best ni-mh batteries and charger?

Hi all,

I'm new here and I really need some help. I want to buy some ni-mh lsd batteries and a charger but I really don't known what brand are the best and where to buy. I known ebay can be a bit tricky. And I'm in europe so I've some shipping concerns.

I need 8x AA lsd ni-mh, 8x AAA lsd ni-mh, 2x 9v ni-mh and adapters for C and D.
I also need a good charger. I've seen some good ones like lacrosse bc-900 and maha c900 but I want the charger to be capable of also charging 9v and mobile phone and camera batteries too...

I would also like usb 4xAA ni-mh cells for more flexibility. I've seen several brands... any advise or are they all the same?

I've seen some good chargers I think like imax b6, extreme racing etc but I'm really a noob...

can someone help please?

Those two combined; Duracell mobile charger and eneloops to get you started. Later on you can get a nice super complex charger with displays and such when you also get more cells and need to balance sets.

What EU country are you form exactly?

Thank you for your help. I'm from Portugal. I don't want to spend money on less capable chargers (I already have several ones and loads of ni-mh, li-po cells too) I want teh l33t nice super complex charger with displays and such so I can learn more and also charge/balance properly. Any recommendation?

Eneloops lsd sound great. Any reliable seller on ebay that I can buy them from? What about usbcells(AA with integrated usb connector)? are they all equal or recommend any brand?

Thomasdistributing is a solid dealer of the new generation eneloops.
Imax B6 or some clone of it IMO, a hobby charger is the only typed that'd be able to charge all of those at a decent price.

I have BC6DX-II for about 4 months now and it does most of the stuff I need done for LIxx and Nimh batteries. AC or DC input and big screen. Not too complicated. If you go to bantamtek website, it list places you can buy in Europe. Maybe one is close by for a visit. Good luck.

The cells with a built in USB are pretty much junk. Low capacity, high self discharge, reports of damaging the USB port on computers. You are better off using the money for some extra Eneloops and a compact travel charger.

Hyperion EOS, Schulze next series, iCharger (I own this one so it's not an impartial recomendation)

The requirement to do mobile phone and camera batteries probably means you want a charger that can do multiple chemistries, right? I don't know what phone and camera you mean, but I assume they are a lithium ion. The only type of charger that will meet those requirements will be a hobby charger.

How about giving up 9V? I mean if you need them only 1-3 in a year, just buy good alkalines/lithiums. This gives you more choices to decide which charger to choose.

Maybe the most reliable Eneloop/Maha store in EU (in the Netherlands) http://eu.nkon.nl/

Hey, great to see Arjan's store nkon.nl here on CPF! Thats where all my eneloops come from. Great guy to deal with, highly recommended!

And if you really like USB charging functionality i can give you the following advise:
Get a big box o eneloops
Get yourself a big fancy schmantzy charger in any color you like
but also get a duracell mobile charger just for the kick of it. Its a great little device allowing you to charge cells from your basic wall plugs and car and also has a USB port so you can use your cells as a backup power supply for your phone!!

Even after five years or so I still have to give the nod to the Powerex 2700's and the C9000. The Powerex cells hold charge as well as my hybrid cells and have a lot more capacity.

yes cells with built in usb can be junk but imo they are extremely usefull. I'll stick to some good brands then and I'll post here my results.
Yes I want an hobby charger. I've read and learned more about it. Yes I'll need to charge different chemistries, li-ion, li-po, ni-mh.
I found an imax B6 for $36 shipping included. is it really good or I'll need something better? I would like a pc usb connection, temp sensors, hability to check mah and mwh and other basic functions. I'm afraid spending more is kinda overkill for what I'll get in return.
I'm a noob so I really don't known the difference between different hobby chargers, specially from the same brand. My fear is that I spend like $50 and then wanting a better l33t charger that costs $75. I don't want to spend money on something that is not great.

Thomasdistributing doesn't ship to Portugal despite the fact they ship to a few other European countries, I pm them about it though.
And is www.hobbyking.com a reliable source to buy from?

"I am very sorry, but we do not ship to Portugal at this time. If you have an alternate shipping address to a country we do ship to, we would be more than happy to ship there." really weird. They don't ship to Portugal, Spain, Italy but they ship to UK, France, Germany. I really don't understand. Anyway there are other ones selling the same products cheaper.

About batteries, I've found about eneloops XX, is there anything better? is there any AAA version? what you recommend?

VegasF6 said:

Hyperion EOS, Schulze next series, iCharger (I own this one so it's not an impartial recomendation)

Click to expand...

I'm curious as to what's needed to charge AA cells on the icharger. I happen to have the icharger for my rc stuff. Is there an adapter for the power and balance port?

I don't know of anyway to use the balance port for nickel cells. If there is one, I don't do it. For individual cells I normally let my Maha handle them. For packs in carriers that stay together, I simply use alligator clips to charge them with the iCharger. If i was worried about balancing the cells, I would charge them at 1/10C for 15 hours, but honestly I usually charge at 1 amp. The charger is smart enough to figure out how many.

If I was so inclined to charge multiple cells that were not a pack with the iCharger, I could use magnets, PVC tube and clamp, battery holders, etc but then balancing becomes more important.

klamp,

I have a couple hobby chargers, a FMA Powerlab 8 and a Cellpro Multi 4 and the way i used to charge my nimh tx batteries was to use the removable battery tray from a transmitter that had a servo style plug on it and use the corresponding plug adapter on my multi 4 to charge them at a slow rate like 0.1c. This was before i bought my C9000.

Matt

so, googling a lot, and whit your great help, I decided to buy an icharger. the cheapest one I'll find. having a C9000 or a BC900 is a waste to me, I'll charge different chemistries and give many other uses etc.
I also decided to buy AAA lsd eneloop and AA eneloops xx.
meanwhile I bought usb batteries from ebay. they seam rebranded moxia. they are rated @1450mah and I do believe it though I can't test it. 1 AA can charge my Nokia N72 up to 75%. They are incredibly usefull though capacity is not so good. Better then this just a battery pack with 2xAAA but that's big for some cases. Now I've an AA usb battery and a very small charger on my keychain. Not ideal, but it works.

Now I just have to find the cheapest place to buy an icharger and those eneloops.

I will also build a battery craddle or something with a fan to make it cooler and more convenient to change batteries.

Thank you all so much for your help.