Panasonic Cordless Telephone KX-TC1710CB

[spanky]

Hi All:

I think my 5 year old KX-TC1710CB cordless phone is finally going
wonky. It's coming up with OUT OF RANGE errors when I press the TALK
button on the handset. The base station seems to still work.

Does anyone know what I may try to see if I can get it back to work
again? Phone is still in great condition and hate to have to throw it
away.

Joe

 

[Wayne Tiffany]

My first thought is check the battery. Just because it's been on the
charger doesn't mean it's charged.

WT

 

[Ricky Eck]

My Phone does the same thing. Mostly when the battery is going out. I just
replace the battery, and most of the time, after a full charge on a new
battery, it will work for a couple more years. Problem I have with mine, is
I tell everyone to leave it off the charger, till it needs to be charged.
But they will use it for an hour or so, and place it back on the charger.
The battery develops the memory in it, and reduces the battery life.

However, my phone has a message on the base, to fix the problem if "Out of
Range" is displayed. I will type it out below, and hope it helps. My phone
is a Nortel, so I don't know if it will work on yours, but worth a shot...

------------------------------------
In rare instances, the handset may continue to display "Out of Range" even
when close to the base, if this happens:
1. Unplug the battery from the handset and unplug the power adapter from
the wall.
2.Wait at least 10 seconds then plug the battery back into the handset
and place handset on the base.
3. Place the power adapter back into the wall and wait 2-5 minutes for
the unit to synchronize. Ignore any "Out of Range" messages that may appear
during the procedure. After resynchronizing, the "Charging" prompt will be
displayed.
4. This problem is likely caused by external interference. At this
point you can change the default channel.
------------------------------------

I left out some of it, that refers to the phone, like how to change the
channel, considering that changing the default channel may be different on
your phone.
Hope this helps out,
Rick

 

[John Miller]

My Phone does the same thing. Mostly when the battery is going out. I
just replace the battery, and most of the time, after a full charge on a
new
battery, it will work for a couple more years. Problem I have with mine,
is I tell everyone to leave it off the charger, till it needs to be
charged. But they will use it for an hour or so, and place it back on the
charger. The battery develops the memory in it, and reduces the battery
life.

Interesting. I've been carrying and using NiCd devices for well over a
quarter of a century, so I've got a fair amount of experience, plus having
heard lots and LOTS of both opinion and fact about the care and feeding of
NiCd. Bottom line: the "memory effect" is highly overrated, and what many
people think is the memory effect is actually the result of over-discharge.

"...work for a couple more years?" I've got a couple of residential
portable phones that receive no special treatment at all (just hang up the
phone when you're done) with 10-year-old batteries.

How can that be? Everyone "knows" that NiCds must be discharged fully each
time, to avoid the memory effect. Or could it be that the cure
(discharging) is worse than the disease?

I really think that must be the case. After all, portable phones receive
the worst possible (by conventional wisdom) treatment, being constantly on
charge, and never discharged fully, and yet the batteries just keep going,
and going and going...

--
John Miller, N4VU
Email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each
other.
-- Ann Landers

 

[jakdedert]

Hi All:

I think my 5 year old KX-TC1710CB cordless phone is finally going
wonky. It's coming up with OUT OF RANGE errors when I press the TALK
button on the handset. The base station seems to still work.

Does anyone know what I may try to see if I can get it back to work
again? Phone is still in great condition and hate to have to throw it
away.

Joe

In addition to the battery problems stated earlier, you might have a problem
with interference from other devices. I don't know which band your model
operates in. The 2.4 gig band is getting eaten up in some locations
by--among other things--wireless networks, security cams and microwave ovens
(in addition to cordless phones). 900 in some cases is overpopulated due
to...mostly more cordless phones.

I've found that the migration to UHF has given a new lease on life to the
old 49 mHz phones, if you happen to be a packrat like myself. There's still
a lot of them around...most just need a new battery to operate like new (Of
course new 'then' was probably not as good as new 'now,' due to improvements
in features and technology--especially with regard to security.). I
abandoned my old VHF phones when the channel congestion took my range down
to less than half what it was when I bought the phone.

Recently I've put a couple of them back in service. I was surprised to see
that they were back up to snuff--maybe even better--again.

jak

 

[Guillermo]

Hi! I fixed some units that had bad RF Xtal 10.240 mhz , changing it the
phone worked properly, if you can read the frequency of the handset it must
be around 926-927 mhz.
Bes regards

 

[Ricky Eck]

Man, there has to be one in every group.....

I have to agree that you can discharge a battery TOO much. Waiting for it
to go completely dead all the time, is not good. That is not what I was
saying. I was saying that people would use it for only a few hours, before
the phone had even hardly discharged, and then put it back on the charger.
I can could many cases that where this is true.

1.) My Step Daughter has the same Cell phone I have. She would place it
back on the charger not too long after she got home. Eventually after a few
months, her phone would be lucky to last a day before it died. She went
through three batteries before taking my suggestion. But she still wouldn't
take it till I put my battery on her phone, and it lasted 3 days straight
(before I took it back). so now, she has been using the same battery for
over a year, and still has no problem with it.

2.) My mom had a cordless phone that did the same thing, using batteries
right and left. The charge was lucky to last a few hours. She was about
ready to buy a new phone (My mom is bull headed also). She was not going to
waste any more money on batteries. So I bought her one, and told her to let
it stay off the hook (charger) after the initial charge. So she did what I
said, and her phone lasted a few more years (Till she dropped it while
building their new house), never replacing the battery again. Not to
mention her phone would last almost 2 days off the charger, before needing a
charge (It was an older AT&T cordless, you know the type that you had to
pull the antenna up)

I could come up with many other ones, but will try to keep it short. I my
self have been working with NiCad's for over 25 years, and have seen the
result of mis-charging the battery.

Now, there is another type of Rechargeable battery that does not develop a
memory, but the name slips my mind. I have never used them, so I can't say
if it is true or not, but they became big in the flip phone age, where the
NiCad Batts would develop the memory, and be useless.

Rick

 

[John Miller]

Man, there has to be one in every group.....

No need to get personal, Ricky. I don't doubt for a moment that your
experience is different than ours. It happens.

Now, there is another type of Rechargeable battery that does not develop a
memory, but the name slips my mind. I have never used them, so I can't
say if it is true or not, but they became big in the flip phone age, where
the NiCad Batts would develop the memory, and be useless.

Nickel metal hydride.
--
John Miller
Email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glowworm.
-Winston Churchill

 

[jakdedert]

Man, there has to be one in every group.....

I have to agree that you can discharge a battery TOO much. Waiting
for it to go completely dead all the time, is not good. That is not
what I was saying. I was saying that people would use it for only a
few hours, before the phone had even hardly discharged, and then put
it back on the charger. I can could many cases that where this is
true.

<snip>

There's at least 'some' variability based on the complexity of the charger
circuit, in various devices, which might explain the different results
people get from their NiCads as well.....

jak

 

[Asimov]

"John Miller" bravely wrote to "All" (27 May 04 01:20:03)
--- on the heady topic of "Re: Panasonic Cordless Telephone KX-TC1710CB"

JM> From: John Miller <[email protected]>

Man, there has to be one in every group.....

JM> No need to get personal, Ricky. I don't doubt for a moment that your
JM> experience is different than ours. It happens.

Now, there is another type of Rechargeable battery that does not develop a
memory, but the name slips my mind. I have never used them, so I can't
say if it is true or not, but they became big in the flip phone age, where
the NiCad Batts would develop the memory, and be useless.

JM> Nickel metal hydride.
JM> --
JM> John Miller
JM> Email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm


Lithium-Ion?
Just saw a show about EV's where this little Li-Ion powered roller
skate did 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. Awesome...

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... A stereo system is the altar to the god of music.

 

[jakdedert]

"John Miller" bravely wrote to "All" (27 May 04 01:20:03)
--- on the heady topic of "Re: Panasonic Cordless Telephone
KX-TC1710CB"




develop a > memory, but the name slips my mind. I have never used
them, so I can't > say if it is true or not, but they became big in
the flip phone age, where > the NiCad Batts would develop the
memory, and be useless.



Lithium-Ion?
Just saw a show about EV's where this little Li-Ion powered roller
skate did 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. Awesome...

Damn! can you imagine crankin' a pair of those up without leaning *way*
forward....OUCH! That's gonna leave a mark....

A*s*i*m*o*v

... A stereo system is the altar to the god of music.

If that's the case, most people have little appreciation for this god. ;-)

jak