[sdiy] pulsed battery rechargers

[David Halliday]

I think that the "pulse chargers" are more hopeful marketing than real
rocket science.

Your best bet is to switch over to Nickel Metal Hydride (
NiMH )rechargables.

They totally outstrip Alkalines and NiCads in terms of capacity and are
available at pretty reasonable cost these days.  The cost in the US is about
$3 each for a ->GOOD<- AA battery rated at 1,600 mAH. The batteries should
be marked - do not buy any that are not and certainly do not pay anything
more for any battery of lesser current rating.

You must use a charger rated for these batteries but these are available for
about $30 and these will also charge plain vanilla NiCads as well.  Total
investment would be under $50 ( four batteries ) and you would never need to
buy another Alkaline again...


Search the web or go to:
http://thomas-distributing.com/index.htm  ( these folks are good to deal
with )
specifically:
http://thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh-c204f.htm  and
http://thomas-distributing.com/nexcell-aa-t.htm

I do not know if they ship to the U.K. but you should be able to find
something with a couple minutes search.

I realize that this is probably more than you wanted to spend but anything
less will be pissing your money away.  I have an older Nikon CoolPix and it
used to chew through Alkalines.  I wasn't able to get any good life from
NiCads and when I switched to NiMH batteries, my problems went away.  I have
never had a battery run out on me since.  My camera doesn't use a floppy so
my current drain is probably less but if you get two sets of batteries, you
should be fine for a day's shooting.

( also, just as a heads up, I searched the Thomas web page for "pulse
charger" and it came up with nothing.  If these things actually worked, I
think that they would carry them... )



For a good read, point your browser to:
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/reviews/0,6755,2408068,00.html




As for the batteries showing 1.5 volts - your meter is not presenting a
"working load" to these cells.  When a battery ages, its internal resistance
increases so it is no longer able to provide a specific voltage at a
specific current - you are not really drawing any current from that battery
so it is still able to deliver the 1.5 volts.  Try it while it is running a
flashlight bulb and see what the difference is...



-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: owner-synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl
-> [mailto:owner-synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl]On Behalf Of Lincoln Fong
-> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 12:36 AM
-> To: Synth-Diy
-> Subject: [sdiy] pulsed battery rechargers
->
->
-> I have an old style digital camera that is very heavy on the
-> alkaline AA
-> cell usage. As soon as the cell's current capacity drops
-> below tip top level
-> the internal disk drive (I think) stops working though the
-> batteries can
-> still be used for any other application requiring less draw
-> and they still
-> read 1.5V on a meter. Consequently I have a ton of nearly
-> new Duracell AAs.
->
-> Does anyone have experience with these 'pulsed battery
-> chargers' that claim
-> to restore standard non-rechargeables? Do they work and what's the
-> principle? That is, why aren't they more popular?
->
-> I could probably save quite a bit as they cost about £30 to
-> buy. Thanks.
->
-> Lincoln
->
->
->