[NTLK] Battery Oddities...

From: John Goggan (jgoggan_at_dcg.com)
Date: Wed Jun 26 2002 - 14:17:34 EDT


Sorry for bringing this back up -- I know others have asked and possibly
answered, but I never quite "got it." I've got several batteries that all do
the same thing... They seem to last only an hour or two -- and, when
charging, they go from 20% to 100% within minutes (or even seconds
sometimes). In other words, they obviously aren't really charging...

I recently installed BattTrax to try to get a better idea of what is going
on. When I started charging, capacity was at 19%, battery temp was about at
27C, and my current was right around 1020mA. It charged normally for about 2
minutes -- during which time the capacity rose to 21% and the battery temp to
27.5C while current stayed relatively stable.

Then, suddenly, capacity jumped to 100%. The graph in BattTrax ust goes from
21% to 100% in one 2-second interval. Battery temperature, at that 2-second
interval, dropped to 27C again, and charge current to 0.

It then just stays there doing trickleChargeContinuous at 0-1mA only.
Forever.

Is this a situation where I should start trying fridge/freezer tricks? Is
this a battery temperature issue? Or batteries that just aren't going to
recover?

Any suggestions appreciated. All 3 of my nimh packs seem to be giving the
exact same behavior (on different Newtons, just to note that I don't think it
is specific to a Newt).

Thanks!

 - John...

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