battery care...?

S

schteevie

Well-known member
just wanted to get everyone's opinions on this...

I know lithium ions aren't "supposed" to have memory, but I still think of them as if they do - I always drain them right down to the point where the camera says "low bat" and shuts down, before I recharge...
(note: I have 4 batteries that last a half day each, so I am never worried about recharging on set - it is not an option for me anyway as I am often in the wilderness)
Anyway, I just feel better knowing I am always stretching the "charge potential" envelope - am I being anal?
anyone else go that route?

I defienetly do this with my Ni-mh AA rechargables for my radio lavs and recievers...  
I have several sets of the panasonic 2100 mAh - I flatten them right down with a flashlight after each days shooting before I recharge them - and I can always count on 8+ hours of constant use before I get low batt warnings!  (senn evolution G2 lavs)
 
Re: battery care...?

I've always followed the rule of thumb that the first time you use the battery, let it drain all the way. After that it doesn't really matter. Perhaps I'm not being anal enough though.
 
Re: battery care...?

[quote author=schteevie link=board=Events;num=1095919680;start=0#2 date=09/24/04 at 21:14:20]bump...?    :-/[/quote]

What? ???
 
Re: battery care...?

LI-ion don't have "memory" effects. Extra discharges only un necessary ages yr bats.
 
Re: battery care...?

[quote author=TC link=board=Events;num=1095919680;start=0#5 date=09/25/04 at 01:59:26]I'm confused.[/quote]

I was just "bumping" the thread back to page 1, as I was amazed that no one else had opinions on this - only one person had responded although 30+ had viewed it...
 
Re: battery care...?

I was wondering the same question. I don't drain my batteries either.
 
Re: battery care...?

I don't know, but I have a few batteries from this site, and was doing a wedding yesterday, I had my battery on the charger all night ( my batteries are only a few months old maybe, anyway's I tossed it on and used it for about an hour or so doing the bridal prep, no problem... set up for the ceremony and the battery was more than the half mark when I started to roll, then right during the ceremony click, monitor shuts off, and I'm thinking what the F*$K. Good thing I shoot with two camera's but a little stupid looking as I have to quitly pull another battery from my camera bag.

Any thought's jarred?
 
Re: battery care...?

Even Ni-Cad batteries do not need to be discharged - memory effect was defined as such many years ago, with the first generation of them. The next generation had this problem taken care of, but the "memory effect" idea just would not go away...
Li-Ion chemistry, as Andre said earlier, does not have this problem. Discharging them only going to wear them down faster, as a new Li-Ion cell has a defined life span of so many Amp Hours (Number of cycles x AH rating). Discharging a pack 50% twice is going to wear it about the same as discharging it completely (100%) once.
 
Re: battery care...?

I agree that the problem is more a less a non issue with Li-Ion cells, but I still think it is good to totally discharge them the first couple times just to be sure.

As for Ni-Cad they should always be discharged before recharging; I think "memory" is still an issue - anyone care to give actual info about this if I am mistaken...?
 
Re: battery care...?

Maybe good to know that "memory" in Nicads even never existed...What happened (mainly with the earlier chemical compositions) was that after some time especially when trickle charging was applied frequently, the chemical composition of a part of the cell changed and got a 1V/cel behaviour (instead of 1.2V/cell). The total battery capacity didn't change by this process, but the cam could only use the 1.2V/cell part because of the cut-off treshold circuit build in every cam. By discharging a couple of times to 0.9V/cell the changed mass could be restored to the original 1.2V/cell formulation. So "memory" had nothing to do with partly discharge and/or real memory effects but was rather related to ageing and even more to wrong battery charging management. Regulary topping of Nicads (with performant chargers) without discharging is the best way to go, also w.r.t. correcting unbalance. This is also true for Li-ions when they don't have build in battery charge controllers/correctors like Sony's Infolithium bats and most portable PC bats have
 
Re: battery care...?

The crappy thing is that some early DVX100's didnt have a proper Battery monitoring circuit... meaning it wouldnt update untill you turned off the camera then turned it on. So you could be in standby for a few hours then look at the gauge and it still would say full.. and then all of a sudden the camera would just power down. Used to piss me off as I had one of those first 100's, but you kinda get used to it... or by an A :)
 
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