Subj : Charger To : BEN RITCHEY From : TOM WALKER Date : Wed Jun 08 2005 09:51 am BR>Ok, but my question still stands what voltage to use when doing a long-t BR>maintenance float on NiMH batteries ??? BR>FYI, my research has discovered that Lead Acid cells need 1.085x and BR>rechargable alkaline/lithium use 1.02x ... but NiMH? According to Panasonic, A Large manfacturer of Top Quanlity NiMH cells "Trickle Charging" for maintenance of NiMH cells is NOT recomended They should be placed on a Intermmittent Timer Automatic Charging unit Their end of charge point requires Both voltage and Cell temperature measurments. The cells are charged and them allowed to sit until a predetermined voltage droop and then the charging cycle is started again. I clipped the following form a paper on NiMH Battery Care. *** "In order to achieve maximum efficiency when charging a battery, it is necessary to implement charging techniques geared specifically for a battery cell chemistry. For example, negative delta V or dT/dt termination criteria is used for NiMH cells" CHARGING BASICS: A NiMH cell has a nominal voltage of 1.2V. Therefore, as an example stacking three NiMH cells together results in a battery pack with a nominal voltage of 3.6V and a maximum voltage of 4.5V. Typically, a NiMH cell is charged with a constant current until a terminating condition is encountered.The most common way to determine when a NiMH cell has become fully charged is to either observe a drop in the voltage or a rise in the temperature. As the cell becomes fully charged, the voltage drops slightly. At the same time, the temperature rises rapidly as less of the charge source energy goes intoactually charging the cell and more of the energy turns into heat" --- þ SLMR 2.1a þ This note from El Cajon California USA * Origin: Try Our Web Based QWK: DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140) .