This is similar to my recent post in a different thread, but is not a "fix". It is to avoid initial problems out of the box right at the onset of the original installation of the NiMh pack in the Pronto.

Here is what I think is the bottom line...

When intially installing the NiMh pack, do NOT have the bottom inside edge of the NiMh pack touching the bottom of the tray in the Pronto until after you have almost completely swung in the NiMh pack per the following.

Align the four springs so that they are seated in the indentations in the NiMh pack and without the bottom edge of the NiMh toughing the bottom of the battery bay, push downward on the NiMh pack against the springs, this may take some pressure, and rotate the it straight in toward the Pronto battery bay.

Once the NiMh pack is perfectly parallel and in position, if you slowly release the downward pressure on the springs, the NiMh pak will move toward the contacts along the upper edge of the battery bay and the center plastic tab will be in perfect alignment.

At that point you may have to push down on the large outter surface of the NiMh pack to fully seat it into the battery bay depending on how you handled the prior step, but you should not have the problem of mis-aligning/bending the small contacts since they should already be in alignment.

Using the above method you will not chance scraping the lower/upper inside edge of the NiMh pack on the contacts in the area of the upper edge of the battery bay, but actually wind up applying the intial pressure with a vertical motion as opposed to a downward motion.

This is a LOT harder to write than do. So, I hope you all get the picture.

You may also hear a snap/click as the as the upper plastic tab on the NiMh battery fits into the bay, but it should not be the "scraping" sound that some have described.

If you get scraping, there is a good chance that the upper edge of the NiMh pack was too high too early with respect to the distance from the springs due to insufficient downward pressure placed on the springs, and you will most likely then have the problems that people are describing.

I have been able to install remove the NiMh pack multiple times without problems using the above methodolog.

I would also add that the DS1000 kit I was using for this, was a return from someone who initially had problems with it. Since it was open and I couldn't resell it as new, I decided to use it as my test unit.

I never experienced any of the problems with it that the initial recipient indicated they had.

Additionally, I have never seen a "bad" DS1000 in any of the many we have shipped. It has always come down to fit/installation.

This is due to the fact that a mis-alignment seems to be created if the "swing in pivot point" is too low. That mis-alignment will then cause undo pressure and scrapping against the contact points in the Pronto battery bay on the opposite side of the springs.

The presence of the s/n tag should not have anything to do with this.

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay

Thank you alpha2data!

You have just saved me a MAJOR headache.

Me too! and I didn't even buy it from them (but wish I did now)

I just saw Mike Huggin post on this and it looks like he "lifted" your suggestions, Bruce.

You might want to "speak" with him.

Randy...

I already did. The thing is that it didn't take me three weeks to prove this out. It took only a couple of hours.

Additonally, I have been emailing my FAQ to all my new Pronto buyers that deals with this issue. The mea culpa was that I didn't detail the step by step, only the broad stroke pointer.

-Bruce
alpha2data

Does it matter? The same suggestion got posted out by two different people. Big deal. We're here to SHARE ideas and experience aren't we?

Whats with the "I said it first" mentality?

There are many many threads here that repeat the same information over and over again. If the original author staked his claim on the knowledge every time it was mentioned then this wouldn't be a very productive forum.

I for one used the info to fix what I thought was a funny battery reading. I appreciate the effort and time spent in sharing the wisdom - my battery level now reads full. So thank you BOTH for helping with this problem.

Dan.. you are, of course, right. I apologize publically. It doesn't matter.

I guess I was feeling a little stupid. On hindsight, _both_ Mike and I should have done what we did a long time ago. We both waited for a return. That was wrong of us.

As a commercial seller we really had a responsibilty to deal with this issue in a more aggressive manner sooner than we did. We are not talking major dollars on this accessory item, but there have been many headaches for buyers as a result of it.

The FAQ I have been sending since January did not really deal with this in enough depth since I didn't have all the mechanical facts I was able to determine so easily.

So, I over-reacted a little. Sorry. I will always be a consumer activist whether it works for or against me. I try to honestly call it like it is and if responsible, I take my hits and try to make it right.

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This information just ended a couple of weeks of extreme frustration.

Bruce, I owe you many thank yous for this post. I had bought my Pronto and charger from a dealer and after exchanging two of the chargers with the same problem. I had also called Philips who said it was defective, but it didn't seem right that two were and I did not want to go through it on a third.

I was about to give up and simply use the AA batteries in the Pronto when a friend who you had sold to on eBay and who had received your Pronto faq sheet pointed me to this link.

Bingo done fixed relief. I have no idea why Philips should not be aware of this and have a solution, but they don't and that amazes me.

Jeff

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.......

I have had this problem ever since I got my first batch of RC5000i's. I had never had battery problems before with the rc5000, programming probably 50 of those for my customers, and I figured it was firmware problem with the new unit. The repair techs at Marantz told me to clean the battery contacts with an eraser and reinstall current firmware. I have had this problem on just about all of the rc5000i's I've sold. So bad that I was very concerned about over the counter sales (the charger comes standard with the Marantz). Once I get the units to charge the first time they work fine.
I guess maybe I started inserting the battery a little bit differently at some point. If this solves the problems for me, I owe you one big time.
Thanks

Gee, Steve, you sound happy. What can I say? You're most welcome!

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay

I am "popping" this back up to the top myself because I have had to send a number of people to it lately.

Since they had first looked here before contacting me directly and it was semi-buried at this point, I felt that bringing it back up would help avoid the initial frustration for those few that run into this problem by hopefully being able to avoid it in the first place.

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay

The following discussion on a Pronto Pro charger/battery issues also may help here as it contains some great additional debugging intelligence from Daniel and Kevin if you have proven the issue is not the battery fit:

ProntoPro Battery Charging

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay