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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
I have a couple of Visionstick NiMh batteries where the amount of charge
taken seems to be a bit hit and miss , sometimes the battery will last 20 minutes others an hour - same lights etc.Using supplied chargers which are claimed to be of the smart type. Is their any sort of meter I can use to measure how successful the charge has been? Riding on rural roads without lights is a bit dickie! Any help appreciated. |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
Red wrote:
Is their any sort of meter I can use to measure how successful the charge has been? Voltmeter Do Nimh have a Voltage Vs Charge curve? If so, this should tell you. |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
On 2006-05-19, Terry Collins wrote:
Red wrote: Is their any sort of meter I can use to measure how successful the charge has been? Voltmeter Do Nimh have a Voltage Vs Charge curve? If so, this should tell you. They do. AIUI, the charge curve for an NiMH battery is very similar to, if not identical to, the charge curve for a NiCd battery. When I had a Palm Pilot, I used NiMH batteries rather than constantly forking out for AA (or was it AAA?) batteries; I used a third party app to set the Palm to the NiCd charge settings. Did the job very nicely indeed. -- My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet". |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
On Fri, 19 May 2006 05:29:15 +0800, Red wrote:
Is their any sort of meter I can use to measure how successful the charge has been? The voltage change is very small, so such meters tend to be unreliable. I charge mine with a current which is low enough not to damage the battery when fully charged ( capacity/10 mA), and pick it up to check for the slight warmth which indicates that all the power fed to it is being converted to heat (wasted) i.e. it's fully charged. -- Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
On Fri, 19 May 2006 10:32:03 +1000, Terry Collins wrote:
Voltmeter Will give a reasonable approximations. Do Nimh have a Voltage Vs Charge curve? Pretty much. A nominal 1.2V cell has a real end point of around 1.4V, sometimes a touch higher. Carefully use a multimeter on the end of the connector cable. A full charge should be around 7V, while there will be something happening down to about 5.8V. Beneath that and the batteries are very close to end of charge. -- Dave Hughes | There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. - Dr. Who |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
Red wrote:
I have a couple of Visionstick NiMh batteries where the amount of charge taken seems to be a bit hit and miss , sometimes the battery will last 20 minutes others an hour - same lights etc.Using supplied chargers which are claimed to be of the smart type. Is their any sort of meter I can use to measure how successful the charge has been? Riding on rural roads without lights is a bit dickie! Any help appreciated. I like a meter on my charger so I can watch the amps. Also I carry a spare battery just to be on the safe side. I built a charger from a kit from Silicon Chip magazine and it was very unreliable. This is a good charger http://www.master-instruments.com.au...el/MW7168.html Friday |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
Terry Collins wrote:
Red wrote: Is their any sort of meter I can use to measure how successful the charge has been? Voltmeter Do Nimh have a Voltage Vs Charge curve? If so, this should tell you. The voltage doesn't tell you much, in fact it drops off as full charge is reached which is how the delta peak detection works. If you watch an amp meter and it reads one amp and it's on for an hour or so then you can be pretty sure that an amp/hour has gone into it. The delta peak chargers stop charging every second or so and measure the voltage, this keeps happening until the voltage it measured is slightly lower than the previous voltage it measured. You can see the amp indicator pulsing as it charges, measures, and then charges again. Once it's detected the peak voltage it gives a little bit more of a timed charge just to give it that final topping up and then it stops. They usually also have a temperature sensor that detects a sudden rise in the battery temperature, as a sudden rise indicates it's fully charged and any excess charge will cook the battery. With nicad cells the peak is easy to detect but with NiMh it's sometimes missed by the charger so the temperature sensor is a good backup to prevent overcharging. Friday |
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Measuring the charge in NiMh Batteries
On Sat, 20 May 2006 01:26:11 +0000, Friday wrote:
The voltage doesn't tell you much, in fact it drops off as full charge is reached which is how the delta peak detection works. True, but overstated. If it's 1.4-1.5 volts/cell you know it's got at least a 95% charge in it. The voltage drop you're talking about is more like 0.05V, so it drops from 1.5 to 1.45 V. That's going to be about the same as the fluctuation on a cheap multimeter, so not hugely worrying. -- Dave Hughes | "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come." - Matt Groening |
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