At 3:00 PM -0400 9/10/01, Kurt wrote: >NiCd to NiMH usually works, depending on >the charger, but not always. If the charger uses >temperature rise as the terminating condition it will >probably be OK, but if it looks for a voltage rise the >NiMH will probably get overcharged, with resulting >decreased life. Anecdotally, people often have success >replacing one for the other if they do a simple timed >charge... but if you forget and overcharge the battery >dries out.
Thanks for that post, Kurt. That's my understanding too, and I can also recommend the Buchmann book you referred to (http://www.buchmann.ca/) I'm keen to know what usage and charging patterns people have been able to sustain with the change from NiCd to NiMH. In particular, my guess was that the NiCd charger in the 1xx series would be likely to damage the NiMH cells, and that this was probably why Apple put the so called and much reviled "intelligent" batteries into the 5xx series. But I was wanting to ask you, Martin [@atelierdesign] - or anyone else who's had success with this kind of thing - what sort of charging patterns you used. Can you just leave the battery connected to the PB on the mains without cooking the NiMH cells? There's a supplier here (in Australia) currently offering a very good deal on NiMH cells and I'm thinking of buying a bunch of them, but they do have a reputation for being tricksy and easy to damage by overcharging. If they're going to be trouble, I'd be more inclined to stick with the 1000mAh NiCd cells which are more robust and are rated at twice the number of charge/discharge cycles. I'd really like to get anyone's experiences of the practical behaviour of these batteries, and what you can get away with (or not!) cheers John -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
