Michael Bluejays Battery Guide
michaelbluejay.com
michaelbluejay.com
Now I own 16 more electronic devices (8 AA, 8AAA), and I have to keep track of what device they're in, their charge state, and their long-term health. I don't have a great way of tracking ANY of those things.
Part of my motivation was to use them in camera flash units, where a small change in the battery life can result in the flash cycle time changing from ~1s to ~10s, without any warning - while I'm trying to take a photo of something quickly - so this sucks. This is a minor pain, because I can swap out for some fresh alkalines, but in that case, why even bother with the rechargeables?
They're still nice in most other devices.
But if the charge time is changing that drastically, it sounds like more of a maximum current issue. I've been under the impression that NiMH batteries can deliver higher current than alkaline, but I've never tried them for something like a camera flash.
EDIT - higher end chargers can measure the internal resistance, which I think is the number you need for issues with limited power draw. With a BC-700 you can apparently approximate this by using its discharge mode and seeing how a battery's voltage changes when you're drawing power from it. Discussion here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?338786-Qu...
Or a BC-1000 will do it for you.
I was surprised this wasn't mentioned anywhere in the article.
they should have a big red X in "long term use" or something with alkaline.
With alkaline, they will leak and corrode or destroy the device.
as to the brand of batteries I just get the amazonbasics rechargeables - are eneloops that much better? more expensive?
Lithium primary batteries are available in 1.5V nominal — not sure if they have any circuitry.
There are some more unusual ones such as Kentli, which have built-in buck converter to give you 1.5V as a substitute for normal AA batteries. It's a clever design where the top of the cell has two separate contacts, the normal button-top gives you 1.5V, and a recessed ring around that hooks up to the actual battery cell for charging purposes. So you need a special charger for these.
Images and more info here: https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Kentli%20AA%20280...
I've never actually seen any of these (have a bunch of NiMH cells and one fancy charger already) but it's a cool system. I don't think the capacity is significantly better, but devices that have trouble with NiMH's lower voltage would do better with these.
The price in the US seems to be $7, for a pack of four.
No way to tell country of origin from their web, and obviously I don't visit their stores all that often right now.
I guess I will have to include some the next time we order stuff for safe pick-up and have a look at the packaging. :)
The brown versions with lower capacity / higher cycle life did switch from Japan to China, but they've discontinued those(or at least no longer stock them @ my local store) for some years now.
The white Eneloop Pro comparable ones were and still are made in Japan.
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