+phlatlander Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 (edited) We recently spent 2 weeks in Europe. Our trip began in Budapest and ended in Prague. My Canon camera and Garmin 550 both use NiMh AA cells my Sony P&S has a proprietary battery. I carried spare batteries for each. Both the Sony & Garmin came with their own 110/220 chargers. I found however, at least while on the riverboat, that the batteries did not fully charge. So my dumb question is: as Europe is 220v, does this affect the charger, meaning does the different amperage cause the 110/220 chargers to shut off early, or is there some other cause or explanation? Edited November 12, 2012 by phlatlander Quote Link to comment
+eusty Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 As the chargers are rated for the voltage then there shouldn't be an issue...just coincidence I guess that it didn't charge. BTW Europe is 230V Quote Link to comment
+Dgwphotos Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 We recently spent 2 weeks in Europe. Our trip began in Budapest and ended in Prague. My Canon camera and Garmin 550 both use NiMh AA cells my Sony P&S has a proprietary battery. I carried spare batteries for each. Both the Sony & Garmin came with their own 110/220 chargers. I found however, at least while on the riverboat, that the batteries did not fully charge. How long have you had these batteries? After a while, rechargeable batteries lose their ability to hold a charge. Quote Link to comment
+webscouter. Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 If you have inexpensive chargers that only use induction to change the voltage the true RMS voltage will be lower because the frequency of the source is lower. It won't be much but in a cheaper charger it could make a difference. Quote Link to comment
+phlatlander Posted November 13, 2012 Author Share Posted November 13, 2012 Here at home I use a LaCrosse charger for AA batteries in my O450 & Canon and I only use Eneloop batteries. They all were recently "refreshed". The chargers I referred to were supplied by the manufacturer and were very portable so I took them along. Quote Link to comment
John E Cache Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Ok, my guess is the power on the boat was not stable. A power loss or brownout maybe? Quote Link to comment
Forkeye Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) If you have inexpensive chargers that only use induction to change the voltage the true RMS voltage will be lower because the frequency of the source is lower. It won't be much but in a cheaper charger it could make a difference. Sorry RMS voltage is 70.7% of the peak voltage of a sine wave and has nothing to do with frequency Inductive reactance is directly proportional to frequency,but impedance will determine current flow in an A.C. circuit Edited November 13, 2012 by Forkeye Quote Link to comment
+Huntleigh Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Ok, my guess is the power on the boat was not stable. A power loss or brownout maybe? My thoughts too. If the mains voltage was not coming from a true 230Vac 50 Hz genny but from a 12Vdc system through an inverter the waveform can get pretty ugly. Measuring the Output Waveform of an Inverter Quote Link to comment
team tisri Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Hard to say, I've used UK battery chargers in the US and US battery chargers in the UK without any troubles so it seems unlikely that it's anything to do with the mains differences. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a power supply for anything portable that wouldn't accept 100-240V and 50-60Hz. Quote Link to comment
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