Nickel Metal Hydrids

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "shoppa" == shoppa classiccmp <shoppa_classiccmp at trailing-edge.com> writes:

 >> I have noticed that NiMH prices have gone down about half over the
 >> last 5 years.

 shoppa> In many cases they are cheaper than NiCads now.

 shoppa> This raises a question for refurbishing older equipment: is
 shoppa> it always OK to just drop a set of NiMH's in place of
 shoppa> same-size NiCad's?  Most of the "stupid" NiCad battery
 shoppa> chargers were just 0.1C trickle chargers, but the "smart"
 shoppa> ones that looked for the voltage rise at the end of charge of
 shoppa> a NiCad may not see this with a NiMH pack.  Anyone have any
 shoppa> experience?

I'm not sure that a trickle charger that works for NiCd is ok for
NiMH, and I am positive that a fast charger for the one will NOT work
right for the other.  Each battery technology has its own charging
rules -- lead acid, NiCd, NiMH, and the various flavors of Lithium
battery are all different in very significant ways.

	paul