Battries

[rcx21000]

Is it safe to short circut Ni-MH battries when you are about to charge them, because all the instructions for battries say that it is better if you charge completely discharged battries.

 

[Scampi]

Hi,

looking at Energizer's saftey datasheet for rechargeable Ni-MH batteries it says;

"Accidental short circuit for a few seconds will not seriously affect the battery. However, this battery is capable of delivering very high short circuit currents. Prolonged short circuits will cause high cell temperatures which can cause skin burns"

So probably best to avoid discharging them via short circuit

 

[rcx21000]

Is there such thing as a safe battrey discharger (sonething that you put the battries in, and they dishcarge without getting hot)?

 

[Scampi]

I used to have a battery discharger for my camcorder and I believe that some of the more fancy chargers have a discharge feature. At work at the moment so didn't have much time but there are sites in the US sell them - if you're outside the US (like me) then I'm sure there are local outlets as well.

Good luck!

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

IIRC, one of the features of NiMH batteries is that they don't have the "memory" problem of NiCads.

I am sure fully discharging the batteries before charging would be nice, but not mandatory.

Don't short high enery cells. If you just have to discharge them, go to radio shack and see if they have a discharger. If not, pick up a large wattage, low value resistor and use that.

If you just use a wire you will find out how chap space heaters work the hard way.

 

[directhex]

all nickel batteries suffer memory effect, and need replacing. lithium rechagables ARE available, but cost a bomb.

--jo

 

[Shrike]

just try it, worst that can happen is a burn

or the batteries explode in your gp32

 

[Degenerate]

directhex, where can I find these rechargable lithium batteries? I've done a brief search on google and come up with non-rechargable ones, but that's not good enough I don't really mind how much they cost as long as they are compatable with the GP32 (I did find one site selling them, but they were 3.6v, GP32 takes two 1.5v).

Edit: I did some research, and it appears that due to the chemical properties of the batteries they only come in 3.6v, I'll look into some high power NiMH rechargables instead.

 

[Vanguard]

NiMH batteries should not be fully discharged on a regular basis, as this puts undue strain on the crystals.

Li-Ion batteries are good in terms of memory and storage discharge, but they hold less and less charge over time. After a few years, they won't hold much of a charge anymore.

Check out this table at the Battery University Website. The whole site is good reading for anyone interested in batteries

 

[sloth]

How much play time are you guys getting before it starts reseting? My battery usage seems to suck, but idunno if its normal or not
I get about 2-3 hrs out of 1800mAh NiMH batteries.. 1.2v i think. Im mostly running 133mhz too... either snes9x or GPEngine. Typical results?

 

[EvilDragon]

I use 2 Ansmann Lithium Ion 1800 mAh rechargeable batteries.
I played about 5-6 hours pinball dreams, 1-2 hours GPEngine, 2 hours Frodo and 2 hours GameBoy (VGsomething )