I'm looking for a set of charger and rechargeable AA batteries to power my new Sony wireless receiver and transmitter. Can someone suggest the best name out there? I am eye'ing the Panasonic on Ebay, but there might be something else...Sony?

Thanks in advance,
Lucas

I've seen quite a few favorable mentions of MAHA batteries and charger.
http://www.mahaenergy.com/

I'll update tonight if I can find a model number.
It came with my Sony Cybershot digital camera and I'm really-really happy with it.

Hi Lucas,

I use MaHa chargers... here's a good webseller:

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha-charts.htm

about a month ago, I bought the MH-C401FS. Its without a doubt the best charger you can get for AA and AAA batteries. It does full charges of any combination of 4 batteries (or less) in only 100 minutes!

That means you can have one AAA and two AA NiMh batteries in any stage of discharge, and the charger will analyze each independantly and give it the appropriate charge.

I also use the MaHa MH-C777 PLUS which allows me to charge just about any combination of NiMh or Lion batteries... I charge batteries for my pdx10 with it, and I use a Wendt X4 mixer and charge all eight AA batteries with it... I also use a HHB MD500 and charge the batteries right in their chassi using the 777...

Check em out!

Best,

John Hartney
werks.tv

I recommend that you use non-rechargeable batteries. They last for hundreds of hours in microphones (not sure about your wireless). It's very very bad when batteries run out of charge, so I would use non-rechargeable batteries to avoid that. They do not lose charge like rechargeables do and they have more capacity.

Well, I went the rechargeable route because I only use 8 hours maximum per event for the wireless system. Besides, it has power display on the wireless and the transmitter as well, which is very helpful...so that I know if it's near empty and can stop using before it hurts my system.
Lucas

Nice, I didn't know these systems have this!

>I recommend that you use non-rechargeable batteries. They >last for hundreds of hours in microphones (not sure about your >wireless). It's very very bad when batteries run out of charge, >so I would use non-rechargeable batteries to avoid that.

Chuckle, yes it is bad. I'm going the rechargeable route for precisely the reliability reason. Rather than worry about the battery level of my alkalines and whether or not they'll last the event, I prefer knowing that I'm working with a rechargeable that has been charged before each event.

alkalines are a poor choice these days... the capacity vs. cost of nimh aa's blows everything else away... we are talking about 2000+mah per aa battery!

these nimh aa's have a huge market in digital photography, which has helped drive the prices waaay down.

i use 'em to power the remote camera and mpeg2 recorder for the race cars, and i found that the same number of aa alkalines wouldn't even power the unit up.

motorola has a 15-minute rechargeable aa nimh system that is pretty cheap, it's worked well for me... you can get it at walmart.

Here's a good on-line source for batteries. Wow, a four pack of 2500 mAh Energizer batteries can be had for $12.

http://thomas-distributing.com/batteries.htm


Here are a pair of articles on NiMH batteries and chargers :

"The Great Battery Shootout!
by Dave Etchells"
http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM

Hi,

I'm looking for an AA/AAA/9V battery charger, preferably with
a slow charge mode. It's difficult to evaluate all of the chargers
out there. My current Panasonic charger really heats up the
batteries. Is cool or slow charging that important ?

This unit seems good as it handles 5 AA's and does
all sorts of "smart" stuff, but doesn't have a "gentler"
slow charging mode. The five battery compartments
happen to be useful for my Nikon camera flash unit,
so you can see my motivation.

http://thomas-distributing.com/ip-fc-501.htm

Any suggestions ?

Try this one: http://www.batterysupply.com/la_crosse_bc-900_battery_charger.php ....................Or this one:http://www.batterysupply.com/maha-mh-c801d-battery-charger.htm