Rebuilding a military BB-390 battery

Enter content here

The military battery series BA or BB 2590, 5590, 3590, 390 etc, has become the standard battery for all modern military radios since the post Vietnam era. Radios such at the PRC-104, Sincgars, PRC-138, URC-113 etc all use this battery type. The difference in the aforementioned batteries is the linear progression of rechargeable battery technology and disposable types. For more info just google them. These batteries are near non exsistant on the surplus market and are very difficult for the average hobbyist to get ahold of. A new battery can run as much as 300-400 dollars, way too much to spend.

I recently got ahold of two a BB-390. Its a rechargeable Nickle Metal Hydride battery. It was dead so I decided to open it up and figure out if I could make use of it. I cut it open delicately and the following is what I found. Note, if you know anyone in the service that can get you a dead BB-5590, the current disposable battery for radios, ask them to, and you can cut it open and build a pack inside it for your radio.

When I cut open the battery this is what I found. I cut the bottom and side off to pry out the cell pack. There is a circut card on top for the LCD charge indicator, and all the wires to the plug. The cells are 2700ma "A" size 1.2 NMH.

This is the circut card on the back side of the cell pack. This card has mulitpule tempreature sensors on it for smart charging of the NMH battery pack.

Here is the cell pack removed from the circut card. Note all the sensors sticking up on the card that were imbeded in the cell pack.

A close up view of the circut card. Look at all the sensors on there. The small TS are the temp sensors, while the larger TCO sensors are Temp Cut Out sensors to prevent overheating of the battery from inside. When I reassemble a new pack around them I must make sure to get the new cells very close around the sensors to make it work.

Here is the cell pack. I labeled each + and - circut since there are acctually 4 battery circuts in this battery. I color maped each all the way through for easy viewing.

Enter content here

Enter supporting content here