LaCrosse BC-900 Screen Interpretation

[Mitch470]

In the LCD display for each of the 4 compartment there is one display called "Capacity." It is supposed to be Accumulated Capacity. However, only 3 characters display there.

How do I interpret that display? For example, a 2000 mAh would display in what way? What would "037" mean? I understand the Voltage display, the Current display and the Time display.

I am testing one AA Eneloop battery. It had been fully charged. Now it displays 0:14 for time which means 14 minutes; then it displays 201 mA for current; then it displays 1.44 Volts; for the Capacity it displays 049 mAh.

Thanks in advance for any help you can render.

 

[Turak]

The display changes the suffix......for example;

Let's say you test three different batteries. Now let's also say that one battery has a capacity that is under 1000mA and the other two have capacities over 1000 mA.

Battery 1 = 478mAh

Battery 2 = 1200mAh

Battery 3 = 2450mAh


The display on the LaCrosse would read;

Battery 1 = 478mAh

Battery 2 = 1.20 Ah

Battery 3 = 2.45 Ah

I have both the BC900 (actually 2 of them) and 1 of the MH-C9000.....Love them both (for different reasons). I REALLY wish that MAHA would add the ability to toggle the Mh-C9000 display to something like the BC900 (i.e. displaying all 4 battery stats at once, instead of the annoying, constantly rotating, always lit, slow display).

From your information you gave, assuming you are using 'Refresh' mode....

The battery you are testing..... had been running for 14 minutes. It is currently at 1.44 volts. It is charging at 201 mA. (default 200 mA rate) and if the first cycle, then it has had 49mA put in it so far, if it is the 2nd+ cycle then that was the last discharge capacity. It will continue to charge until full, then it will discharge at 100mA (half of the charge rate) until it reaches 0.9 volts. It will then display that discharge capacity and if more than the previous discharge capacity, it will repeat the cycle. If the discharge capacity is the same or less than the previous cycle...it will stop and display the final capacity. It will repeat the cycle up to 20 times...although I have rarely seen it go for more than 5 or 6. Usually the battery comes up to full capacity within a few cycles.

 

[Mitch470]

The display changes the suffix......for example;

Let's say you test three different batteries. Now let's also say that one battery has a capacity that is under 1000mA and the other two have capacities over 1000 mA.

Battery 1 = 478mAh

Battery 2 = 1200mAh

Battery 3 = 2450mAh


The display on the LaCrosse would read;

Battery 1 = 478mAh

Battery 2 = 1.20 Ah

Battery 3 = 2.45 Ah

I have both the BC900 (actually 2 of them) and 1 of the MH-C9000.....Love them both (for different reasons). I REALLY wish that MAHA would add the ability to toggle the Mh-C9000 display to something like the BC900 (i.e. displaying all 4 battery stats at once, instead of the annoying, constantly rotating, always lit, slow display).

From your information you gave, assuming you are using 'Refresh' mode....

The battery you are testing..... had been running for 14 minutes. It is currently at 1.44 volts. It is charging at 201 mA. (default 200 mA rate) and if the first cycle, then it has had 49mA put in it so far, if it is the 2nd+ cycle then that was the last discharge capacity. It will continue to charge until full, then it will discharge at 100mA (half of the charge rate) until it reaches 0.9 volts. It will then display that discharge capacity and if more than the previous discharge capacity, it will repeat the cycle. If the discharge capacity is the same or less than the previous cycle...it will stop and display the final capacity. It will repeat the cycle up to 20 times...although I have rarely seen it go for more than 5 or 6. Usually the battery comes up to full capacity within a few cycles.

I was using Charge Mode for just 14 minutes on a fully charged Eneloop battery. I took it out of the BC-900 before the "Full" was displayed.

I am now running one of the AA Eneloops in Test Mode using 500 mA to charge and 250 mA to discharge. This battery is rated at 2000 mAh. Thus, I presume that after the discharge I should see capacity at 2.00 Ah. Thanks for that insight since it is not made clear in the manual.

When I received these batteries, I did not have the LaCrosse BC-900. They all came at a 60% of Full charge. I used the Ansmann Energy 8 to charge the AA at 700 mA and the AAA at 300 mA. That is its only settings. I used a DigiCam EC-741 Universal Battery Tester to determine the charge on all the batteries in 20% increments.

With the LaCrosse BC-900 after the batteries have dropped to 40%, I'll use the BC-900 to charge the AA ones at 500 mA and the AAA ones at 200 mA.

By the way, do these Eneloop batteries need an initial Discharge Mode treatment? They are all at 100% of Capacity now. They all started at 60% so I am assuming there will be no "memory effect" for these.

How many months do you think the Eneloops can hold over 40% of capacity in storage?

 

[Mitch470]

Re: LaCrosse BC-900 and Eneloops

I placed one Eneloop AA battery into Test Mode on the LaCrosse BC-900. It took 30 minutes to reach Full Charge, 7 hours and 30 minutes to reach Full Discharge and another 3 hours and 30 minutes to reach Full Charge.

I used 500 mA for Charge and 250 mA for Discharge. The Discharged Capacity came to 1930 mAh. The battery is rated 2000 mAh with a minimum of 1900 mAh. The AAA battery is rated 800 mAh with a minimum of 750 mAh.

I am going to place the rest of my 16 AA's and 8 AAA's into Test Mode using Charge/Discharge rates of 500/250ma for the former and 200/100 for the latter.

I can test them each month with my DigiCam Battery Tester with 5 LED's as Maximum Capacity and starting a new Test Mode for each battery falling to 2 LED's. I use them in a variety of radios and cameras.

 

[SilverFox]

Re: LaCrosse BC-900 and Eneloops

Hello Mitch,

Welcome to CPF.

You may find this thread informative...

Tom

 

[Mitch470]

Re: LaCrosse BC-900 and Eneloops

Hello Mitch,

Welcome to CPF.

You may find this thread informative...

Tom

Tom,

That was a very interesting study you conducted. In fact that is what brought me to this Forum.

Now I have a question for you. When each of my Eneloops drop to 2 LED's out of a maximum of 5, should I just use Charge Mode to charge them up with the LaCrosse BC-900 or should I use its Test Mode to Charge to Full, then Discharge to Empty and then Charge to Full again?

The LaCrosse also has a Discharge Mode whereby it discharges them to Empty and then charges them up to Full. They have a Refresh Mode where it keeps discharging and charging until it brings Capacity to a Maximum.

I am using Test Mode to start all of the 16 AA and 8 AAA Eneloops.

 

[SilverFox]

Re: LaCrosse BC-900 and Eneloops

Hello Mitch,

It may take a year or two before the Eneloop cells drop to 2 LED's on your tester.

If you are not planning on using them, I would suggest discharging them to around 25%, then doing a full charge/discharge cycle every year. At the end of the discharge cycle, put about 25% back in and put them back into storage.

However, these LSD cells are new, and I am not sure if they will behave the same as normal NiMh cells in long term storage. It is too early to know the best way to store these cells, so most people store them fully charged.

NiMh cells can handle 20 - 50 shallow discharge/charge cycles before they should undergo a full discharge, so just charge them.

Tom

 

[Mitch470]

Re: LaCrosse BC-900 and Eneloops

Hello Mitch,

It may take a year or two before the Eneloop cells drop to 2 LED's on your tester.

If you are not planning on using them, I would suggest discharging them to around 25%, then doing a full charge/discharge cycle every year. At the end of the discharge cycle, put about 25% back in and put them back into storage.

However, these LSD cells are new, and I am not sure if they will behave the same as normal NiMh cells in long term storage. It is too early to know the best way to store these cells, so most people store them fully charged.

NiMh cells can handle 20 - 50 shallow discharge/charge cycles before they should undergo a full discharge, so just charge them.

Tom

Tom,

If it takes a year to get to 2 LED's out of 5 Maximum, I may as well use Test Mode to do a Charge/Discharge/Charge with display of Discharge Capacity at the end. If Discharge Capacity ever goes under 1900 mAh, I may as well discard the particular battery since that is the minimum recommended amount for Eneloop AA.

I intend to just use Charge Mode to top off batteries I take from storage to actually use. I have one Sangean ATS 800 Pocket Radio which will use 4 AA and a Sony Digital Camera which will use 2 AA. The AAA batteries will rarely, if ever, be used. The camera is rarely used. The Sangean radio is used frequently.

At this rate of non-use it is highly probable that I will only replace them when a new, higher capacity version of the battery is introduced.

Obsolescence is the usual reason I've replaced batteries in the past - not use.

By the way, at present I use 6 AA Lithium batteries in 2 thermostats (3 in each). Will these Eneloops last almost as long as the Lithiums in the thermostats? It is a slow drain use.