Battle of the batteries...

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_trailer_2.gif

[Wesan]

Hope you enjoyed the trailer for the story of the "Battle of the batteries" above. ;)

I was inspired to this story, by my own rechargeable batteries experiences. And maybe somewhere in the back of my head, there was also the memory of the space trip story that somebody here posted a while ago. :)

This will be the story ("action thriller" :p ) about the batteries I have used (and are using) in my Canon Powershot S3 IS and Soligor DG-340 AZ slave flash. The photos used in the story are also all taken by my S3 camera and DG-340 flash.

It will be an exciting story, so stay tuned! ;)

Oh! In case you wonder - the trailer above is a GIF-animation made using a program called "Sqirlz Morph".

Next: Main titles! :D

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_main_titles.gif

And - yes! The pictures used in the above animation are photos from my S3! I just decreased the gamma value to zero, so they became black... ;) Then, I added the text. :D

Stay tuned for episode 1! Coming within the next day...or so... :p

[nap]

your getting me excited there!

[Wesan]

That's the point! ;) Stay right here! You might miss something if you take a...nap! :D

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_1.gif

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_2.gif

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_3.gif

[Faith]

Ooo great!

[Wesan]

Thank you, Faith! :) It is "to be continued...". ;)

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_4.gif

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_5.gif

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesake/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_6.gif

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesan/Pics/Battery_battle_episode_7.gif

[Wesan]

http://hem.bredband.net/wesan/Pics/Battery_battle_epilogue.gif

[nick19]

lol awsome

[Wesan]

I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the audience! You have been a very nice, quiet and polite audience during the whole "movie". And quite a big audience too - 851 views at the time of writing this post! :eek:

I hope you enjoyed this "movie series". Now, that it has ended, you don't have to be quiet anymore, but are free to comment anything you want to, about it. And please - don't stop your loud applause too soon! ;)

Sorry if some of the gif-files became pretty large size. And they kind of seemed to grow larger by every episode too! I hope you all had fast Internet connections and powerful computers enough, to still view them without problems. :o

OK - I'll sit back and enjoy your praise and my fame now... :p :D

Any offer from Hollywood, yet? :confused: :cool:

[Graystar]

Well, that was amusing, but it’s also wrong. There’s nothing wrong with quick charging. The problem is poor quality quick chargers.

If you really want to know all about rapid NiMH charging, look at the world of radio control electric car racing. Besides quality equipment, proper setup, and skill, each racer lives and dies by the quality of his battery and his charge. And in a world where winning is everything, and top quality six-cell batteries cost $75 dollars, no one is going to do anything that will reduce the performance and life of these expensive batteries.

The difference is the chargers. Battery chargers go from $100 to $450 dollars. Hell, these guys spend $150 dollars on a DIScharger!! These chargers operate at 4 amps...sometimes even as high as 7 amps! They’re expensive because they contain sophisticated electronics that are required for proper detection of a full charge. And therein lies the problem with the cheap charger you buy at Walmart...those chargers cannot properly detect a full charge. They’ll over-charge a battery until the charge time limit is reached. Sometimes, that’s ALL these chargers have! They presume that every battery that’s being recharged is depleted and simply charge for a set amount of time. And it's over-charging a NiMH battery that kills it. Timer circuits are very inexpensive. A quality negative Delta V peak detection circuit isn’t.

If you want your batteries to last a long time and perform their best, then do two things...invest in a quality battery charger and discharge before charging. That’s why I use a LaCrosse BC-900. I always use the quick discharge/charge cycle and my batteries are just fine and last as long as they’re supposed to.

[gslusher]

Well, that was amusing, but it’s also wrong. There’s nothing wrong with quick charging. The problem is poor quality quick chargers.

If you really want to know all about rapid NiMH charging, look at the world of radio control electric car racing. Besides quality equipment, proper setup, and skill, each racer lives and dies by the quality of his battery and his charge. And in a world where winning is everything, and top quality six-cell batteries cost $75 dollars, no one is going to do anything that will reduce the performance and life of these expensive batteries.

The difference is the chargers. Battery chargers go from $100 to $450 dollars. Hell, these guys spend $150 dollars on a DIScharger!! These chargers operate at 4 amps...sometimes even as high as 7 amps! They’re expensive because they contain sophisticated electronics that are required for proper detection of a full charge. And therein lies the problem with the cheap charger you buy at Walmart...those chargers cannot properly detect a full charge. They’ll over-charge a battery until the charge time limit is reached. Sometimes, that’s ALL these chargers have! They presume that every battery that’s being recharged is depleted and simply charge for a set amount of time. And it's over-charging a NiMH battery that kills it. Timer circuits are very inexpensive. A quality negative Delta V peak detection circuit isn’t.

If you want your batteries to last a long time and perform their best, then do two things...invest in a quality battery charger and discharge before charging. That’s why I use a LaCrosse BC-900. I always use the quick discharge/charge cycle and my batteries are just fine and last as long as they’re supposed to.

You're right about the overcharging problem. That's another reason that I said in another thread that the best thing to do with one of the cheap quick chargers (15 MINUTES!) would be to put it on the pavement and smash it with a hammer.

The timed chargers have another problem: if you use a high-capacity battery, it will not be fully charged when the timer shuts off. A good clue that the charger is one to avoid is if the instructions say to run the cycle twice for high-capacity batteries.

However, one should also note that La Crosse suggests charging at lower currents:

"User shall always observe the recommended maximum charging current of the rechargeable batteries. In general, 200 mA is a recommended charging current if rapid charging is not necessary. It is definitely safe and optimum to the rechargeable batteries."

(From the La Crosse BC-900 instruction manual. The grammar is theirs.)

High currents cause heat and can warp the tightly-wrapped thin metal sheet electrodes in the battery.

As for how long a battery should last, the better ones should last 1,000 cycles. Are you getting that sort of performance?

[Graystar]

As for how long a battery should last, the better ones should last 1,000 cycles. Are you getting that sort of performance?
I don't know yet...I'm still counting.

In the RC world we'd charge a battery in 45 minutes and then run it dry in 5 minutes. Then we'd let them cool down and do it again. Even in these situations a well maintained battery does last 1000 charges (which you reach relatively quick.) In the digital camera, the batteries are lasting days and I alternate between two pair so the recharge cycle is far slower. Maybe in a couple years I'll be able to tell you the condition after 1000 recharges.