First, some (rhetorical) questions
Do you look after a fleet of portable radios?
How much money do you (or your customer) spend on replacing batteries each month?
How long do the above batteries last on average?
What criteria do you use to determine whether to replace a battery?
It might surprise you to know that around 50% of portable two-way radio batteries, destined for recycling (or disposal) are probably still good. Of these, nearly all of them ended up like this because of incorrect charging and guesswork.
The good news is that there is a way to reduce this waste and save money!
The solution: IMPRES
Initially, the term IMPRES referred to a system of intelligent batteries and chargers but was later expanded to also include intelligent audio accessories (the latter being intelligent because of an accessory detection chip in the plug).
IMPRES is an acronym for Intelligent Motorola Portable Radio Energy System.
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| PMNN4810A IMPRES battery. |
In its basic form, an IMPRES system consists of a smart battery working together with a smart charger and radio, that are able to access the information stored in the battery's on-board charge management chipset. The charger would read this data and make a decision on what to do when the battery is inserted. The radio is also able to access this data and would give the user an indication of the battery's state of charge and health.
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| PMPN4527A Single Unit Charger (would be used with PMNN4810A above). |
But wait, there's more...
Why is IMPRES better?
IMPRES batteries offer two significant advantages over non-IMPRES batteries.
Firstly, information about the state of charge is readily available when a battery is inserted into the charger.
This is important because battery voltage is not a very good indicator of state of charge, since the voltage of a discharged battery can increase if the battery is allowed to rest for a while - even though it is depleted. Non-IMPRES chargers would either charge anything inserted into the charger or take a voltage measurement then start charging until the current drops.
Also, by reading the state-of-charge information in the on-board IMPRES battery memory, the charger can determine which action is needed to prolong the service life of the battery. For example, a battery that was recently charged, but never used, does not need to be charged again. Or, a battery that has been discharged and not charged for a while may need to be reconditioned.
The IMPRES charger has a microprocessor and software which allow it to communicate with the battery IMPRES chipset.
When a non-IMPRES battery is inserted into a non-IMPRES charger, the charger will simply apply a controlled current to the battery, whether it is needed or not. This means that every time the battery is put into the charger, it gets charged. Each charge counts towards the number of so-called cycles.
The second benefit IMPRES batteries offer is that the the number of charge-discharge cycles is stored in the battery, allowing the end of service life to be easily determined. Each time the battery is charged; reconditioned or attached to a radio, information about the activity is written to the battery IMPRES memory.
Good quality batteries will provide greater than 80% of typical capacity for more than 300 cycles but is very much dependant on how the battery is cared for. One charge and one discharge counts as one cycle. 80% capacity is generally regarded as sufficient to last one eight-hour shift (at 5/35/60 duty cycle).
It's nearly impossible to determine how many cycles a non-IMPRES battery has gone through. The age of the battery is a very poor indicator of remaining capacity. A battery analyser, such as those produced by CADEX, can analyse and recover older batteries but equipment like this can be costly and requires some technical know-how.
The capacity of non-IMPRES batteries can sometimes be recouped by charging and discharging them several times.
IMPRES Battery Fleet Management
For customers with a large fleet of radios scattered across multiple locations, keeping an eye on deployed batteries can be a nightmare. To address this problem, Motorola Solutions developed IMPRES Battery Fleet Management, an application that gathers information from all the IMPRES batteries used on their system.
The state of health information presented by this software allows customers to quickly and easily screen batteries and determine which need to be replaced and when.
Each IMPRES battery has a unique serial number that can be used to identify it and which radio it is attached to. When a battery is due for replacement, the user in whose possession it is, can be alerted to come past and get a new battery for their radio.
Because a lot of the guesswork is eliminated, customers can save money by only replacing batteries that can no longer perform. Not only that, customers and channel partners can start applying JIT and MRP to their stockholding of IMPRES batteries since the replacement date is known before problems arise.
Motorola Solutions have just released a new version of IMPRES Battery Fleet Management. The user interface has undergone a complete redesign and is now web-based.
The IMPRES Battery Fleet Management software gathers battery data in two ways:
1. Over the air.
2. By means of an IMPRES multi-unit charger, connected to the PC via USB.
Using either a control station or MNIS, the software is able to gather state of health information from all connected batteries over time, thereby constructing current information about battery status.
There are essentially two types of IMPRES chargers: A single unit charger with LED indicator (see above) and a Multi-Unit Charger with one or more displays. Currently, only the multi-unit charger can be connected to battery fleet management.
Older versions of the IMPRES multi-unit charger require a charger interface unit (which is no longer sold but still supported by the software) to connect to a PC. |
| PMPN4289 Multi-unit Charger. |
The current version of IMPRES multi-unit charger can connect directly to the PC via USB. Incidentally, these (new) multi-unit chargers can also charge and discharge batteries to 50% capacity so that they can be stored for longer periods or transported by air.
Up to 25 IMPRES multi-unit chargers can be connected to a PC and up to 20 PCs can be connected via IP to a central server (PC) which means hundreds of multi-unit charger chargers, at remote locations, can be connected into IMPRES Battery Fleet Management.
So what sort of information can one get from this software?
The latest version (4.0) of IMPRES Battery Fleet Management is accessed using a web browser. This means the users can access battery information using a standard web browser.
The home page shows vital information about all the IMPRES batteries used on the system:
How many batteries of each model.
How many need calibration (calibration is done on an IMPRES charger),
How old these batteries are or how many are due for replacement and when.
How many batteries have gone AWOL.
How many batteries are running flat.
Scrolling down the page brings you to a table that lists each battery and some information about it.
Clicking on view brings a popup that shows further details about that battery. Here it shows more detail (for those who want it) about the battery in question.
from the active batteries table, you can generate a replacement report. This will generate a list that you can use to place an order for replacement batteries.
Clicking on the chargers link at the top brings to you to the chargers page which lists all the connected multi-unit chargers as well as all the batteries which are currently being charged by them.
Where can one buy IMPRES Battery Fleet Management?
The software can be downloaded from
here. A software licence is required to use the software for more than 30 days. As of 8 August 2022, there is no charge for the software licence (in EMEA at least).
The part number to order is:
HKVN4036 - North America
HKVN3037 - EMEA
HKVN4038 - Latin America
HKVN4039 - Asia
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