NiCds questions

[Bruce S]

All;

  Sorry for the long delay.

I have the batteries being readied for shipping and will fill all the requests as soon as possible.

I do have one item I would like, one which would help a lot.

Does anyone know of a good battery monitoring setup that would give an acurate "gas-gauge" for the NiCds?

I/we are working on a small program that will have an old laptop go out and "touch" the battery pack and with known values give us a read out, but other than something along those lines I haven't found anything.

Currently we understand that a SLA or lead-acid standard guage works , but will not be correct due to the chemistry of NiCds.

I'm thinking an extended read LED system would work due to it's voltage sensitive design, but if there's something better out there that I can have a look at it would be great.

If there isn't anything then its off to the design board.

I should be able to provide all the currently requested batteries, but due to regs we have to test them before they are even sent to the recycler so they may be a little slow in getting out.

Cheers All;

Bruce S

[ignesandros]

I'll definately pay shipping for some. Mind shipping USPS to Louisville ? I want to use them in a large 12v array. I need to improve my soldering skills, though.

Anyone know if those cold heat soldering irons work?

-Andrew

[ignesandros]

Well, I need to read the full thing before posting next time. Put me down for two sets.

E-mail me at ignesandrosATgmail.com for my address or to tell me I'm not entitled to any.

-Andrew

[ghurd]

""Anyone know if those cold heat soldering irons work?""

Yes, they work. And they are fast.

No, they are not great for most things.

They heat up and cool down very fast.

So, by design, they do not 'hold' much heat,

and that makes them not very useful for soldering anything large.

Nice for a quick fix on a 9V battery snap wire,

or something like telephone wires.

The tip is ceramic or carbon or something.

Very fragile and expensive to replace. Cheaper to get a new one.

The tip gets hot when it touches a conductive.

Be careful what it touches, or what is in your shirt pocket with it!

G-

[ignesandros]

Hehe, many thanks for your feedback.

-Andrew

[Bruce S]

Andrew

Can't ship USPS. They won't let batteries go through, already had a couple come back with an angry postal worker.

Nice place Louisville, KY how close to Joe's Crab shack are ya?

Bruce S

[Bruce S]

Andrew;

   How many/ They are in 19.2Vdc stacks. Of course you can disassemble them like we're doing but a lot of work.

Bruce S

[Bruce S]

Doug;

 Can you do with a 10 pack? I'm still filling as many as I can, still owe some out to Wildbill but can send you a 10 pack if you still want them.

More coming after the 4th. I'd like to fill as many requests as I can before the weekend.

If you'd rather I can hold off shipping until I have the entire 20.

Bruce S

[Bruce S]

hey Doug;

 No email address.

Sent you 10 today will send the next 10 in a about a week if you still want them.

Bruce S

[ignesandros]

About 12 miles as a crow flies. Nice place, love the coconut shrimp. Never go there on your birthday, though! (see: humiliation)

Ahh, that's fine. I assumed it would be cheaper, but UPS is cheap enough for me based on this. I've noticed USPS workers have gotten really cranky over the last couple years. Did they take a pay cut or something?

-Andrew

[ignesandros]

They work well. I haven't completely drained and recharged them, though. I'd love another set of two if possible. I've noticed on red and black wires, one was 19.7v (label rated it at 89% Capacity) and the other 21v (label rated it at 74% Capacity). Are the other wires drawing from all cells in a different configuration? I tested roughly 5, 10, 15, and 20v on the different wires, using black as ground. If it's drawing on all the cells, this is quite handy for lower voltage charging.

-Andrew

[Bruce S]

Andrew;

   Actually they do draw from the sets, but you would need to take one apart to see how they are assembled.

There is 10Vdc between the blue and white which is used for a watchdog circuitry and the green is for overheating shut down.

Glad to see they work.

The different cap is due to different suppliers. The "standard" cap is rated at 1300mAh.

I like the ones that have the internal units rated at 2000mAh.

I' m send some "back-ordered" ones to wildbill and have to do one more proof of concept to the owner of the company for our trike.

 I'll put you down for a future shipment if that's okay.

Do be very careful when charging, the melted ones came from a set where we completely took the set dwon to 90% discharge and tried recharge under a charger we were trying develop here. I forgot to attach the thermal cutoff and...well... you can see what happened.

Enjoy

Bruce S

[ignesandros]

What's a good charging voltage for safely recharging?

-Andrew

[superdave]

Hey bruce i recived your batteries in great working order thanks!

my only problem is the ups driver didnt do a cod. The box of batteries came in with a bunch of stock. How can I get your money to ya? Thanks again.

Dave      imprezzadude@yahoo.com

[Bruce S]

Adndrew;

   Our fancy charger throws 22.0+ at them when we first put them on for testing or charging. BUT this is a $4000.00 analyzer so I would say using the standard rates should be okay. I am working on rebuilding a charger base on a CMOS chip that is programable the "look" for the negative slope that is charatistic when charging NiCds, and will be using the automatic thermal cutoff switch as well.

SO to  make a long story shorter stay in the 20 - 22 Vdc range and using the C/10 method for current range and you should be okay.

Bruce S

[Bruce S]

Dave ;

  Our CFO was so happy that he didn't have to pay a recycler to hual them off he's not too worried right now about the costs, so far.

As soon as he runs the numbers I'll get back to ya.

Let me know how they work out.

Cheers

Bruce S