rusty@cadnetix.COM (Rusty) (09/24/88)
Well, I promised a report on that NiCd charger circuit from Ham Radio
mag, so here it is.
I had an 8-cell NiCd pack for my Kenwood TR2400 which had 2 or 3 bad
cells. 2 of the cells were dead shorts. After charging the pack
(1.5 C max pulse current then reduce to .1 C pulse current, in case you
wondered), the pack measured full charge. Being the curious type,
I checked each cell. Much to my surprise, two cells next to
each other were still dead shorts. So, I decided I had nothing
to lose other than whatever damage an exploded battery pack could
do, and charged up a large capacitor bank to 12 volts (using
the NiCd charger, not that it matters). When the cap bank reached
full charge, I blasted the 2 cells (only those 2 cells... I did
not want to blast 'good' cells). About 5 or 10 times. Then I
hooked up the charger to just those 2 cells, waited a while, and
LO!, they took a charge! Now, if they just hold it, I will be
ECSTATIC.
Your mileage may vary, but *I* am certainly a very satisfied user!
(A days work and about $3 in purchased parts, the rest junkbox, and
I saved a $60 battery pack. Prior attempts to zap the bad cells
had failed)
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Rusty Carruth UUCP: {uunet,boulder}!cadnetix!rusty DOMAIN: rusty@cadnetix.com
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