WaywardTraveller Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 The title says it all. I ordered the BC-7DC2 dual-gumstick battery charger from minidisc-canada.com...twice. The first time I got a beat-up unit with scratches all over the outside and connectors in the charge slots so bent out of shape one pair didn't even make full contact with the battery! The plug was loose and flimsy, the lid came off with the slightest sideways pressure, and - needless to say - it didn't work. The charge lamps never came on, no matter what I tried.I sent it back and the kind people at MDC sent me another one - a new model this time, but it still just plain don't work... I've tried batteries in one/the other/both slots in various working wall outlets, but nothing works. I miss my old BC-7HT! Has anyone else had this problem with the 7DC2?peaceWaywardTraveller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_raji Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 Has anyone else had this problem with the 7DC2?peaceWaywardTravellerYeah, I found that I had to push the gumstick batteries into the charger a little bit more firmly than I thought. Then, I'd have to close the cover nice and tight. I even resorted to using tape to keep the cover closed tight. If the battery pops out, it pushes the cover open. Therefore, if you don't let the cover open up, the battery won't pop out.Crappy, but it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 Mine died a sudden death when my wife dropped the clothing iron on it. I ended up replacing it with a "GP" branded unit and never had trouble with it. It definitely is sturdier than the 7DC2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burns3016 Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 I also have the BC-7DC2 charger. The charger lights do light up on my unit, but they do not turn off to indicate that charging is complete. So I asked around a bit a found out that for 1400mah batteries being charged at 200ma that total charge time would be approx. 7hrs.I'm sorry to hear the problems you are having with your BC-7DC2 WaywardTraveller, but are you saying that it won't charge at all ? Or just that the charge indicators do not light up ? Both are bad I agree, but at least if it does charge (even without indicators), you can power up you batteries. And yes, I agree, the BC-7DC2 is a very crappy unit overall. It is poorly built etc.What is wrong with Sony, again ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 The most reliable gumstick charger I have found has been the BC-9HP2 which came with my E900 and which I still use and works flawlessly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burns3016 Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 The most reliable gumstick charger I have found has been the BC-9HP2 which came with my E900 and which I still use and works flawlessly.Is the BC-9HP2 a SONY brand charger ? Does it have automatic cut-off etc. ? What features does it have ? eg. charge time etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Bass_Man Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Is the BC-9HP2 a SONY brand charger ? Does it have automatic cut-off etc. ? What features does it have ? eg. charge time etc.I recentlly acquired an E900 via EBay, and the BC-9HP2 came as an unexpected bonus - so far it seems to do the job perfectly OK, and yes, it has an auto cut-off.The pictures below are the UK version :-Hope this helps ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 That's the one, mine is also a UK version and as I said does it's job admirably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaywardTraveller Posted January 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 (edited) I also have the BC-7DC2 charger. The charger lights do light up on my unit, but they do not turn off to indicate that charging is complete. So I asked around a bit a found out that for 1400mah batteries being charged at 200ma that total charge time would be approx. 7hrs.I'm sorry to hear the problems you are having with your BC-7DC2 WaywardTraveller, but are you saying that it won't charge at all ? Or just that the charge indicators do not light up ? Both are bad I agree, but at least if it does charge (even without indicators), you can power up you batteries. Neither of the BC-7DC2s I got lit up when plugged in...I didn't have the time to waste seeing if they'd charge, but I took it as an ill omen. MDC later got back to me on this and told me it appears they got a defective batch, and that they'd refund my money.Stay tuned for my upcoming thread...where oh where can I find a worldwide voltage gumstick charger in Toronto? peaceWaywardTraveller Edited January 29, 2006 by WaywardTraveller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 hey wayward... if you'd refrase/broaden that question to "where oh where can I buy a decent gumstick charger anywhere ... online is ok unless the the shipping rates are ridiculous" I'll back you up and would immediately subscribe to that thread! I've been searching here (in Belgium) and didn't find a thing!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 What's so bad about the internal charger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 after reading about higher mAh gumstick batteries swelling till they almost cannot be removed from the NH900 I'm a bit hesitating about charging the 1450mAh GP-stick I'm using n the machine itself... I also do not know whether the NH900 actually is good for charging a 1450mAh fully?I was hoping an external charger would be good/smart enough to be set on and forgotten in that it knows when to switch off after fully charging... I mean, I never have charged my 1450mAh stick in my NH900 without supervision... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 You're right of course. It's not the smartest idea to charge a battery with a relatively high current of ~500mA in an enclosed case without any cooling / ventilation. Excessive heat can cause irreversible damage to both battery and device. Maybe use a fan to blow against the case during charging? This is what i do when using an external fast charger - using a fan to keep the batteries cool. I think batteries will live longer if not exposed to excessive heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burns3016 Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 after reading about higher mAh gumstick batteries swelling till they almost cannot be removed from the NH900 I'm a bit hesitating about charging the 1450mAh GP-stick I'm using n the machine itself... I also do not know whether the NH900 actually is good for charging a 1450mAh fully?I was hoping an external charger would be good/smart enough to be set on and forgotten in that it knows when to switch off after fully charging... I mean, I never have charged my 1450mAh stick in my NH900 without supervision...Hi The Low Volta !I agree about being hesitant when it comes to charging the higher capacity batteries (eg.1400mah etc) inside the NH900 itself. I have a seperate charger (SONY BC-7DC2) which I use for my 1400mah batteries - not the best charger, but it does the job. I would rather charge my 1400mah batteries this way and thus hope to avoid any possible problems that might arise via using the internal charger (even if the probability of any such event is negligible) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 As far as I knew wasn't the current model Sony gumstick charger the BC-7HT and not the BC-7DC2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rei-gouki Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 From what I can tell, the NH14WM doesn't really work in the NH900. Could be why I can't find NH900 mentioned anywhere on product descriptions of the NH14WM. This probably extends to any gumstick with a larger capacity than the NH10WM (950mAh)... Whilst I don't have the overcharge/bulge problem, it appears that my NH900 ("one of the last run" from minidisc Australia) has a built in timer of sorts, cutting off the charging at roughly 2.5 hours. Resulting battery life was about as much as the NH10WM. Maybe a bit less. Won't really charge beyond that. I don't know why but probably means that the cutoff isn't just timer based - possibly a .In Australia, the chargers aren't available - 'least not any more. From what I can tell, it's presumed that hi capacity gumsticks will be charged via the built in charger. A guy tried to sell me a "cheap" CD player to do my charging mentioning that Sony would charge as much for just the charger. Looking around he wasn't off by much - IF Sony was actually selling them in Australia at all. A helpful fellow I spoke to in Sydney dug up the details for it in an old Sony catalogue - The BC-9HG. Based on a bit of searching on the net, it appears New Zealand is the only source of these chargers now for about NZ$70.eBay still has the BC-7DC2(twin single) and the BC-7DT2(solo) by the bucket load at pretty competitive prices. A few places have BC-7HT, the international charger, for US$50. And there's also the UniRoss RC103251 twin single charger, which may be the best bet for something that's good and has some warranty at this stage. I'm trying to get one of them without resorting to ordering on the net, but it's not all that easy out here. All of them will likely need a socket adaptor... but that's better than no charger at all hmm... BC-9HP2 for US$116.95... at partstore.com... ouch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaywardTraveller Posted February 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 (edited) Well, I finally decided to bite the proverbial bullet and purchase the BC-7HT from minidiscaccess.com - two, in fact, to make sure I have a reliable backup charger that can be sent to me in a worst-case scenario. While I'm on the topic, I bought them from http://www.minidiscaccess.com and found the service to be quite friendly and reliable - they even saved me some $$ on postage. And to answer someone else's question re: the internal charger - the only reason I don't use it is for portability's sake - sionce I'm travelling, it's much better to carry a handheld worldwide-voltage charger than a cord and AC adaptor that won't necessarily work in all countries.peaceWaywardTraveller Edited February 14, 2006 by WaywardTraveller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingo1 Posted April 8, 2006 Report Share Posted April 8, 2006 I just got a BC-7dc2 from Ebay.Popped two batteries in and put it in the wall....no indicator light. Does this mean it won't work at all? I can live without the light working if the charging is okay, but....ehh. I'll drain a couple of batteries and put them in totally empty to see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingo1 Posted April 10, 2006 Report Share Posted April 10, 2006 I just got a BC-7dc2 from Ebay.Popped two batteries in and put it in the wall....no indicator light. Does this mean it won't work at all? I can live without the light working if the charging is okay, but....ehh. I'll drain a couple of batteries and put them in totally empty to see what happens.I emailed the seller of the unit, and he's offered a refund if I send it back to him. One question for those of you with the units. Are you happy with the charging on it, even if the indicator lights don't work? I don't really care about the lights if it will charge. (I'm now draining dry a couple of gumsticks so I can test the charger with an overnight charge.) If my test shows it doesn't charge, back it goes, but if it does charge, I'm considering keeping it. Opinions? Would I be better off no matter what by just sending this back and getting a BH 7HT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted April 10, 2006 Report Share Posted April 10, 2006 Opinions? Would I be better off no matter what by just sending this back and getting a BH 7HT? I think one of the problems with a lot of the BC-7DC2's on ebay coming out of China is it is not even clear what voltage input they accept. At least with the BC-7HT you know it has universal voltage input of 100-240V and comes with all the necessary plug adaptors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDX-400 Posted April 12, 2006 Report Share Posted April 12, 2006 I think one of the problems with a lot of the BC-7DC2's on ebay coming out of China is it is not even clear what voltage input they accept. At least with the BC-7HT you know it has universal voltage input of 100-240V and comes with all the necessary plug adaptors.LOL yeah I'm actually thinking some of those "shipped from China" BC-7xx chargers are fake/counterfeit. I could be wrong but given the pics I've seen in auctions and the reports of shoddyness here, it seems to me that may well be the case.The 7HT as noted here is a world voltage too and that would fit the bill nicely.However, the 9 series chargers charge much much faster. 7 Series chargers are typically around 200 to 400mA charge output--depending on the exact model that can take up to 10 hours to charge the gumstick. BC-9xx chargers output 1200mA, which will charge a 14WM in about an hour to an hour and a half. The disadvantage is that fast charging these prismatics (gumstick shaped) cells seems to also shorten their life a little bit in some cases. Still I'd rather use a BC-9xx than a 7xx charger myself.Someone noted the BC-9HP2 charger in this thread, though I would note that is a 220-240V AC version. The 120V AC version is the BC-9HU2. The 100V AC (Japan-only) version of the charger is the BC-9HS (if memory serves). It is not recommended to use the BC-9HS on 110-120V (North American) AC outlets as it will overcurrent/overvoltage the gumstick which will charge it very quickly but significantly decrease the lifespan of the battery and possibly cause it to bulge or vent. There is a BC-9 something or other which is universal voltage I believe, but it is rare.The best place to get a 9 series charger is with old-skool MD player-only units. Nearly all of such units used gumstick batteries and did not have any kind of AC adapter/stand/cradle with them and therefore utilised the BC-9xx chargers. I have like two or three 9HS chargers and perhaps two 9HU2 chargers, from the various players I have. I can assure you that none of these, incuding the MD player and accessories, some even purchased years ago, were even near that above price of the 9HP2 charger part price.As someone else mentioned there is also a GP version, which is likely easy to get a hold of and will work well as well. Don't know the charge output/time for that but I've heard it is quite good. I'd definitely buy that over a suspect, possibly fake 7xx charger anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.