[pikawel]

Is the only Plainview recommended charger the 1 9V wallwart charger? Are there any chargers that will charge 2 - 4 Plainviews at once?

I'm new to the Plainview scene (oh, what a scene...) and about to buy my first bunch of rechargable gear

 

[blessingx]

I only know of the one charger.

When I joined the party, I was confused by the charge times of 8 to 10 hours posted for the charger, 14 to 16 labeled on the batteries, and 12 to 15 by the Thomas tech support. Actually I'm still confused.

 

[fractus2]

Quote:

Originally posted by blessingx I only know of the one charger. When I joined the party, I was confused by the charge times of 8 to 10 hours posted for the charger, 14 to 16 labeled on the batteries, and 12 to 15 by the Thomas tech support. Actually I'm still confused.

Blessingx, will it damage the battery if you just leave the spare in there charging? The light never goes out and it's been ready to go when my META42 runs out and I switch'm.

 

[pikawel]

Damn, so I'm going to need to buy a slew of those person chargers afterall! Oh well, it's what I figured. Thanks for the info.

Anyone tried charging Plainview batteries with other chargers?

---

Anyone messed with these batteries? http://thomas-distributing.com/tyson...-batteries.htm

Charger - http://thomas-distributing.com/ty-2888-charger.htm

---

Oh damn, it looks like there's more chargers that are Plainview-able afterall... namely - http://thomas-distributing.com/ip-fc-391.htm

The 9v RAID - http://thomas-distributing.com/mh-c1090f.htm

I suppose the question is: Are Plainview batteries 'Fast Chargable?''

 

[austonia]

i have 4 x 9v Plainviews and a cheap-ass RatShack charger that can do 1 at a time. i leave them in 10 - 24 hours. no idea if I'm damaging them but no explosions/implosions yet.

 

[Hirsch]

All of the questions you have asked can be answered using the search function.

Short story: Optimum charge time in the Plainview charger is about 8.5 hours if the battery is completely discharged. The battery can be overcharged. However, in the Plainview charger, it is unlikely to occur unless the battery is in the charger for over 24 hours. No guarantees there. There is a Radio Shack charger that will fully charge the Plainview at a slightly slower rate. There is a formula provided by Plainview that will tell you the charge time based on the rate of charge output by the charger.

 

[tigger]

The presently availble Plainview charger only charges 1 battery but my understanding is that Plainview are presently working on a multi unit charger.
I have a Vanson Smart charger which charges two 9v batteries at 20mA for 11.5 hours and is timed to shut off at that time.
The Plainview charger charges at 17mA and is not timed and easy to forget resulting in overcharge. The recommended charge time with the Plainview charger is 14 hours.
I have observed no side effects from using the Vanson. It can also charge AAs AAAs and C or D cells all at the same time, with all except the 9v recieving only the amount of charge they need.

On a side note, I have found during tests with a single 9v battery in a basic Mint amp with a gain of 10 driving Grados at moderate volume ( volume at 10 o'clock ) that a Duracell alkaline will last 48 hours. A fully charged Plainview will only last approximately 12 hours. The Plainview will however provide the amp with a higher voltage throughout it's charge cycle resulting in better sound with some op amps. Also the Plainview has 1000 life cycles, the Duracell 1.

 

[immtbiker]

I have left my Plainview 9V in the charger for 5 hours and for 24 hours and I still get about 40 hours out of my RA-1 amp at 10:00 volume.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by tigger The Plainview charger charges at 17mA and is not timed and easy to forget resulting in overcharge. The recommended charge time with the Plainview charger is 14 hours.

This is incorrect. There is conflicting data published, so it's easy to get wrong. I contacted Plainview directly a while ago.

The Plainview charger charges at 25 mA. Charge time if the battery is completely discharged is 8.5 hours, including 20% overcharge allowance. Since there is likely to be residual charge left when you recharge a battery, actually charge time is probably less.

According to Thomas Distributing, the Plainview will normally not take damage if left in the charger up to 24 hours. This is not recommended practice, and there are no guarantees.

 

[CD44hi]

Thanks Hirsch,
This clarifies things quite a bit. I've been leaving my Plainview 9Vs on the charger for an average 13-18 hrs

I hope I've not significantly reduced their life span....

regards,
CD..

 

[pikawel]

So are Plainview batteries NOT fast-chargable? This is quite confusing because Thomas Distributing recommends this charger (http://thomas-distributing.com/mh-c1090f.htm) but says the following in the charger's manual:

"When not using with Maha 9V Batteries, verify batteries can accept 90mA quick charge. Batteries incapable of accepting a rapid charge may explode and result in fire."

Under the Plainview description (http://thomas-distributing.com/9v-ni...s-chargers.htm), it mentions nothing about it's charge acceptance or whatever so I assume it can't fast-chargable? Anyone know for sure?

At this point, I'm thinking of the iPOWER's (http://thomas-distributing.com/ip_9V_220.htm) and the aforementioned Maha charger (if they're compatible... the Maha charger says 7.2, 8.4, and 9.6V batteries are compatible but no mention of 9.4 so...).

 

[Hirsch]

Thomas Distributing is recommending that the Plainview can be charged with several fast chargers in addition to the Plainview charger. I can only assume that they're compatible, since they are being recommended for use. There are several new batteries on the Thomas Distributing page that have higher mah ratings than the Plainview, indicating that their charge will last longer. However, if you read the fine print, they all have a nominal voltage of 8.4v, indicating seven power cells in the battery (although actual voltage may measure higher). The Plainview is still the only one with a nominal voltage of 9.6 v (actual voltage can be over 10), as it uses eight power cells. If charge time is of paramount importance, the other batteries are interesting choices. However, if you need that extra bit of voltage to get the best sound out of an amp, the Plainview still stands alone, as far as I can tell.

 

[pikawel]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch I can only assume that they're compatible, since they are being recommended for use.

Yeah, I e-mailed them. I need to know for certain. It sounds like that Maha charger can ONLY do fast charges based on the description (I could be wrong)... if the Plainview is fast-chargable, that would certainly be nice as I'll need to charge two nine-volts everynight and would like room for my own ****-ups.

 

[fractus2]

Great information in this thread. Thanks Hirsch for the info from Thomas D.

I use the Plainviews in my META42 and can never get used to the listening to music and the sudden zzzt, music stop when the battery goes dead. I'll stick with them though as they are money savers.

edit: sp

 

[tangent]

Quote:

Are there any chargers that will charge 2 - 4 Plainviews at once?

It's not a trivial thing to make. Either you must charge all of the batteries in series, requiring a high supply voltage, or you must make 2-4 separate chargers because you can't charge NiMHs in parallel safely.

Until someone comes out with such a thing, you might consider DIYing one. The On Semiconductor MC3334x charge controller I've used in the PPA battery board is flexible enough that you could use it with the Plainveiws. See that site for plenty of info. It would probably come to about $100 in parts for a 4x parallel charger, including a case and power supply. This charge controller chip can be made to fast charge followed by a maintenance trickle charge, or just trickle charge. It detects when the cells are charged, but it can also turn off the charger after a certain amount of time if something goes wrong.

I'd want to have a phone call with Plainview's engineers before starting the project, but I'm sure it's entirely do-able.

Quote:

The Plainview charger charges at 25 mA

Mine measures 27mA, for what that's worth. Since the Plainviews are 170mAh batteries, 8.5 hours should completely charge the batteries.

Quote:

I hope I've not significantly reduced their life span....

I'm not sure how you test that without just charging and discharging them and counting the number of cycles you get.

Quote:

I use the Plainviews in my META42 and can never get used to the listening to music and the sudden zzzt, music stop when the battery goes dead.

If that's a v2 META42, you can add two components that make the power LED turn off when the batteries are getting low. This will give you some warning before the battery conks out.