[PLUG-TALK] NiCad questions

wes plug at the-wes.com
Tue Sep 15 13:24:23 UTC 2009


On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 11:29 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net>wrote:

> On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:04:16 -0700
> wes <plug at the-wes.com> dijo:
>
> > On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 10:16 PM, Larry Brigman <larry.brigman at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 9:47 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net
> >
> > > wrote:
> > > > The tools remained vrtually unused over the winter, but now I am
> using
> > > > them again. I am lucky to get half an hour out of a battery before it
> > > > needs to be recharged. Sometimes a battery pack acts dead even though
> > > > it has been in the charger for over an hour and the charger says it
> is
> > > > fully charged.
>
> > > NiCad batteries can get a memory of the capacity that is being used and
> > > only
> > > charge/maintain at that level.  Also, temperature effects all
> > > batteries.  If the batteries
> > > got to freezing temps then I would not expect them to do well until
> > > they were re-conditioned.
> > >
> > > Re-conditioning NiCad's requires a full drain and then a full
> > > re-charge (multiple times).
> > >
> > > Try a total drain on one of the batteries and then do a full
> > > re-charge.  After the re-charge
> > > determine if the normal usage life of the battery is longer or not.
> > > It might only be
> > > 10-15 minutes more.  If it is more, then repeat until it is back to
> > > close to normal.
> > >
> > > Lithium Ion batteries don't have the memory effect but require the
> charger
> > > to be
> > > accurate and monitor pack charge rate vs temperature.
>
> > When I recondition batteries, I "seem" to get better results by draining
> the
> > batteries very slowly. I use a small light bulb to drain them until I
> can't
> > see any light coming out in a dark room. I usually do about 5 cycles of
> > this. If it's still not doing anything for me after that, I toss it.
>
> Thanks for the suggestions.
>
> I have a flashlight and a fan that use these battery packs. I'll leave
> each running overnight so the batteries will be dead in the morning.
> Then I'll recharge and see how they work. I can do this over and over.
> Hopefully I'll be able to restore the four NiCad battery packs and
> won't have to buy the li-ion battery packs.
>

Additionally, I've heard of (but haven't seen) devices that "zap" the memory
out of them. The theory goes that the particles in the conductor within the
battery "crystallize" such that they don't want to "move" any more if
they've been sitting too long. A high voltage (or amperage? not sure) zap
could perhaps knock them loose. I guess these could be found at cell phone
vendor stands before the rise of Li-ion batteries.

-wes
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