Somehow my P1DCE Q5 wasn't turned off properly and it was left on in my pocket until it completely drained the RCR123A LiFePo4 battery. It could have been on for as much as a couple of hours or even as long as 18 hours over discharged.
Anyways, because of the safe chemistry, no gases were released and no mini explosions occured. The first things that came to my mind was that I killed the battery. I quickly checked with a voltmeter and the open voltage was like 0.7 volts!! However, the voltage was very slowly climbing back up. So I waited like 2 hours and I was still only getting like 1.5 volts. The smart charger refused to charge it because the voltage was too low. So I put it across the terminals of a another charger - a NIMH charger for like 5 seconds and the voltage across the battery shot up to like 1.9 volts or higher. The voltage was then high enough and the smart charger was able to fully charge the battery - back to 3.31 volts.
I am sure I shorten the lift of this battery, but am very pleased that I could still bring it back to life. Most importantly, the safe chemistry did not vent any gases in the abuse.
Anyways, because of the safe chemistry, no gases were released and no mini explosions occured. The first things that came to my mind was that I killed the battery. I quickly checked with a voltmeter and the open voltage was like 0.7 volts!! However, the voltage was very slowly climbing back up. So I waited like 2 hours and I was still only getting like 1.5 volts. The smart charger refused to charge it because the voltage was too low. So I put it across the terminals of a another charger - a NIMH charger for like 5 seconds and the voltage across the battery shot up to like 1.9 volts or higher. The voltage was then high enough and the smart charger was able to fully charge the battery - back to 3.31 volts.
I am sure I shorten the lift of this battery, but am very pleased that I could still bring it back to life. Most importantly, the safe chemistry did not vent any gases in the abuse.
