battery charges and rechargeable AAs -hope vision 1

[meic]

Yes the Eneloop XX's have done the job even on the mountains of Wales.

The non-LSDs however did not, even in May!

[andymiller]

So if the batteries are being used in something that drains the batteries relatively quickly, like a very regularly used light, is the low self discharge that much of an issue?

Please note that I'm not techie. So be gentle with me.

In day-to-day use I don't think there's much difference (in fact depending on the particular make of battery you choose you may find that the low-discharge batteries have lower capacity - eg the ones that PowerTraveller sell have an 1800mAh capacity*).Where low-discharge batteries score is if you want to carry a spare set of batteries for your lights: with normal batteries, if they've been in your bag for a while you can have the unpleasant surprise of finding that they have no charge left, while low-discharge will retain much more of their original charge.

*EDIT normal eneloops have a capacity of 2200mAh compared with 2700 man for a typical normal NiMH AA rechargeable.

[Sweep]

Thanks for the clarification Andy.

For city lights I tend to carry straight alkalines as back-ups.

As for the Hope I really should stop charging batteries up in advance as I only really use it for certain country-type runs. And the charger will do a full charge (including initial discharge in about 90 mins max.

I tend to rotate the batteries - charge to full, pop in the Hope, when I next charge 4 batteries (these are all standard NmH) put those new ones in the Hope and then move the (possibly now part time-depleted) batteries from the Hope into the supply of current and spares for the Etrex20.

My current plan is to trash the Maplin NMH batteries and then very probably move to low discharge batteries and a better charger.

I'm not one one for technology chasing - tend to use what I have, often the technology will have upgraded 2 or so times before I move on.

[meic]

You can squeeze the most in to batteries and have them ready for use all the time if you leave them in the charger on trickle.

[andymiller]

@sweep

Fast charge battery chargers are all very well, but IME they only charge to 80 percent of capacity. Traditional chargers do a better job of fully charging the battery, even if they take longer.

If you get a Maplin digital (not analogue) battery charger you'll see what I mean.

if you don't need to be able to store batteries for a long time without them losing charge then theres no benefit in getting low-discharge batteries - indeed they may actually have less capacity than your humble Maplin batteries. More expensive batteries *may* be capable of more charge cycles but I suspect the benefits are a bit theoretical - I still have no-name batteries (including Maplin batteries) that are going stron after years of use - so the benefits are unlikely to justify junking perfectly good batteries.

[Sweep]

Fair to assume I suppose that this will work with the Hope Vision 1?


http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/LIDIBM/din ... y-magazine

[resus1uk]

Maplins have a four AA battery holder which is the same as the one inside the Hope Mk1.
I keep one ready to change when the first battery set is discharged. Easier than taking the four individual cels out to change.

[Sweep]

Maplins have a four AA battery holder which is the same as the one inside the Hope Mk1.
I keep one ready to change when the first battery set is discharged. Easier than taking the four individual cels out to change.

Ditto me. It looked like the same battery unit.

The simple battery swap over is one of many good things about the Hope Vision 1.

[samsbike]

is the hope one any good, I ask because I have some evans vouchers and they dont sell anything else.

thanks

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/hop ... wgodjSsAPw