Protecting Battery Life


psydan

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Jan 17, 2006
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Hi, I've seen in a few random threads some small mention of discharging rechargeable batteries to keep them in top shape before you charge them up again.

Since I dont have a charger that automatically discharges before it re-charges, does anyone know of a good way to discharge them manually?

Any extra techy knowledge would be great,
Cheers,
Dan.
 
Hi, I've seen in a few random threads some small mention of discharging rechargeable batteries to keep them in top shape before you charge them up again.

Since I dont have a charger that automatically discharges before it re-charges, does anyone know of a good way to discharge them manually?

Any extra techy knowledge would be great,
Cheers,
Dan.
Leave them in the GP2X?! with it switched on, or in a flashlight?
 
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I'll try, a bulb in a torch might not take much power and it'll take a day to discharge or something knowing my luck :p

And it'll propably keep the power LED on for ages too :)
 
LIon...I'm guessing thats the Lithium ones?
Mine are Ni-MH whatever that is, 2500mAh UNiROSS
 
Be careful if you don't discharge them one at a time. The batteries with more capacity will cause the others to reverse charge, and that's bad for them. Also, in the case of NiMH or li-ion, you're probably causing more stress to the batteries by discharging them for the sake of discharging them rather than just using them normally. One full discharge in a month is fine for NiMH, and it's generally not helpful at all for li-ion.

If you just run the GP2X until the unit cuts out, you won't be over-discharging the weaker cell, and the other one should be pretty close to discharged, so I don't think you have to worry much.

Also, NiMH can have a bit of a memory effect, but it's not as severe as with some types of NiCd - if you suspect it's happening with NiMH, a full discharge and recharge should fix it, if not, the batteries are probably just getting old.

The only other real tip I can think of is apparently it's best to store batteries at about 40% charge if they're to be stored for a long time, and lower temperatures are better for storage.
 
I generally just change them when the screen fades and it wont boot again, so since there's no "memory" in the batteries I'll carry on as I am then :D

I've got 4x2500s and 4x2100s which I've marked in pairs so they're all charged in a regular cycle with no mixing of different capacities just in case :)

Cheers for info B)
 
Connect a wire from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. :D





I am not responsible for any burns, fire, explosion, maming, death, etc. that would occur as a result of this highly efficient discharge method.
 
Those 9volt rectangular batteries work well for burning yourself if you touch them on some wire wool :p
 
its better for batterys with memory effect, like nicd, nimh dosnt have a memory effect so it dosnt make a difference. however, repeated chargeing/dischargeing also helps nimh.
 
you get a 1000 charges, if you charge them every day thats at least 3 years usage out of a pair of batteries.

batteries are cheap.

if you want to faff about discharing them good luck to you, id rather spend the time doing some thing else
 
When i charged my batteries in my charger, after about 2 hours the light was from red (charging) to green (draining stuff)... okey but i a put out a batterie and re-enter it, it charges again for an our :huh: why?
 
i think my battery charger just chargers for a certain time, so since they came with some 1400mah or something I put my 2500mah on charge twice and it still charges them...

i think some chargers are based on a drop of voltage that occurs when you start to overcharge.

anyway, i guess whatever triggers the charger to stop isn't detected again until they've been charging for another hour...
 
you get a 1000 charges, if you charge them every day thats at least 3 years usage out of a pair of batteries.

batteries are cheap.

if you want to faff about discharing them good luck to you, id rather spend the time doing some thing else
So you'd rather spend your valuable time writing pointless comments about topics that you neither care about or can contribute to in a decent manner?

Sounds like you're just 1 big waste of time to me :)

I wouldnt bother replying to this if I were you, far too trivial for a superior intellectual mind like yours.
 
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you get a 1000 charges, if you charge them every day thats at least 3 years usage out of a pair of batteries.

batteries are cheap.

if you want to faff about discharing them good luck to you, id rather spend the time doing some thing else
So you'd rather spend your valuable time writing pointless comments about topics that you neither care about or can contribute to in a decent manner?

Sounds like you're just 1 big waste of time to me :)

I wouldnt bother replying to this if I were you, far too trivial for a superior intellectual mind like yours.

i will ignore the abusive comments you have just written about my post and myself.

i apologize if that you are offended by my post- what is it that you found offensive?


you obviously dont want to see the logic in that a pair of batteries will last 3 years.

you dont want to see that in my opinion discharging batteries is a waste of your time time.

you dont want to read that in the grand scale of things a pair of batteries are cheap and that youd be best doing something else rather than worry about discharging them every time your gp2x has discharged them.

i will accept an apology if offered.

:)
 
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