[NTLK] Dead 2100 battery revival

Not exactly recelling 2100 battery packs but I've
discovered that I can use my radio control battery
charger to revive "dead" packs and recondition old
ones.

I have a Great Planes Triton charger that allows me to
set all the discharge and charge parameters for NiCd,
Nimh, Lipoly and lead acid batteries. Using it I've
brought one completely dead 2100 pack back to life and
have reconditioned old packs back to close to about
1000 mah. I don't believe the 2000/2100 charging
circuitry is the most optimal in the world for
maintaing batteries.

In general I set the discharge rate to 100 mah and the
cutoff voltage to 0.9V per cell (3.6V for the pack).
I then recharge the pack at 100 mah and 0.5mv peak. A
couple of cycles of this and it's reconditioned pretty
well, not as good as new but a lot better than before.

It's a little more complicated to revive dead packs
but after they're back up to the 3.6v level or so the
same cycling brings them back.

If a cell in the pack is shorted out none of the above
will help though, you're pretty much left with
recelling.

Randy

-- 
This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries
Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/