Battery Charging

[Ewan Sinclair]

I was just wondering about the basics of charging batteries (NiCd or NimH),
especially those that can't be taken out of the circuit they are in.

Can you just stick them in like a capacitor, and they will soak up charge
until full? Do they need to be fed a given voltage, or will anything charge
them to full capacity given enough time? I was specifically thinking of
having a digital camera that would grab frames a few times a day and charged
up from solar panels using standard AA rechargeables.

Thanks for any info

Ewan

 

[Luhan Monat]

Ewan Sinclair wrote:

I was just wondering about the basics of charging batteries (NiCd or NimH),
especially those that can't be taken out of the circuit they are in.

Can you just stick them in like a capacitor, and they will soak up charge
until full? Do they need to be fed a given voltage, or will anything charge
them to full capacity given enough time? I was specifically thinking of
having a digital camera that would grab frames a few times a day and charged
up from solar panels using standard AA rechargeables.

Thanks for any info

Ewan


Hi,

Choose a solar panel who's output is no more than 20% of the ampere-hour
rating of the battery - this avoids exessive charging rates.

Feed the solar panels thru an LM317 regulator configured to produce a
voltage about 15% over the battery voltage. This will prevent
overcharging the voltage on the batteries.

--
Luhan Monat, "LuhanKnows" At 'Yahoo' dot 'Com'
http://members.cox.net/berniekm
"The future is not what it used to be."