Just received my Sanyo eneloop 2500 mAH rechargeable batteries niMH cells......will start the charge cycle when I get home from work tonight. How long should I charge them for...this will be the first charge and I have not used the radio yet at all with these new batteries.
The most important thing to avoid is running down one cell to 0 while in use because of differential charge/capacity. But as long as BATMIN is >= 8.4, that's not too likely (1.05 Vpc under load, or one at 0 and 7 at 1.2Vpc). I just got 16 Sanyo Eneloop 2000 mAh cells. I first discharged them individually to 0.9V at 200 mA with a Maha C9000, and obtained 1398 to 1414 mAh. I then did refresh-analyze with 1000 mA charge, 200 mA discharge, and got 1783 to 1855 mAh. They are rated at 1900 mAh minimum, but I hadn't cycled them multiple times yet, and I'm discharging at 200 mA rather than the specified 100 mA rate. The 1783 mAh cell did 1917 mAh on a second cycle. So I conclude that the eneloop 2000 cells I got are good quality and honestly marked about capacity, and when delivered were at about 77% state of charge. So while the recommendation of others to charge for 8h is sound, I'd recommend that you get a Maha C9000 and test your cells :-) That's not so important with new sanyo cells (because every battery I've ever seen from Sanyo has been ok when new), but I've found that cells wear out over the years. Way more detail than is useful, semi-organized: http://www.lexort.com/blog/12v.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
