean the computer will also examine the battery and actually change the rate at which it charges (kind of like filling your car with gas and slowing down the pump while you top it off) (on a side note don't "top off" your newer cars, yes it will run fine but over time it messes with the emission control systems and you'll have that annoying light glaring at you all day)
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And regarding the "OPTIMA" batteries, they are fantastic, expensive but fantastic. The way they are built they will hold up to vibration being bounced around job sites etc. longer, but because they are built differently than most batteries they do need a special charger. It needs a separate setting for AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat)
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I've used them for ?ñ10 years, they're great and don't weigh as much and a very dependable?ÿ
Trimble also recommended not running on 35w, especially out here in the desert where summer days hit 110?ø often, we've done the ice pac thing too.
Curious about how you use the electric fence...just to keep animals away or humans?
I am running a Trimble R10 base with TDL450 connected via split cable.?ÿ My need to run the 35 Watt setting on the TDL all day.?ÿ I have heard that some are using deep cycle marine batteries.?ÿ What specific brand/model/spec battery are you using with great success??ÿ What charger should I be getting for optimal battery life?
Thanks for your time!
-MattPASurveyor
We use sim cards inside the R10 instead of radios. Works most places, for the rare place it doesn't we do use radios but not at high power. I did some very remote work recently in the rockies, the cell worked most places but there were a few points where it didn't, just did some RTX on those points. The radio never would have worked, topography was too rugged and the area too big with high hills in between. My TDC600 has an AT&T card, I have a verizon mifi, and also a google phone (T-Mobile network), so I have three networks to chose from. I usually use the verizon mifi. I have had cases where only one of those three actually worked.?ÿ
I also use an alloy as a base, with that I use an external microhard modem (I have two, one is verizon and one is AT&T) that runs off of a pigtail from a 7AH battery, same as the receiver. The modem has a small antenna and also an external antenna with a 3 m cable. I recently had a situation where I could log in to the modem but not the receiver towards the end of the day. Checked my email the Alloy had sent a message that it was running low on power and was about to shut down. The modem kept running, though. Turns out that there is a external voltage setting in the alloy that tells it when to switch to internal battery. It was set at 11.8, and I didn't have an internal battery inside the alloy (it takes two R10 type batteries). Lessons learned...always have internal batteries inside the alloy, and I set the voltage cutoff to 10.8V. The modem will run on 7V to 30V, so the battery would have to really drop down to shut that off. It uses about 2 w when transmitting.?ÿ
I can also use the external modem with the R10, I just wifi from the R10 to the modem.?ÿ?ÿ
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@jim-frameUsed the same stuff for several years with an older Trimmark 3 35 watt radio. I could get 2 days without recharging. The Optima batteries are hard to get fully charged with a regular battery charger. I went to the Optima battery charger and never had any problems.
Curious about how you use the electric fence...just to keep animals away or humans?
I live in Arkansas. Where, if you are an animal, with experience, you know to avoid electric fences.
If you are human, you usually have experience with electric fences.
Story:
One day my nephew came over. He's a pampered kid. At that time about 5 yrs old. We have an electric fence. We had it pushed down, while walking over it. My kids said "don't touch that". Of course "rules are made to be broken", according to his upbringing. They were all barefoot. My kids stepped over the wire. Nephew stepped on it. He jumped and yelled. My kids all laughed. They knew rules are good.
Anyway, most people around here have "experience" with wires with insulators and wire. The insulators are your warning. My rig around the base is set on fiberglass rods. But, it seems to make all stop. So far.
But we all enjoyed nephew and the electric fence.
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If you are human, you usually have experience with electric fences.
I've been bit by electric fences a dozen or times in my career.?ÿ Most were no big deal, but the time I remember most clearly involved a gate with a chest-high wire.?ÿ I had gone through that gate several times, opening and closing it carefully each time.?ÿ But then I had to set a traverse point near it, so I got out my binoculars to make sure I had a clear line of sight to the point I had just left.?ÿ I was moving around, jockeying for a clear shot, and inadvertently wandered a little too close to the gate.?ÿ I hit the wire with both forearms.?ÿ It's a miracle that I didn't drop the binocs, because that was one hot fence.?ÿ I had burn marks on both arms.
My most recent encounter with a hot wire was while on vacation a few years ago.?ÿ We had climbed to the roof of a church somewhere in Spain, and there were walkways with guard rails along various parts of the roof.?ÿ I kept seeing these interesting stainless steel assemblies on the other side of the rails, and at one point the rail was right next to one.?ÿ As I reached out to touch it, I got as far as saying "I wonder what this" before I made contact.?ÿ At that point I could no longer speak, but I also had the answer to my question:?ÿ pigeons.
Given that they probably wired the 230 volt mains to it, you are lucky to be here.
Worst shock I've had in recent years was when we were salvaging antique fixtures from the old church building that was due to be demolished.?ÿ I made sure the light was off and started chiseling into the plaster to remove the fixture, all sweaty from other work.?ÿ I hit a wire embedded in the plaster (a code violation for many decades) while leaning against a radiator and had a serious jolt.?ÿ I later deduced that it was hot to light, then switch to neutral (a code violation in recent decades).
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When I was about Jr High age, I had an old electric fence charger that I would run on discarded flashlight batteries that just barely were able to make it tick.?ÿ Of course the jolt was much less than its intended application.?ÿ My siblings recall many incidents of booby trapped objects with a hidden wire.?ÿ I wasn't quite eligible for the Cash clan, but did have some less than stellar activities.
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