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Thread ID: 59302	2005-06-27 22:37:00	Battery info.	Cicero (40)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
367464	2005-06-27 22:37:00	This from Panasonic,may answer a few questions. www.panasonic.ca	Cicero (40)
367465	2005-06-28 05:22:00	I have become weary about battery marketing . I have a La Crosse ( . ripvan100 . com/products_LaCrosse_BC-900U . htm" target="_blank">www . ripvan100 . com) charger imported from the United States . It has a function of testing out the mah rating of the battery . The included free La Crosse 2000mah were 1540mah . I bought some new GP batteries from Bunnings Warehouse a few months ago but only opened it today . I have yet to use it, so I did a full charge, discharge then charge up again - one of the function La Crosse has . They call it a test function . Its mah was 913mah and 1016mah . They were labelled as 2300 mah . I had 2 AAs, just out of package and straight into the charger . P'ed me off . If the La Crosse batteries failing 25% wasn't enough, these GP were 55% off target :( I have some Sanyo's, ( . ripvan100 . com/products_sanyo2500mah_IG . htm" target="_blank">www . ripvan100 . com) so I will do a test run tonight and see how good are they and if they live up to their word that "Every AA cell receives 50 test cycles before leaving the factory, effectually weeding out the "duds . " This high degree of quality control ensures every battery performs the same . Charge performance in "sets" of multiple cells is very consistent, ensuring top-notch operation" . If they are good, I may get some more AA and AAAs and stop buying batteries for ever . Perhaps a Lightening Charger ( . ripvan100 . com/products_recharger . htm" target="_blank">www . ripvan100 . com) for its small size for travel . I may actually do a refresh mode with those GP's . That is a cycle that last some days with up to 20 cycle of charge and discharge until there are no difference in mah . But maybe I would just accept them as such . If one set runs out use another and always have one spare set ready . It bugs me how they can get away with these ridiculous mah ratings or else my charger calibration is way off . Or it could be their machine calibration is way off, be it purposely or not . . but who knows . Still I am wondering . If La Crosse's batteries were off by 25% how can the GP's be off by 55%? If we assume my charger is off calibration . I am using the same function on the same charger . . same power company, same suburb to test these batteries . :angry Sigh . I had to re read the information of the link Cicreo provided, that page was referring to power drills batteries (with 3 . 5ah, 3500mah) . AAs from Panasonic max at 2100mah . That got me going . :eek: Update: Can a charger get confused with the battery? Rechargeable AAs are 1 . 2V? My battery charger says they are 1 . 3 and the other AA battery is slightly different than that . Can the charger get confused with this so give us a bad charge? If so, is there a way to equalise the voltage of the batteries? Thanks .	Nomad (952)
367466	2005-06-28 06:04:00	NiMh "nominal" voltage is 1.2 volts, but a fully charged cell will be closer to 1.4 for a brief period. An alkaline AA ihas a "nominal" voltage of 1.5v, but new they are closer to 1.6v for a short time. The chemical nature of the cell type gives it the terminal voltage, forget about equalising the voltage. You put a lot of faith in your LaCrosse charger readout, but be aware its an "approximate" indication only in such a device, its unlikely to be laboratory calibrated. It should be within about 10% however, one would hope. Read last months PC User magazine for a test of NiMh cells. Those results you get are par for the course. Some cells are well below the marked rating. Only the DSE ones exceeded the rated capacity. What you are probably not doing is the same discharge tests that the makers are doing. They may have optimised the drain and discharge test values and times to give a result that you cannot replicate with the LaCrosse (or achieve in any real life device...)	godfather (25)
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