Battery Chargers

[Charlie99]

hmmm....good thought...what would I test it with?

An easy way to weed out the weak batteries is to simply use them until you get a low battery indicator on the camera. Then measure the voltage of each battery with a simple digital multimeter / DMM. You can buy one for $20 at Radio Shack, much less if you look around. If one battery has a much lower voltage than the others when your low camera low battery indicator comes on, then that battery has lower capacity than the others. Not necessarily dead, or bad, but lower capacity.

Dying batteries can also often be identified by just leaving them sitting around for a week or two after charging, and then measuring the voltages. If it loses significant voltage over a couple weeks, then it has an internal fault and is bad.

Specialized testers that apply a load and then measure the voltage are more accurate, but just looking at the no-load voltage will find 99% of the problem batteries.

 

[justleesa]

they are panasonic 2100's, about 2-3 years old. I charged them overnight, put them in the camera the night before the dive and they died by the time I went on the charter.

 

[AndyT]

Justleesa , Jamdiver

Thanks for posting this , found the charger & batteries I have been looking for because of this post

 

[do it easy]

Sounds like new batteries would work. You probably don't need a new charger. Please dispose of the old batteries responsibly.

 

[mike_s]

Hey Mike, I use the batteries until the battery low indicator displays on my camera.
I recharge them after that...

that's what I do also.

I just wondered if you were "fully discharging" them which it sounds like you aren't and if that helped performance on re-charges.

 

[Jamdiver]

that's what I do also.

I just wondered if you were "fully discharging" them which it sounds like you aren't and if that helped performance on re-charges.

Well you have a point I think..
I have read about the 'memory effect' re NiMh batteries?? or was that Nickel-Cadmium..

I suppose eventually the performance of the batteries will begin to decline over time?
But honestly I think that would only begin to occur after many thousands of charging cycles..

Just my 2 uninformed cents.

 

[Charlie99]

I just wondered if you were "fully discharging" them which it sounds like you aren't and if that helped performance on re-charges.

Memory effect was almost negligible on NiCd and non-existent with NiMH.


For maximum life, recharge batteries before you get all the way down to the low battery warning. Deep discharge cycles are hard on virtually every battery chemistry. It will rapidly destroy lead-acid and gel cels, as well as LiIon. It is rough, but not a catastrophic for NiMH and NiCd.

Reverse charging will destroy NiMH and NiCd, and in a multicell battery (or equipment using multiple cells). If one cell has significantly lower capacity than the others, its voltage may go all the way through zero and start being reversed charged before the low battery detector trips if the low battery detector voltage is set too low. It's not a big problem with 2 or 4 cell equipment, but becomes a difficult issue with 6 or more cells in series. (Typical low battery trip voltage is somewhere around (N-1)*1.0V or (N-1)*1.1, where N is the number of cells)

 

[do it easy]

Check out this thread regarding the memory effect - http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=133632

 

[Gilligan]

My rechargeables are starting to fizzle out on me and I was wondering when I get new batteries, which are most likely going to be stronger batteries than what I have (have 2100's, new will be 2500 or more (if available)) ,will I still be able to use the same charger that I bought with the 2100's? Does it make a difference?

I purchased this charger from Thomas Distributing. It also re-conditions batteries which takes about 24 hours. I believe the NiMH batteries do get memory over time so I re-condition mine after several uses. This device can do a fast charge, soft charge and re-condition charge. I also purchase my Power X batteries from Thomas Distributing.

 

[Dee]

I also use the same charger Gilligan does. Since I typically need 8 batteries per change (4/camera, 4/strobe) this one is the only reasonable priced one I found that would accrpt all 8 batteries. It also will accept 1 battery so I no longer have to do 2 or 4 at a time.

Also another PowerX user. I just bought 8 of the new 2700 NiMH just before my trip. In my Oly C-5050, I took 223 RAW shots before the camera dies at the end of the 4th dive. The Inon D180 strobe was still going strong.

As for whether you can use your same charger, I can't say for sure. But if you decide to get a new one, I can highly recommend the Maha MH-C801D.