Re: NiMH Battery

[christij@unix.asb.com (Joseph Christie)]

On Wed, 10 Jan 1996 18:23:28 EST, "Guy Farrell"
<gfarrell@oasis.vpia.uconn.edu> wrote:

>> Date:          Wed, 10 Jan 1996 10:40:34 -0800
>> From:          whittle@usc.edu (Randy Whittle)
>> Subject:       Re: NiMH Battery
>
>> At 1:53 PM 1/9/96, Murray W. Goldberg wrote:
>> >
>> >My question is: My original battery has bit the dust. It won't hold a charge,
>> >and I've had to go buy another. I try to be good about letting it run down
>> >between charges. I'm pretty disappointed that I only got 8 months out of the
>> >battery. What has your experience been?
>> 
>>         Did you leave it plugged in a lot with the battery in the machine?
>> 
>>         On my 750C (before I sold it), that did *terrible* things to the
>> battery.  It would constantly drain to about 90% and then re-charge to
>> 100%.  Lots and lots of mini-cycles like that will simply destroy your
>> battery life.  I presume the 360 would do the same, since they are very
>> similar machines.
>
>I've used NiMH batteries for years, in RC racing and now laptops.  
>That mini charge, as Randy pointed out, definitely _kills_ batteries. 
>I believe the term battery "memory" applies to NiMH unlike Lithium 
>batteries.  When partially discharging a NiMH battery repeatedly 
>to a similar level, i.e. leaving the laptop unplugged overnight or 
>every weekend and then recharging it, the battery eventually refuses 
>to recharge beyond that point.  (This fact was actually much more 
>important racing RC cars than traveling with laptops :-)
>
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NiCad batteries are notorius for the "memory" phenomena. The docs I got
with my 701C and the NiMH specifically states that not only is it
unnecessary to discharge the battery completely between charges but that
doing so may do damage to the batteries.

I often leave the battery in while running off the charger and check the
battery level occasionally to make sure I didn't knock the adapter out of
the wall. According to the on screen indicator I have not noticed less than
100% charge after full charge is first reached.

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