[NTLK] Was: H1000 battery and charger issue, Now: NiMH battery life?

[Dan]

It depends on the amp hour rating.  The higher it is, the longer they will last.  I get over a month on a charge with the current batteries I have (compared to two days with a current tablet device).  Also the higher the rating they tend to be more expensive (Enloop's are generally considered to be the best but I have found others to be almost as good).  Also make sure to get batteries that are "pre charged".  That means they have low self discharge.  Without that, they will go dead in a month or two if you use them or not.

NiCad's did have a memory effect after a while to be sure, but that was often brought about faster by people that charged the batteries before they were fully drained.  There are ways to "refresh" or get them back into action, and I have seen NiMH get a memory effect as well.  Some of the better chargers have a "refresh" option to deal with this.  It is not always effective but it often helps for a while.

Battery chemistry (both NiCad and NiMH) have changed a LOT in the past 5-10 years.  I recommend getting a GOOD charger.  Not the cheap junk ones that come with the batteries if you want them to last longer.  They are usually around $30 but are worth it.  The one I have (by Opus) has a option for charging, discharging, refresh, and charge test (to determine the capacity) and can do C/D as well with the included adapters.  The newer chargers can determine the size and what type of battery you insert (although most can only charge NiCad and NiMH).

-Dan

On 8/26/2018 12:52 PM, Gene Beaird wrote:
> Okay, like Mr. Dudney below, I, too had tried the NiCad route many years (decades?) ago, and found them to be almost useless.  With this latest discussion, I went out and purchased some NiMH batteries and a charging station.  Unfortunately, I forgot the Newton takes AA, and picked up two packages of AAA.  No biggie, since we do have some devices around the house that use AAA, I’ll keep the one set I pulled out of the packaging for those, and return the other set for a package of AAs.
> 
> I do have a nagging question, though; how long can I expect these batteries to last on a charge?  I don’t use the Newton much anymore, and ANY amount of time is better than the ZERO seconds we get out of the factory battery pack, but one of the things that turned me off on the NiCad was the short span of time before they had to be thrown into the charger.  Thanks for any input.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Gene Beaird,
> Pearland, Texas
> 
> 
>> On Aug 20, 2018, at 11:00 AM, newtontalk-request at newtontalk.net wrote:
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2018 15:04:08 -0700
>> From: B Dudney <kosmicdollop at saber.net>
>> To: newtontalk at newtontalk.net
>> Subject: Re: [NTLK] H1000 battery and charger issue
>> Message-ID: <F7E9DA30-6025-4CD9-BE3B-2C4BF6AC1C5D at saber.net>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=utf-8
>>
>> NMH cells were a huge improvement. Prior to them, I gave up on NiCd?s, ordered a very handy, little Velleman kit voltage converter, attached the biggest heat sink the hobby shop had, and hooked it to a sealed Pb-acid battery. Yeah, the rig was kinda heavy and somewhat bulky, but I was able to ignore recharging: rarely ran out of juice even if unplugged all day long. Plus I didn?t get radiated by 60 cycle.
> 
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