About this replacement
Zebra RW420 / L405 — 7.4V Li-ion Replacement Battery (AK17463-005)
This is a 7.4V, 6800mAh Li-ion battery for the Zebra RW420 and L405 mobile receipt and label printers. It replaces OEM part numbers AK17463-005 and CT17102-2. If your original battery is swelling, not holding charge, or the printer shuts off mid-job, this is the direct swap.
- RW420, L405, and RW420 EQ compatibility: These three models share the same 7.4V battery bay, connector pinout, and BMS communication protocol. The printer's firmware reads the battery's cell state on boot — same voltage rail means no handshake mismatch across the supported models.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this battery through full charge and discharge on RW420 hardware. The BMS held a stable voltage output through sustained thermal head activation and paper feed motor loads, with no unexpected cutoff events during the test sequence.
- First-use calibration tip: After installing, charge fully, then print five test receipts before field deployment. The paper feed motor draws a short current spike on each cycle — running that sequence lets the BMS log the load profile and set accurate state-of-charge readings for your printer's display.
RW420 printer goes silent mid-job — why the thermal head cuts out first
The RW420's thermal print head pulls a concentrated burst of current every time it fires a row of dots. When cell capacity degrades, voltage sags during that burst — even if the battery indicator still reads mid-charge. The printer interprets that voltage dip as a fault condition and halts the print job before the paper feed motor ever engages. Replacing the battery restores the headroom needed to sustain head-firing current without triggering that protective halt. A healthy cell under load should hold above 6.8V at the battery terminals during active printing.
Bluetooth drops mid-print job on the RW420
The RW420's Bluetooth radio and thermal head compete for current when a print job runs. At low battery charge, the voltage rail sags enough that the radio's power threshold is crossed — the connection drops, the job is cancelled, and the printer often shows no error code. This is not a pairing or firmware issue. Charge the battery to full, relaunch the print job, and confirm the battery voltage is at or above 7.2V at rest before starting large batch jobs.