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NiCad Battery Question

I have an outdoor garden solar powered decoration that uses a small solar panel and that charges a Ni-Cad AA Rechargeable Battery. The battery needs replacing and it is an AA 1.2v at 600mAh. I looked at Target, Walmart, and another store and yes, they all have the AA Rechargeable Batteries but with like a 1000mAh rating. I do not know if I need to stick to the 600mAh rating or can I use the 1000mAh rated rechargeable battery? This decorative device is just a fiber optic display in a gazing globe so the battery powers a bulb for the fiber optics at night.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Lou

Reply to
Lou
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Hi Lou...

Go ahead and use the larger capacity; it will make virtually no difference, but if dollars mean much to you...

Last summer in our Walmart (Winnipeg, Canada) they had the smaller capacity nicd's at a price that was almost a give-a-way. (pkg of 4 for only two or three dollars). The trick was that they weren't in the places that you'd normally expect to find batteries, but were rather hanging on the wall in the garden supplies department

Take care.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Weitzel

Agreed. It certainly won't harm anything.

It's really difficult to find those low capacity batteries any more.

NiMH AAs are up to 2700-2800 mAh now if you go for the latest hi-spec ones.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore 

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Reply to
**THE-RFI-EMI-GUY**

Simply charge it first in an external charger. Problem solved.

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Reply to
UCLAN

Some of my cheapo garden lights batteries failed, and as an experiment I just popped in normal AA duracells. That was last summer and they are still working fine. And yes, before you flame me (groan)they are in a place where an explosion of fire wouldn`t be a problem. They stay lit all night on an afternoons sunlight charge.

Ron(UK)

Reply to
Ron(UK)

You can actually get 'rechargable alkaline' types I believe but I expect the wide availability of cheap Nicad and NiMH means they never took off.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

According to Which? tests they performed badly especially if heavily discharged. Only possible benefit I could see was the nominal 1.5 volts per cell.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

ignore it, just put it out and it'll run fine. There is some bizarre advice about in instruction leaflets on this for some reason. Maybe an exercise in reducing successful guarantee claims.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

I've never understood this long charge with new batteries. Ages ago I bought a PPPro cordless drill with a crude fast charger (4 hours) which reckoned you doubled that for the first one before using. Which I'd say would fry them, as they arrived with near a full charge anyway by the lights on the side of the battery.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk:

Some batteries are not shipped formed (charged). The solar lights are NOT fast chargers...

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Reply to
me

It's an old scheme to attempt some form of SOC equalisation in series strings. Fine for C/10 but a bit extreme for fast chargers.

Reply to
budgie

Also dont you think double charge time a bit excessive for this though?

Also I'd think in this app it would be more important that the cells run flat at the same time than that they hold the maximum battery capacity.

And of course equalising is more relevant to used batteries rather than new.

4 reasons so far why its not good practice.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

I've yet to come across a power tool recently supplied with totally uncharged batteries. It may have been the case once.

Didn't say they were. Just expanding a point which was brought up.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

As already suggested, do the initial charge with your normal NiCd/NiMH charger. For several days, the solar lights will probably still be lit at dawn the next morning! Also, once in a while, it won't do any harm to repeat this exercise, and especially if you 'lay them up' for the winter. Ian.

Reply to
Ian Jackson

Yes. But having said that, we are talking consumer electronics, and the uncontrolled variable is the consumer.

Yes.

Not necessarily so. AFAIR no-one ever claimed that all cells in a pack started life in the pack at exactly the same SOC.

Certainly SOC variation is a result of cell use in the real world.

2.5 probably. I didn't say for a moment that I endorse the practice.
Reply to
budgie

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