I have a number of AA- and AAA-sized NiMH rechargeable batteries ('accumulators'). All the chargers I encountered allow to charge 2 (4, 6, 8,..) such batteries at a time, but never a single battery.
Is there a good engineering reason for this?
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
4
-
3\$\begingroup\$ Do you mean "battery" when you say "accumulators"? \$\endgroup\$– W5VOMay 23, 2012 at 1:43
-
7\$\begingroup\$ In many Eastern European languages the word accumulator is used for rechargeable batteries. Link to Russian Wikipedia: ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/… I can't think of a reason why a charger for a single NiMH cell can't be built. \$\endgroup\$– Nick AlexeevMay 23, 2012 at 2:14
-
1\$\begingroup\$ Most likely. In a lot of languages (including my native one) "battery" means non-rechargeable (may also be limited to devices with more than one cell), while "accumulator" means rechargeable and since "accumulator" looks like an international word it is easy to make this mistake. \$\endgroup\$– Pentium100May 23, 2012 at 2:15
-
\$\begingroup\$ And of course, technically a "battery" is a series of cells, while the objects we're discussing are generally single cells. And yet somehow we all understand each other! \$\endgroup\$– Ernest Friedman-HillMay 23, 2012 at 13:37
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
1
There is no overwhelmingly good reason to charge cells in pairs, and while many cheaper multi-cell chargers do charge in pairs, not all chargers do this.
They are probably doing it to save cost.
It means they can use higher voltage and lower current and they may be able to simplify the charge circuitry somewhat, as they have halved the number of "batteries" being charged by making each battery consist of two cells.
The very capable (and 'nice' :-)) "Powerex Maha MH-C9000" charger charges 4 x AA or AAA cells completely independently - cells can be charging or discharging or resting and the charger can be programmed to perform test cycles or "reconditioning" cycles and more. This is an excellent example of what a charger can achieve when absolute minimum cost is not the main driver.
At about $70 here (price varies with seller) this is a very expensive charger compared to most - and also very good value for money if you use AA rechargeable cells extensively.
Glossary:
The term "battery" is often taken to mean a single item that is handled and installed as a single unit. So people may refer to an AA battery or AAA battery OR a 9 volt PP3 transistor battery. More properly the word cell means a single chemical device for producing electrical energy and a battery is a collection of these.
Cell - a single "electrochemical cell" - a single 'battery'. One 'indivisible unit'.
Battery - 1 or more cells connected together (usually in series) to provide an energy source.
Accumulator - as used in question = cell. As used for cars and similar, usually means a number of cells in a common housing.
Added
Multi-cell-string charging:
I've not seen it done (but it may be) but a relatively simple circuit per cell would allow you to charge NimH cells in a series string with little or no ill effects.
Across each NimH cell place a 1.45 Volt shunt (or clamp) regulator. For extra points temperature compensate it, but the difference is small enough to be bearable in most cases. Circuit below - Vout goes nowhere. Battery connects across two rails. Circuit bypasses current when Vbattery reaches present level. Cost at one off levels is $0.50 - $1.00 worst case per cell. Component cost in manufacturing volumes is 5 to 10 cents per cell.
Two diodes would be cheaper but have a far less sharp "knee" and would not be programmable. TL431, R1, R2 could be replaced by a zener but cutoff knee would be very soft.
answered May 23, 2012 at 2:19
-
\$\begingroup\$ I use a charger just like that one, it can not only charge individual batteries, but it can charge them with different currents. It is truly awesome! Of course, I always choose the smallest current, as it creates the least heat. And I've been using the same NIMH rechargeable batteries for five or six years now. \$\endgroup\$– ajs410May 24, 2012 at 18:47
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
7
The reason that battery chargers take 2, 4 etc batteries at once is cost. Good (expensive) battery chargers charge each battery individually, while the cheaper ones save on the charging circuits by charging two or more batteries in series, a 4x1 battery charger needs 4 charging circuits, a cheap charger can get away with one circuit that can be reconfigured to give 2.4V (2 batteries) or 4.8V (4 batteries).
Charging batteries in series is not good for the batteries, because even identical batteries age a little bit differently and charging them in series means you may be always overcharging one battery and undercharging another.
answered May 23, 2012 at 2:23
-
\$\begingroup\$ If one has e.g. four rechargeable batteries that are likely to be in different charge states, is there any good way to charge the batteries with a double-string charger without damage? \$\endgroup\$– supercatMay 23, 2012 at 15:22
-
\$\begingroup\$ @supercat, I don't think so without monitoring the voltage manually or building a circuit that does it for you (but then you almost made a new charger). Just by the better charger, it is more expensive but you will use it a long time. \$\endgroup\$ May 23, 2012 at 23:07
-
\$\begingroup\$ You can make a simple discharger that works in parallel that leaves cells at a safe level and then charge them from there. NimH or NiCd Cells discharged to say 1V will be reasonably empty. NB NOT just a resistor - rather a sink to a known voltage - one per cell with regulator would be good BUT using some diode arrangement would do. Something like 1 x Schottky + 1 x silicon diode in series per cell - but will need tailoring. \$\endgroup\$– Russell McMahon ♦May 24, 2012 at 5:05
-
\$\begingroup\$ @RussellMcMahon, that assumes the batteries have the same capacity. New ones do, but as they age, the capacity does not change equally for all cells (differences in manufacturing, maybe one cell has more cycles or was in higher temperature etc), which would still leave one cell overcharged and one undercharged. Also, a diode still passes current even though the voltage is lower than the stated forward drop voltage, so the battery can still be discharged too deeply (I tried to use a few diodes to drop the voltage of a power supply to charge batteries, ended up slowly overcharging them). \$\endgroup\$ May 24, 2012 at 5:21
-
\$\begingroup\$ @Pentium100 - I'm not sure which part of my response you are referring to - you seem to be agreeing with me :-). In my clamp/shunt regulator add-on I specify a TL431 IC driven circuit - don't be fooled by the symbol - it's effectively a programmable zener and that circuit will change from under 1 mA to say 2000 mA clamping within say 10 mV battery Voltage increase, if desired. The 1.45V terminal voltage is about right for most NimH cells so you can use modestly age-wearied cells without much worry. I mentioned diodes and zeners only to say that they were not really good enough. ... \$\endgroup\$– Russell McMahon ♦May 24, 2012 at 6:51
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
1
Yup, it's to save cost.
Unfortunately, I have no choice but to charge the Duraloops,(white tipped duracells) with the charger that charges in pairs as the Maha C808M seems to only properly terminate with the Harbor Freight brand, odd that I only have this problem with the AAA. My theory is that the 700mah current does not give a strong enough Delta V signal and takes too long to consistently shut off across all the cells. Get the Harbour freight 700mah NIMH only if you need to charge 1 or 2 though. The orange 350AAA Nicad will work fine, but you have to use soft charge. It was a happy accident that the Harbor Freight store I went to was out of the Nicad, and I wound up with the green NIMH that had 700MAH, for a transmitter I just have to remember to put the weakest 1 to the left on some cycles. Maybe 700 mah was all that was supposed to go into a AAA. I always had problems with anything that went over that for AAAs. UPDATE: The 808M gave trouble for the green NIMH brand when trying to charge 4 or more, so I had to get the Powerex brand and number them and put them in in the same order each time to get reliable charge termination. To get the charge more even, I let them trickle charge for a little while. The white tipped Duracells gave up the ghost on the quality, so I am considering Eneloop XX AAAs or the Duracell 8 watt charger for just the AAAs. Sanyos should be good, there is a 1200 MAH version which can be tried just for this problem.
-
\$\begingroup\$ I've undeleted this 9 years on. It's rambly and anecdotal and unformated and ... :-) - BUT it gives a useful guide to what happens in rwal life battery charging. Asa direct answer the first sentence says most of what it has to say. But it's a useful source to for someone asking the question. \$\endgroup\$– Russell McMahon ♦Sep 8, 2022 at 11:00