How Do I Break In Batteries With The MH-C9000 Charger I I Don't Know Tha Capacity?

[He's Dead Jim]

Howdy all.

I finally got my charger.

I read through about 3 dozen threads about the C9000 and my head is spinning. lol.

I have a load of batteries that were taken from bad battery packs and they are mostly unmarked. How would i determine the capacity in order to use the break in mode to determine the capacity?

Thanks.

 

[InHisName]

I've first charged a cell @ 200 ma. Then discharged it @ 100 ma. That gives me the MAH removed from the cell. Say I saw 743 Mah, then I would either use 700 or 800 for Break in. I tend to use 700 at first try. The amount really put in is about 1.6x that and should be sufficient for a cell in good health.

If you need to 'bring it back to life' then multiple break ins may be needed. Each one is, I think 39 hours to complete.

 

[Rosoku Chikara]

...I have a load of batteries that were taken from bad battery packs and they are mostly unmarked... (excrpted)

(Edit: Oops, I see that "InHisName" gave you essentially the same reply while I was typing and posting my reply.)

I presume you do know, at least, what the chemistry of those batteries are?

(I do not know what charging Li-Ion batteries for a long time at 1.2-1.5 volts would do, but I think you may need to be careful if there is any chance that some of those unknown batteries are Li-Ion.)

But, so long as you know for sure that they are indeed NiMH (or NiCD?) chemistry, then I think you can simply run a "REFRESH & ANALYZE" cycle on them first. Set the charge rate at something relatively "safe" like 2-300mA, and use the standard 500mA discharge rate. (If your intended application is less than 500mA, then you could lower the discharge rate appropriately. But, I think you need to keep the discharge rate reasonably close to that of your application, if you wish to know how well the battery is likely to perform in the real world.)

When "DONE," the charger will report to you some kind of capacity figure. Given that number, I think I would simply round that number up, and use it for the battery capacity when performing a "BREAK-IN."

Good luck and remember to be patient. The "BREAK-IN" is a very slow process, and they even recommend running it more than once for extremely old batteries.

 

[He's Dead Jim]

thanks for the quick replies..

these are all nimh batteries. (i forgot to inculde that)

i will give it a shot with the refresh / analyze.

 

[Rosoku Chikara]

From my recent experience with the MH-C9000 charger, I have found that "BREAK-IN," "DISCHARGE," & "ANALYZE" each yield slightly different capacity results.

For example, the following are the results from 4 brand new AAA Eneloop Pros that I decided to "BREAK-IN" before using. (Likely, "BREAK-IN" not necessary, but I was curious to see what numbers I would get.)

CAPACITY--> BREAK-IN--> DISCHARGE--> ANALYZE
900 mAh---> 979 mAh---> 860 mAh-----> 945 mAh
900 mAh---> 966 mAh---> 850 mAh-----> 931 mAh
900 mAh---> 962 mAh---> 852 mAh-----> 932 mAh
900 mAh---> 965 mAh---> 847 mAh-----> 930 mAh

In my case, I have decided to "put the most stock" in the "ANALYZE" result, since the discharge cycle that was used to determine that result was at 500mA, whereas I think the "BREAK-IN" uses a much lower discharge rate. (I ran the "DISCHARGE" in between "BREAK-IN" & "ANALYZE," because I figured I wouldn't want to charge an already fully charged battery. And, that "DISCHARGE" was also at 500mA, but I have no idea why that result was the lowest of the three results. Perhaps, someone on the forum can explain it.)

By the way, I think, you will also want to run a "DISCHARGE" between any multiple "BREAK-IN" cycles that you might decide to run, but you might run those at a lower discharge rate.

 

[He's Dead Jim]

thanks. i will try all three on a batch to see if my results are comparable.

right now i have a strange problem though. i have 4 energizer batteries that i put through the analyzer / refresh. they are supposed to have a capacity of 2500 mah's each. i used 1200 mah as the charge rate and left the discharge rate at 500mah.

after the cycles were complete, the batteries were all charged to 1.45v but the capacities on the charger read 0 mah.

not sure if this is a defect in the charger or something that i did wrong.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

Energizer 2500's are the biggest POS around. Huge failure and energizer paid dearly for that mistake. The next AA NiMH they released where their 2300's and those are actually GREAT batteries but with their reputation hurting from the 2500's the new 2300's never gained much popularity.

I have just tested all my batteries and my old 2300 energizers from 6/2010 all performed over stated capasity, not even my new 2g eneloops could do that!

 

[He's Dead Jim]

i figured they were kinda crappy, especially since they were only used for the solar walkway lights. but i still don't understand why they are fully charged but have no mah reading.

 

[Russel]

/

i figured they were kinda crappy, especially since they were only used for the solar walkway lights. but i still don't understand why they are fully charged but have no mah reading.

It could be that the batteries in question are in such bad condition that the voltage drops below the cut off voltage when loaded with a 500 mA discharge. You might try putting one cell in the C9000 and setting the discharge current as low as you can, then watch while it starts discharging and see what happens.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

i figured they were kinda crappy, especially since they were only used for the solar walkway lights. but i still don't understand why they are fully charged but have no mah reading.

Those solar lights are horrible on batteries. Their 2" square panels don't even provide 10% of the needed charge current, even in bright sun for weeks at a time they still wouldn't create enough energy to charge one battery. I've taken a few of the 99¢ ones apart and the AAA battery inside is usually rated under 200mAh, if I had one here to test I would cause I doubt its even that. Like the guy above me mentioned its developed a memory effect to a very low current draw, maybe 10-50mAh so trying to pull 500 or more mAh from it isnt going to make it happy and the charger will most likely give up.

 

[He's Dead Jim]

thanks for the extra info guys.. it make more sense now.

 

[He's Dead Jim]

I am getting the hang of the c9000 but since the batteries i am charging are not aa or aaa, i have to use clips and magnets as jumpers to charge them. is there a way to jump the temperature sensor out as well?