Battery Basics
- 2
- Add a Comment
- No Related Post
A year or so ago I wrote an article about batteries that I occasionally modified as I learned more about the subject. Something another Gnomie wrote recently led me back to the article, thinking to find it and link to it again from Bill’s Web.
On reading it, I realized that it needed enough work that I might as well re-write it from scratch — so I did. It’s too long to go here, so there’s a link to it below.
Keep in mind that I’m not an electrical engineer. This is just information that I gathered here and there and put into one place. You need to research this stuff yourself. I’ve done my best, but neither I nor Lockergnome can be held responsible if you take my opinions as final.
[tags]batteries, rechargeable, NiMH, Li-ion, power cells[/tags]
2 Comments
P Tyson
October 18th, 2007
at 3:43am
Regarding some lead acid batteries:
Although technically a flooded cell lead-acid battery does not have a memory, there are some physical characteristics that can cause a “memory effect”. If a flooded cell lead-acid battery is “short cycled” often on the charge (removed from the charger before it is fully charged) the battery will never enter the “gassing” stage. The gassing stage is the point where the acid begins to bubble some. This is required in flooded cell lead-acid batteries in order to mix the acid. When the battery is first charged the acid exits the plates and falls to the bottom of the cells. If the battery is removed from charge before this acid can mix then during discharge the acid will react with the bottom of the plates only. Over time this will use up the material in the bottom of the plates while leaving the top plates untouched. This effectively cuts the batteries capacity in approximately half. Once this has occurred the full capacity of the battery can not be recovered.
Battery Basics | Country Keepers by Gary Petersen
October 22nd, 2007
at 8:18am
[...] Found via LockerGnome, this wonderful primer on batteries by Bill Webb. It summarizes his knowledge of the different types of batteries including their strengths and weaknesses. [...]