[sdiy] several questions

[CHoaglin at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/30/01 8:34:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
harrybissell at prodigy.net writes:

<< Lithium Batteries have an wonderful hidden "feature"... the depleted
 sections of the battery turn into very good conductors... causing little
 drop
 for the remainder of the voltage. A meter will NOT tell you the charge
 remaining... they will stay 3V until a swift and possibly untimely death.
  >>

So THAT's why they always measure 3V or nothing..I'd been wondering about 
that for a while. While we're on batteries, I've seen an interesting 
technique used by my uncle to give NiCd packs a new lease on life, namely 
using a large cap and and SCR to discharge the cap through the 
battery..Something about "blowing the shorts out of it"...anybody know 
anything about this?

Chris