[Trawlerman]

Hi all,

I've been lucky enough to have been invited to join the crew of a 1972 Stern Trawler and take her from Grimsby to Fleetwood netx week.

I'm taking my digital camera with me as I should get some wonderful opportunities to photograph the coastline of the UK and the shipping around it.

The ship i'm going on has 220v AC aboard and I'm taking my laptop and card reader so that I can download my camera whilst away. I will also need to take my battery charger as my camera literally eats batteries.


What I was wondering was what is the average charge time for a set of NiMHs from flat?




Sound As Ever

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Trawlerman What I was wondering was what is the average charge time for a set of NiMHs from flat?

To calculate this, you'll need to know the charge rating of the batteries, usually in mah. You'll also need to know the charge current of your charger, which will normally be expressed in ma. Take the rating of the battery, divide by the charge current of the charger and multiply the result by about 1.2 to allow for slight overcharge. This will tell you the amount of time you would need to charge the batteries if they were completely discharged.

 

[stereth]

Rayovac sells 1-hour chargers and recently came out with 15-minute chargers (with special NiMH batteries). So it really depends on your equipment.

You can't run some batteries flat now and time how long they take to charge?

 

[Haoleb]

My Monster rechargeables take about 3 hours from dead. and will last for quite a while in my camera. About a week with almost daily use.

 

[fewtch]

I use the Rayovac 1-hour charger with mine. Actually, I suspect that overnight charging probably extends the life of NiMH batteries, but maybe not by a huge extent. They do tend to get *hot* with a 1-hour charge, and heat is probably not good for their lifespan.

 

[lini]

Mick: Haven't you charged your NiMH cells at home, yet? If yes, are you actually wondering, whether going down from 240 to 220 V could make a difference?

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[davidmiya]

I currently have an AccuPower AccuManager. It it charges 2000 mah NiMH batteries in around 4 hours. This is somewhat slower than 1-hours charges, but will triple the useable life (and will peak-charge the batteries quite nicely.)

This experience if from slot car racing experience. Slot cars will regularly burn rechargeable in 3 minutes.

 

[Trawlerman]

Lini - I have charged my cells at home and I usually just plug them in overnight and leave them. The charger turns itself off when they are done so I've not actually timed the charging cycle as yet.

I did wonder about going down to 220V but as were actually on 230v here in the UK now I didn't worry about the voltage drop too much. After all, i've been running my laptop aboard for the past few days with no issues.



According to the sticker on the back of my charger it states that the output for 2 x AA is 2.8v - 150mA 0.42VA. I just checked the AA cells and they are 1300mAh.


Thinking about it, once we get out to sea I will probably only want one set a day.

BTW, this the ship that i'm working on at the moment

 

[fractus2]

Quote:

Originally posted by Trawlerman BTW, this the ship that i'm working on at the moment

She looks pretty high in the water atm, must be in port for some liberty. You must sail some humongous seas in and around the UK Trawlerman. Some of the storms up there are in the same league as the Gulf of Alaska, cold lows and the odd remnant of a hurricane.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Trawlerman According to the sticker on the back of my charger it states that the output for 2 x AA is 2.8v - 150mA 0.42VA. I just checked the AA cells and they are 1300mAh.

OK. 1300 /150 * 1.2 = 10.4. It should take your charger up to 10.4 hours to fully charge the batteries if they are completely empty of charge, which will rarely happen. Real times are likely to be less, particularly if you've got a smart charger.

 

[lini]

Mick: 150 mA is not that much - so that should be a standard charger with not that much power. Questionable also: 150 mA in total or 150 mA per cell? Anyway, maybe you should invest in something better - what I can recommend is the Ansmann Powerline 5. Over here, that is a reasonably priced charger with four slots for AAA - D cells and one 9V block slot. For AA - D it has 900 mA total for all four slots - my 2000 mAh Friwo NiMH AAs are usually done in < 3 hours. The only thing that sucks a bit are the touch-only (= no clips) contacts for the 9V slot, where some 9V will not safely stay in place. But that can be easily solved with a strip of Tesa or a rubber band.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Pic here: http://www.ansmann.de/de/view.htm?oi...product&id=356

 

[Trawlerman]

Hirsh. I thought about 10 hours from what had been said earlier but that seemed to be quite a long time.


Lini. Regards the 150mA the charger doesn't state wether that is per per clip or overall, I would imagine it to be per clip. The charger that I have is the one that was supplied with my camera, as and you have pointed out I must get a much better charger at some point.



Fractus. The Jacinta is a deep-sea trawler and was designed to withstand the daily rigours of working in the Arctic. She normally fished Iceland, Norway and upto Spitsbergen/Bear Island and in the past she has ventured as far afield as Newfoundland and St Georges Bank and Greenland.

Right at this moment she is in ballast as she has very fishing gear aboard and has just enough fuel for the generators. When loaded up she carries 200 tonnes of fuel plus fresh water and around all her fishing gear. Even then she only the very bottom part of the ramp is submerged.

She is a very good sea ship and the worse the weather gets the better she performs.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Actually, Mick, your charger's 150mA output rating is 150mA total. (This is assuming that your charger's maximum battery capacity is 2 AA batteries.) And since it requires two batteries to even charge, the 2.8V output voltage rating is sufficient to charge the pair of batteries - the two cells in the pair are connected in series.

If that rating is 150mA per clip, that is a giveaway that the charger is of either of the following designs:

1. The charger connects the two clips in parallel to the same common charging circuit (crap, IMHO, and unfortunately very commonplace), OR
2. The charger uses a separate charging circuit for each clip (ideal, but rarer and more expensive).

 

[PinkFloyd]

Give them 24hrs