Replacing the battery in a scout for $10
by trixter on Oct.16, 2009, under Radio
About 15 years ago I bought an optoelectronics scout frequency recorder. I thought it would help me find fun and interesting things to listen to on my radio, and it has not let me down. After 15 years however the nicads that came in it were showing their age and it would not operator for more than 15-20 minutes on a charge. I looked for a replacement battery and optoelectronics wanted $40 for one, and other vendors were not much better.
I decided there had to be a cheaper way. After a trip to Fry’s electronics, I got everything I needed for $10 including tax. Here is a brief explanation of what I did.
 scout parts First thing I did was lay out the parts. I got 4 AA sized nimh batteries for $4, a battery holder, which required a 9v style connector. I thought this was a nice feature since I could replace the pack without resoldering if it was needed. I also liked the fact that I had 4 AA style batteries that I could replace in the field if required. Granted it will take a screwdriver to do this, but its more possible than the shrink wrap battery that comes with it. |
Remove the cover
 scout cover Next you have to remove the 4 screws that hold the factplate on, as well as the screws that hold the back plate on. Once the floor plate and the cover are off, you can remove the two screws that hold the circuit board on. Then remove the circuit board from the case. |
Remove the battery
 Scout battery Now that you have exposed the battery, you can pry it out. It is attached by double sided foam tape. Once removed I rubbed off all the foam tape that was present on the back case. I then desoldered the battery pack from my scout and installed the 9v style adapter for the new battery pack. If you forget which lead goes where, there is a little +/- silk screened onto the board. |
Install the new pack
 scout with new battery pack I had to sand down the new battery pack a bit. I used a belt sander for the big part of it, and a dremel for the fine tuning. This was required to make it fit into the space provided. Just be certain there are no shorts and that the leads on the scout will not touch the battery pack in any way that will cause it to short. The case is metal, it is conductive, and it is connected to ground. When you put the two screws through that attach the circuit board to the back case this can cause a short, you can fry the device or the batteries! If you want you can put double sided tape under the battery tray to prevent it from sliding around, you can also wrap it in a non-conductive material like the plastic bag the tray came in, to prevent it from shorting anything. PVC/electrical tape also works well to cover any exposed leads. Reassemble the same way you took it apart, and make sure that it does not get warm, and that the scout functions. If there is a short the scout may not even turn on, and it is likely that the batteries will get warm, which will transfer to the metal case. At this point you should have a revitalized scout letting you have more mobility. |
January 19th, 2011 on 1:20 pm
Did you have any charing issues using the NiMh batteries? I thought the original batteries were NiCd and these use a lower current for charging and may not provide enought power to charge the NiMh batteries.
Thanks for any insight and update on the battery replacement on the Optoelectronics Scout.
April 8th, 2011 on 9:15 pm
No, I do not have any problems.