🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Jun16.215158.27005@athena.cs.uga.edu> mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:
>In article <6666@qip.UUCP> john@qip.UUCP (John Moore) writes:
>>In article <1991Jun16.041527.3366@netcom.COM> fiedler@netcom.COM (David Fiedler) writes:
>>]mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:
>>]
>>]>Full discharge for a 7.2-V NiCd is about 6 volts. Taking it below 6 volts
>>]>can damage it by causing some of the cells to become reverse-charged.
>>]
>>]What *he* said. I believe the target voltage for discharging is .9 to 1.0
>>]volts per cell. Find the number of cells in any NiCd battery by dividing 
>>]by the NiCd cell voltage, 1.2. You don't want to go lower than 5.4 (better
>>]luck next time :-).
>>
>>Better yet, don't discharge it at all. The most recent Gates application
>>notes show that there is NO appreciable memory effect in modern NiCads -
>>they ran a lot of experiments. Thus, there is NO REASON TO DISCHARGE NICADS!
>>-- 
>
>Not only that, but an article in Electronics World (London) says that
>a fast charge is better than a slow charge because it forms smaller (and
>more mixed-up) crystals. They advocate charging very fast (even 1-hour
>charge) if the temperature of the cell is monitored.
>
>Hmmm, anyone for a fast charger that you put into the refrigerator?
>Or one with a thermoelectric cooler?
>

1 hour to charge a battery, thats not a fast charge :-)  I do 15-20 minute
charges.  (Oh course, that is for quick discharge NiCd's.)

Truthfully, I abuse my NiCd's.  I always charge them in 15 minutes, and
I even charge them when they're hot.  I have never had a problem with
NiCd memory.  I do try to discharge them completely, but I don't go
to the extreme of hooking resistors or light bulbs to them.

The above is just my personal experience.  I am not saying that you
should do quick charges, or that NiCd's don't have memory.  


Andrew
zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu
----
My other car is radio controlled.