Saving the life of a NiCad
 

Just wondering a little about the charging and discharging of NiCad batteries. We have 2 Anton Bauer trimpacs at work... I am assuming that A/B chargers will handle discharging and charging the battery for its specific needs... the problem is when I charge both of the batteries for a shoot, but then only end up needing one... should I then just leave the other battery untill the next time (the camera isn't used daily) and then charge it the night before its needed again? Does the slow drain of just sitting there effect the battery in a negative way?? I know some people who have the mindset that they should be charged for the least amount of time possible, and discharged (by leaving the camera on) when not used.... that doesn't seem right to me, if only for the sake of the camera. Any other special considerations of using NiCads as opposed to NiMH or LiIon? Thanks!

IF you are using an Intellicharger, such as the 2702 then I think you'd havwe no problem leaving batterys on it until you use them and not worry about overcharging. I had Dionic90s that sat on my charger all the time until I used them generally 1 or 2 sometimes 3 or 4 times a week and never ever had a problem with the batteries not being fully vcharged OR not holding a charge or cells going dead. The intellicharger series chargers will discharge the batterys when you put them on the charger if it needs to be, and when they batterys sit there not being used as they discharge naturally the charger will keep the charge up.
I do prefer LiOn to Nicad but thats my personal preference.
Don

Battery care - Li ion need different treatment to Nicads
 

Just a comment that Li ion (and Li polymer) batteries need different treatment to the Nicads that many of us are more familar with.

Storing Li ion/polymer batteries is best done when only partly charged. They also deteriorate faster if fully discharged too often. With these it's best to keep them topped up (as I'm doing all the time with my mobile/cell phone, media players etc.!) Li ion batteries deteriorate over time regardless of use or not - damn oxygen! Lifetimes are often quoted as 500 cycles or 2 years but neither of these is a hard and fast rule as there are so many variables.

Nicads on the other hand benefit from the occassional full deep discharge and then full re-charge...(to remove memory effect etc.) but this is about the worst thing you can do with a Li ion/polymer battery! Also, rate of charging (and heat generated during it) is important, a slow trickly charge is better than a powerful fast charge.

I've paraphrased a lot of stuff for the people that just want a "heads up" (so please excuse that!) but tons of detailed and useful information on all this in the link for those that want more!

We all increasingly rely on these little powerhouses in our daily lives (not just in our cameras etc.) and getting the best out of them is easy when you know some basic rules.

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

Andy

Andy,

Thanks for the link!

Mark

Very Informative... thanks Andy!

I was always leaning towards NiMH myself, but after reading some of the stuff on the Battery University, It seems that NiCad's may be a better choice as far as lifetime/cost is concerned. So what kind of batteries does everybody use? Any good/bad experiences with a certain type?