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AA battary capacity, Ah (?)

C

CMF

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rex,

Thanks. I just checked old messages, and you said you didn't read the
warning that my manual has. If you have the manual, can you look at page 42
in the users guide. Mine says: Caution: Do not use rechargeable batteries
with your HP Photosmart 215 digital camera.

If yours says this and they still work okay, then I will order some lickety
split. If your manual doesn't have this, then I wonder if they eliminated
this issue and you have an improved camera?
 
R

Rex B

Jan 1, 1970
0
Maury

Actually, I have been using them in a HP315 (later model) for a year.
Just got a HP215 from someone here, and I intend to use rechargeables.
But your reminder suggests that I might get out BOTH manuals and see if they
both have that warnning.

Rex

|Rex,
|
|Thanks. I just checked old messages, and you said you didn't read the
|warning that my manual has. If you have the manual, can you look at page 42
|in the users guide. Mine says: Caution: Do not use rechargeable batteries
|with your HP Photosmart 215 digital camera.
|
|If yours says this and they still work okay, then I will order some lickety
|split. If your manual doesn't have this, then I wonder if they eliminated
|this issue and you have an improved camera?
|
|
|
||> |Instead of all this testing, I could just get the charger and some
|> |batteries, I just don't want to find out it won't work because this
|camera,
|> |apparently an older model of the HP215, needs the alkaline voltage rush,
|so
|> |to speak.
|>
|> As soon as I find my other two NiMh AAs, I'll pop them in my HP215 camera.
|I
|> have no doubt they will work fine. Will report.
|>
|
|
 
J

James Waldby

Jan 1, 1970
0
Gary said:
Absolutely right! Get the MaHa charger. It will make your batteries
live longer because it won't abuse the batteries.

Disagree. I purchased an MH-C204F (and 4 MaHa batteries) 2.5 years
ago from Thomas and stopped using it 2 years ago after it ruined
2 sets of batteries. It apparently didn't turn off the fast charge
rate when the batteries were charged. The batteries overheated and
their plastic covers blistered and I got a very slight burn taking
them out of the charger.

My other charger (3 years old, obscure-brand POWERhaus Rapid Charger
PC-81) still works ok. I bought the 204 so I could charge 2 sets of 4
at once. After the first overheating incident on 25 July 2001, with my
Maha set of batteries, voltages on that set were reasonable (about 1.36V
each, straight off the charger) and the batteries appeared to work ok
for a while, but over the next few weeks or months their capacity
appeared to drop, and they now read 0 volts and won't take a charge.
The next day (26 July 2001) I put a different set of batteries
on the charger and checked every 15 minutes whether the red light had
gone off and green light come on, which happened after 2.5 hours, and
I decided the first incident had been a fluke. But eventually the
204 ruined another set of batteries and I stopped using it.

I agree with the advice to get a good charger with automatic
shutoff, but disagree that the Maha 204 is "absolutely right".
-jiw
 
T

Ted Edwards

Jan 1, 1970
0
James said:
I agree with the advice to get a good charger with automatic
shutoff, but disagree that the Maha 204 is "absolutely right".

Either your batteries or your charger was defective. My 204 has been in
use now for almost two years with no problems whatsoever. Yours is the
first report I've seen with this problem. Did you contact the dealer
about the problem?

Ted
 
L

lcoe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Either your batteries or your charger was defective. My 204 has been in
use now for almost two years with no problems whatsoever. Yours is the
first report I've seen with this problem. Did you contact the dealer
about the problem? > Ted

if you google, he isn't the only one with the auto cycle failing and i now
believe that is why this RShack model has a "backup timer". the first set
i charged did not shut off at the 1hr mark, keep going until i monitered
that the voltage was remaining constant for about 5mins and i unplugged,
they were warm, not hot. this was after <>90min.

but there would have been a 50% overcharge on that first go around, and
w/o the timer, who knows? they must not be able to designed a really
cheap auto charge sensor just yet. i have decided, based on my experience
and that of James, to return the RShack unit and just use the trickle
charger that came with the EverReady package at Sam's (19.99 for 8-1850mah
w/charger).

thanks again to EVERYONE who has posted to this thread, it really makes
Usenet SHINE! Best Regards, --Loren
 
C

CMF

Jan 1, 1970
0
Loren,

What kind of batteries is with the eveready? I assume NiMH?

Thanks.
 
J

JazzMan

Jan 1, 1970
0
lcoe said:
yes, eight, 1850mah and 1x4charger that does ni-cad also. this
one does not do AAA like most of the auto models.

thanks to Jazzman for the Sam's plug. --Loren

You're gonna kill me for this, but I just looked at
my Eveready NiMH batteries that came with that
charger and they're only 1,700 mAh. :( I just
misread it when I bought them last year. Oddly
enough, they seem to outlast alkalines in my
digital camera by about 50% or more. Nevertheless,
they are 150mAh less than what I remembered them
to me.

JazzMan
 
L

lcoe

Jan 1, 1970
0
You're gonna kill me for this, but I just looked at
my Eveready NiMH batteries that came with that
charger and they're only 1,700 mAh. :( I just
misread it when I bought them last year. Oddly

no worries, i read that off the batteries, NH15-AA 1.2v-1850mah.
i cannot find the package so dunno what it says, they must just
be keeping the product current.

it is amazing, right now, you can pay plenty for the little buggers
if you do not keep up with the market. --Loren
 
R

Rex B

Jan 1, 1970
0
|> lcoe wrote:
|>>
|>> > Loren,
|>>
|>> > What kind of batteries is with the eveready? I assume NiMH?
|>>
|>> yes, eight, 1850mah and 1x4charger that does ni-cad also. this
|>> one does not do AAA like most of the auto models.
|>>
|>> thanks to Jazzman for the Sam's plug. --Loren
|>>
|
|> You're gonna kill me for this, but I just looked at
|> my Eveready NiMH batteries that came with that
|> charger and they're only 1,700 mAh. :( I just
|> misread it when I bought them last year. Oddly
|
|no worries, i read that off the batteries, NH15-AA 1.2v-1850mah.
|i cannot find the package so dunno what it says, they must just
|be keeping the product current.
|
|it is amazing, right now, you can pay plenty for the little buggers
|if you do not keep up with the market. --Loren

OK, so where's the best place to buy NiMh batteries?
I checked at the local Big Lots and all they have is a few NiCads.
 
D

Doug McLaren

Jan 1, 1970
0
| OK, so where's the best place to buy NiMh batteries?
| I checked at the local Big Lots and all they have is a few NiCads.

Don't put down NiCd's so quickly -- they have lower resistance than
NiMh so your flash may recharge faster, and they can be charged faster
(2C is usually safe), and they tolerate abuse better, so they last
longer.

I don't know what Big Lots has (probably not much), but Home Depot
sells 4 pack 800 mA AA NiCd packs for $5. (Near/for the solar powered
lawn lights.) You can find up to 1100 mA AA NiCds (not at Home Depot)
but you'll pay a lot more.

NiCd have their niche, but most people want NiMH. For AA NiMH cells,
buy them at www.mcmelectronics.com. Search for 58-7740. If you buy
at least ten, the price is $0.84 each. Looks like shipping is $3+the
actual postal charge. So if you need a lot of batteries, that's a
great deal. (Beware, most of their other prices suck.)

(I've bought about 50 of these batteries. They work great.)

| Newsgroups: sci.electronics.repair,dfw.forsale,rec.crafts.metalworking

Sorry if people consider this offtopic in these groups. But maybe
this post will help shut down this long-lasting thread :)
 
L

lcoe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Last time I needed a few in a hurry I got them off a rack at Home
Despot. [....]
Except for very noncritical applications (toys?), I'd avoid the
generic batteries, they don't always live up to their specifications.
BTW, don't use NiMH for things like emergency flashlights, they have a
high self-discharge rate. > Best regards, > Spehro Pefhany

i have learned a lot from this thread and now understand some of the
tradeoffs. the newer cordless phones are a maze of choices and one
major factor is that at some point the current draw demands NiMH and
the talk/standby time goes _down_.

this pdf gives a good ordering of the Uniden offerings:

http://www.uniden.com/press/Best_Phone_for_your_Table.pdf

--Loren
 
G

GregS

Jan 1, 1970
0
|In sci.
OK, so where's the best place to buy NiMh batteries?
I checked at the local Big Lots and all they have is a few NiCads.

I like the MCM $.89 ones. They are 1800 mhr.

They have higher rated ones for double the price.

greg
 
R

Rex B

Jan 1, 1970
0
On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:49:00 GMT, [email protected] (Doug McLaren) wrote:

|
|| OK, so where's the best place to buy NiMh batteries?
|| I checked at the local Big Lots and all they have is a few NiCads.

|NiCd have their niche, but most people want NiMH. For AA NiMH cells,
|buy them at www.mcmelectronics.com. Search for 58-7740. If you buy
|at least ten, the price is $0.84 each. Looks like shipping is $3+the
|actual postal charge. So if you need a lot of batteries, that's a
|great deal. (Beware, most of their other prices suck.)

|This place has cheap prices if you are in the US and want to buy $50+
|worth (I've not tried them):

|http://www.cheapbatteries.com/nimh.htm

Thanks folks, both good sources.

Any place local?
 
R

Robert Akins

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm sure Tanner Electronics has some, but I don't know what brand or
capacity they are. Also, see what Batteries Plus has.
Robert
 
C

CMF

Jan 1, 1970
0
Oh, I never thought about Batteries Plus. I'm sure they won't be the
cheapest, but the on on Central just north of 15th street (west side) has
some good people working there. I have been for some other things.

I was just at Target, and looked at their Eveready chargers for grins. It
said the NiMH were 1.2 volt. based on my feeble testing, if my HP215 needs
voltage and not amperage for the pictures, they won't work, because I still
have 1.3 or so using my analog multitester (I got better with it since
whining yesterday) on these, and around 5.5 when I put 4 together after the
camera says batteries too low to take a picture. I can still look at
pictures stored on the camera for a while even when I cannot take the
pictures, so I need to find out whether it is voltage or amperage that I
need for pictures. I believe it has already been covered in this thread, I
will go back and look unless someone has a quick answer.


Robert Akins said:
I'm sure Tanner Electronics has some, but I don't know what brand or
capacity they are. Also, see what Batteries Plus has.
Robert
 
T

Ted Edwards

Jan 1, 1970
0
This was true. It still is to a very small extent but there have been
major advances in NiMH technology even just in the last couple of years.

1100mAh is about tops for AA NiCd's whereas NiMH AA's are now up to
about twice that. Twice as many pictures on your digital camera or
twice as many hours on your GPSR is a significant advantage. If you are
into caring for the environment, when they do die and go to the
landfill, NiMH does not contain any highly toxic Cadmium.
for most all applications, my guess is that they are. but have been
too expensive for low-end consumer products. they do self discharge
much faster than NiCads, bad for cell/cordless phones, both, they
take 1/10C overcharge indefinitely w/o damage, good for phones (read
this on a website).

This is all old/incorrect data. The self discharge rate is a *little*
higher than NiCd but not much any more. Prices have come way down.
Zellers (in Canada) is selling 1850mAh AA cells for Cdn$16 for a four
pack. Get a smart charger and don't worry about running them right down
before re-charging.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/batteries.htm
http://www.buchmann.ca/
"new technology". oh, also, iirc new Nicad's have an indefinite
shelf life(?).

Are you refering to self discharge or just sitting out of use? If the
latter, I have seen no evidence of any superiority of NiCd over NiMH in
sealed cells.

lastly, i just bot a mid-priced Panasonice cordless 2.4gDSS which
uses Nicad's.

I don't know what a 2.4gDSS is but if it takes AA cells, try a set of
NiMH. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Ted
 
D

Dave D

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ted Edwards said:
I don't know what a 2.4gDSS is but if it takes AA cells, try a set of
NiMH. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Ted

In cases where an appliance is designed to use and charge NiCads, replacing
the cells with NiMH is not necessarily a good idea. For starters, to get
the extra capacity out of the cells they will either have to be charged at a
proportionally higher current, or for a proportionally longer time. If the
base unit has an 'intelligent' NiCad charger it may not charge the cells
correctly at all.

Dave
 
L

lcoe

Jan 1, 1970
0
This was true. It still is to a very small extent but there have been
major advances in NiMH technology even just in the last couple of years.
This is all old/incorrect data. The self discharge rate is a *little*
higher than NiCd but not much any more. Prices have come way down.

all? what all? the overcharge immunity? the fact that some manufacturer
will design in NiCads even if the cost is similar, to provide product
distinction?
Are you refering to self discharge or just sitting out of use? If the
latter, I have seen no evidence of any superiority of NiCd over NiMH in
sealed cells.

shelf life. this was "common knowledge" some years ago, but never have
read anything very authoritive about it. are you saying a NiMH battery,
unused, will be as good a a NiCad after 5yrs on the shelf? what exactly
_are_ you saying? that you haven't run a test personally so do not believe
it? --Loren
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
The issue of NiMH's in the cradle too long is easily surmounted...and will
get cheaper to do as the demand increases...as always with electronics and
production volume.

In my (not cheap) Siemens phone system, only a few years old, designed
for NiCds, the NiMH batteries last MUCH longer than good quality
(Panasonic) NiCds. I don't recommend it, of course, but it WORKS, and
it's a lot cheaper than either buying a new phone system or buying
dozens of NiCds.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
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