Replacing Rechargeable Batteries In Cobra Microtalk Walkie-Talkies

Most Cobra walkie-talkie radios come complete with a set of four AAA sized rechargeable batteries.

The radio can simply be plugged into, or placed in, the supplied charger in order to recharge the batteries.

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New rechargeable batteries won't charge in my Cobra walkie-talkie!

Eventually, the rechargeable batteries that came with your Cobra radio will be worn out, and you may go and buy some new ones from any supplier.

If you go out and buy some generic replacement AAA rechargeable batteries for your Cobra Microtalk walkie-talkie radio, you will find that they don't seem to recharge when the radio is attached to the charger.

The reason for this is that the radio incorporates a simple circuit that it designed to prevent possible damage by stopping non-rechargeable batteries from being "recharged".

If you look at the picture below you can see that there is an extra contact in the position of the left-most battery, positioned so that it will touch the lower side of the leftmost battery in the battery compartment.

The rechargeable batteries supplied by Cobra (pictured below) have exposed metal on the bottom part of the side of each battery. This metal makes contact with the "rechargeable battery detector" contact in the battery bay.

How To Make Your  New Rechargeable Batteries Work In Your Cobra Radio

All that you have to do in order to make your new rechargeable batteries work correctly is to take a knife and carefully scrape away the plastic sleeve at the bottom of one of the four batteries, exposing the metal underneath.

Once you insert a battery with an exposed metal side into the left-most slot, then the Cobra radio will "think" that it has rechargeable batteries fitted, and will then allow recharging to take place.

The purpose of this extra contact is to make sure that if you fit your walkie-talkie with non-rechargeable batteries (which can overheat and catch fire if you try to recharge them) that if you then connect the radio to a charger, it won't cause damage by attempting to "recharge" them.

The above applies to many Cobra Microtalk walkie-talkies including MT600, MT700, MT725, MT750, MT800, MT950, MT975, CXT85 and many others that take 4 x AAA rechargeable batteries.