Re: 701s and NiMH batteries

["John H. Kim" <jokim@MIT.EDU>]

On Tue, 27 Aug 1996 Mitchell_Yee@jud.ca.gov wrote:

>      My company finally bought me two NiMH batteries for my 701C
>      after hearing my curse my old NiCad battery one too many times.
>      
>      Is there any care and feeding instructions for NiMH batteries that 
>      might differ from the NiCads?  IBM techies have mentioned
>      that the batteries are not supposed to require any specialized 
>      handling, including deep discharge or trickle re-charge.  I'd

The 701's NiMH batteries really seem to work.  I've got two.  One
is left in the machine all the time, frequently discharged 10%-20%
before recharging.  It's held up just fine since January.  The other
sits on a shelf, used maybe once a month for trips.  It sits at 100%
charge (IBM's recommendation), and it's always been 99% or 100% when
I plug it in, even after a month of non-use.  A very pleasant change
from my 750 whose batteries died within a month of frequent partial
charging, and lost 2-3% of its charge every day in storage.

I was told IBM recommends *against* discharging the 701's NiMHs
completely.  If you do this, the estimated time remaining at 100%
drops by about 4 minutes.  I don't know if this is real, although
I suspect it is since the battery isn't suppposed to have any
writeable electronics inside it.
--
John H. Kim       "I stop for red traffic lights" -- bumper sticker 
jokim@mit.edu     commissioned by the City of Boston as part of a
MIT Sea Grant     campaign to shed its reputation for bad drivers.