Nickel metal hydride testing

My maha charger has a recylce however, I don't bother, the nmh's don't realy have a memory
I don't worry about it. Just use them and recharge them.

BUT I would not adivise to leave them for long periods without a charge

Barry

[Adam Wade]

[ QUOTE ]
My maha charger has a recylce however, I don't bother, the nmh's don't realy have a memory
I don't worry about it. Just use them and recharge them.

[/ QUOTE ]
That conflicts with my experience of retaining more charge when cycles three times from new. Since this coincides with Thomas' recommendations, I also follow their recommendation to refresh them once every 10 charging cycles. Have I done back-to-back comparisons? No, and that would be a waste of my time, I think. Since it requires no extra effort on my part to refresh them every 10 cycles, it certainly can't hurt.

Adam

If you find that works for you, and the batteries hold more of charge than refresh them,
but monitor the temperature of the drain and the charge, I recomend they be in a cool
area, almost under a small fan if they heat up.
Do you have a multi meter? they are very handy, just to monitor your voltage, like all
of us you probably use your batteries in 4's, you might find one dies before the other
3. If you get to know your voltages, you can get more out of your charger cycles.
You will find that if you keep the batteries cool ( not real cold, just cool ) than
they will charge up to a higher voltage. Maybe that is why I do not find any problems
with holding charges. It could be me....

Barry

[Adam Wade]

[ QUOTE ]
If you find that works for you, and the batteries hold more of charge than refresh them,
but monitor the temperature of the drain and the charge, I recomend they be in a cool
area, almost under a small fan if they heat up.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd been letting them heat up a bit with my "old" Maha, and even so saw charge capacity rise over the first three cycles. I do have some leftover pancake fans, and will be using them in the future.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have a multi meter? they are very handy, just to monitor your voltage, like all
of us you probably use your batteries in 4's, you might find one dies before the other
3.

[/ QUOTE ]
Generally, I find one to be very low, two to be fairly low, and one to be somewhat low when it's time to recharge. I generally just wait for my 550EX to slow down a bit and replace them before things get too bad.

[ QUOTE ]
If you get to know your voltages, you can get more out of your charger cycles.
You will find that if you keep the batteries cool ( not real cold, just cool ) than
they will charge up to a higher voltage.

[/ QUOTE ]
Generally I leave them in the charger for a few hours after they show fully charged, which gives them plenty of time to cool. If they were going to take extra charge, would not my charger have given it to them in that time?

Generally I leave them in the charger for a few hours after they show fully charged, which gives them plenty of time to cool. If they were going to take extra charge, would not my charger have given it to them in that time?

Not really, I have found that they can reach a peak voltage whether or not you leave them for an hour or two. Mabye it is my charger but sometimes they don't "cool down" after the green light goes on. You could probably get a cheap multi meter, and see if you want.

Generally, I find one to be very low, two to be fairly low, and one to be somewhat low when it's time to recharge. I generally just wait for my 550EX to slow down a bit and replace them before things get too bad.

I generally I sometimes can't wait to "decharge" them as I might have a shoot the next day and
have a few sets to recharge. So I top them off. Before I got the maha, I had chargers that did 10
at a time and couple that did 6 at a time. But they did not get the voltage up high ennogh which
did not give them a full charge. So after a few weeks of toping them up, I sometimes do the recycle
thing. Yes I used to also dechage them in a flash unit but I figured that a 300 to 400 flash unit is
not work working down $5 batteries.

I wish my canon 10d took aa's however the batteries they have do last an amazing long time

[Adam Wade]

Well, I can't see current draw unless I wire in series, which is a little hard to do with the battery inside the charger.

My batteries DO cool down after the green light comes on, and I can't think of why yours don't.

If they woudl take more charge when cool, why would the charger not add that extra charge after they cooled? How can a charger distinguish from a mostly-charged battery that was hot and cooled, and a mostly-charged battery that was always cool?

I do agree on the BP-511s. I am very happy with their performance. I am considering getting my better half a battery grip for her Elan 7e, so she is not tied to those little million-dollar non-rechargable weird lithium batteries it takes.

Adam
Maha has a charger that does 2 way batteries, it has a small magnet with a wire, that monitors
temperature, It probably cuts off the charge if it gets too hot.
If your batteries don't get warm/hot when charging then cool ( I mean great), sometimes mine
do an sometimes they don't but they do get warm when charging and I like to keep it cooler.
No big deal. every couple of years I like to buy new batteries just to have fresh ones.But
lately the 1800mah are amazing and I seem to not have to change them on shoots.
When I was using my 550's I had the 6aa pack on my belt and I allways shot with anohter on
a stand.. if I was not using my Elenchrom, in addition to the aa pack on my eos 3... I was
firing:

6 in the pack,
4 in the on camera flass
4 in the off camera flash
4 in the camera drive

18 total

now with the 10d, and the metz with the boucnce card and the second flash in the metz
I am only using 4aa at any one tinm.