About this replacement
Zebra RW220 / RW320 — 7.4V Li-ion Replacement Battery (CT17497-1)
This is a 7.4V 3400mAh lithium-ion battery for the Zebra RW220 and RW320 mobile receipt printers. It replaces OEM part numbers CT17497-1 and AK18026-002. Both printers share the same battery bay, connector layout, and BMS handshake protocol.
- RW220 and RW320 compatibility: Both models run the same 7.4V power rail and use an identical battery bay with the same locking tab geometry and BMS communication bus. One replacement covers both units.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this cell through the RW220 charge cycle and confirmed BMS handshake at 8.4V full charge. The protection circuit responded correctly to both undervoltage and thermal events during load testing across the paper feed motor and thermal print head.
- First-deployment print sequence: After installing, charge to full and run five continuous test receipts before field deployment. The thermal head draws peak current during warm-up, and this sequence lets the BMS log an accurate current profile for the new cell — preventing premature low-battery cutoff warnings during early shifts.
Why the RW220 cuts out during Bluetooth print jobs
The RW220 runs its Bluetooth radio and thermal head simultaneously during wireless print jobs. At low state of charge, voltage sag across both loads pulls the rail below the BMS floor, triggering a protection cutoff. This looks like a wireless disconnect but is actually a power event — the radio drops first because the thermal head is the higher-priority load. If mid-job disconnects increase as a battery ages, cell capacity has degraded past the point where simultaneous radio and motor draw can be sustained.
Faded or uneven print output on a freshly charged battery
The thermal print head in the RW220 depends on a stable voltage to reach and hold its operating temperature across the full print width. If the cell has degraded, internal resistance rises and voltage sags under thermal head load — the head underheats on some segments, producing faded or patchy output even when the charge indicator shows full. This is not a head fault or paper issue. Check open-circuit voltage with a multimeter: a healthy cell reads 8.3–8.4V at full charge. A reading below 7.8V at rest after a full charge cycle indicates cell degradation — replace the battery.