I've had an AccuManager 20 for a few months, rarely used since the 6000 mAh C cells toasted my PrincetonTec Miniwave LED dive light the first time I ran it over one minute. (PT customer support claims NiMH are OK, but I'd rather not send it back to them AGAIN.)
When I've charged the cells and the LEDs go steady, if I pull the circuit open briefly and close it again, the LEDs resume blinking. The last time I tried it, the cycle terminated again after less than half an hour, but this is still very unlike the other chargers I have (Maha and Lacrosse) which don't fail to recognize a freshly charged cell. When the cells were new, this secondary cycle would go an hour or more. It would appear that the charger either isn't charging the cells fully, or something I don't understand is happening. Anyone have any ideas? The cells don't get extrememly hot, so I *guess* they're not overcharging...
if the battery is charged
then you break and remake the curcuit on a smart charger, it can do 1 of 2 things , depending on the charger. Indicate FULL and not charge more, or restart the charging cycle.
If the cells had terminated with a vdrop (already) then you restart the charge (put it back on), it will keep charging till it terminated with a vdrop Again. it will take time to do this.
if the cell was already charged, and already vdroped, and, then your basically getting it to keep charging a charged cell, which can cause overcharge.
If the battery HAS already vdroped and you restart the charge, before it recovers from the vdrop (while dropped), the computer will not SEE the next vdrop as well, and could cause severe overcharging depending on the charge rate.
if a smart charger terminated on a vdrop, it is concidered very bad to put this battery back on the charger, Even if you get another 30ma of charge from doing so, it would have been better to do that with the slower topping off mode, or trickle mode, or not at all.
if you fully rest the cell first its not as bad, but still unnessisary.
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for your light that you blow out with fully charged ni-mhy cells, that can be because you pull it straight off the charger and put it into the light.
if the light is critical about the voltage, you will be hitting it with about 1.4v of very strong capability, much more than a alkaline would do.
also if the battery is warm off the charger, it can move faster at first.
if a light fails from using ni-mhy (or just runs to hard) then you would, at LEAST, avoid putting the cells in the light right off the charger, let them rest for an hour first.
also
if a light fails with ni-mhy and not alkaline, then it could be the light expects sagging alaklines, and ni-mhy will always run it to hot.
many examples of that are the AAA direct drive lights. almost all AAA direct drive lights run hot with ni-mhys, and hot off the charger its worse still
and the modamag direct drive chart, shows that some leds in direct drive CAN run off of alkalines in direct drive, but not using thier ni-mhy counterparts.
that is why Some lights just really wont work with ni-mhy rechargables :-( especially lights that are already Very bright and hot with alkalines in them. regulated or not, many lights are only slightly regulated, and designed for specific input currents and voltages.
