[sdiy] several questions

[CHoaglin at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/1/01 11:59:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
music.maker at gte.net writes:

<< This is great info!  I have a pile of dead NiCd cells.
 Does anyone know of a schematic that will accomplish
 this safely and properly?  After doing this, would I
 expect to see a change in the resistance of the
 cell, or would I have to wait for a charge cycle to
 see if it worked? >>

the setup i saw was just a benchtop supply charging a cap, with a meter 
monitoring the voltage across the cap. a suitable SCR and the offending 
battery between the cap and ground and a 10k resistor between the gate and 
the anode. the anode end of the resistor was left unsoldered and hanging next 
to the anode so that one could just tap it against the anode to turn on the 
gate once the cap got charged up to the proper voltage, which was about 40V 
or so. Quick and dirty, and gave good results.

Chris (I wonder what happens if I take one of my 50uf, 3.5KV caps and dump 
that through a nicad?<puts on crash helmet and flak jacket>)