gmphoto Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Downside to the supplied NiMH pack with the 650...how do you charge the pack outside the unit? Quote Link to comment
+martin&lindabryn Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 you will need to bye a bratty charger. have a look on e-bay Quote Link to comment
+Walts Hunting Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Why so you need to do,that. I have Montana and after a day I plug it in and it charges overnight. I carry an extra battery in case it runs out and if I use it i charge that one when I get home and put in the discharged one before giung to bed. Quote Link to comment
+Great Scott! Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 you will need to bye a bratty charger. have a look on e-bay nothing found on ebay for bratty charger. do you have a link? Quote Link to comment
gmphoto Posted June 16, 2013 Author Share Posted June 16, 2013 Why so you need to do,that. I have Montana and after a day I plug it in and it charges overnight. I carry an extra battery in case it runs out and if I use it i charge that one when I get home and put in the discharged one before giung to bed. Fair enough! Just raising the "issue" - if it is one - that because the batteries are conjoined they will not fit in a standard battery charger - whether I buy one from eBay or not! Quote Link to comment
+Walts Hunting Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Others have commented that you can take two chargeables (much cheaper than the Garmin pack) and tape them together in such a way that the tape depresses the switch that activates the charger. I am not sure I would do that and risk damaging the charger if the mAh don;'t match. Quote Link to comment
+Hynr Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Downside to the supplied NiMH pack with the 650...how do you charge the pack outside the unit? Why is that a downside. According to Garmin The battery pack provides up to 16 hours of life on a single charge and will re-charge itself within the unit when external power is detected. In other words, the GPSr itself is your charger. If you don't want to use that system, then just use conventional AAs. With this approach you have the best of both worlds. I would note that the Montana does charge it's included Li battery pack also, and I have not used any AA batteries since getting it. I too thought initially that I would be carrying back up AA batteries all the time, but that has not happened. Quote Link to comment
gmphoto Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Why is that a downside. Downside? If one is using the GPSr with a backup set of batteries, how does one charge the discharged Garmin pack? Can't use a standard charger as the batteries are conjoined. They must be charged in the GPSr unit attached to a computer or USB powered port of some type. Just commenting...not wanting to start a fight... Quote Link to comment
insig Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Buy a charger that lets you charge individual batteries (not like the cheap charger that came with my eneloops), and charge one of the batteries in the pack. After that, flip it over and charge the other one. Quote Link to comment
gmphoto Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Buy a charger that lets you charge individual batteries (not like the cheap charger that came with my eneloops), and charge one of the batteries in the pack. After that, flip it over and charge the other one. Brilliant! Great suggestion! Thanks, insig. Quote Link to comment
gmphoto Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Buy a charger that lets you charge individual batteries (not like the cheap charger that came with my eneloops), and charge one of the batteries in the pack. After that, flip it over and charge the other one. Brilliant! Great suggestion! Thanks, insig. Works a treat! Based on insigs suggestion. Thx! Quote Link to comment
insig Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Buy a charger that lets you charge individual batteries (not like the cheap charger that came with my eneloops), and charge one of the batteries in the pack. After that, flip it over and charge the other one. Brilliant! Great suggestion! Thanks, insig. Works a treat! Based on insigs suggestion. Thx! Ha, I didn't think to take a different pair of batteries and use them one at a time to fill the other slot on my cheap eneloop charger. I'll have to remember that. Quote Link to comment
+Kalkendotters Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Recharging unmatched-pairs in a pair-recharger is not good for the batteries. Pair-chargers charge the batteries when they are connected in series. When one of the batteries is full, the charging (should) stop; leaving the other battery of the pair only partly charged. If is doesnt stop it will 'overfill' the full battery while trying to fill the not completely full one. Normally that is not a great problem since you use the batteries in pairs, so both will be at more or less the same charge. When you mix batteries from different pairs, they do not work as good as the should. Quote Link to comment
gmphoto Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Recharging unmatched-pairs in a pair-recharger is not good for the batteries. Pair-chargers charge the batteries when they are connected in series. When one of the batteries is full, the charging (should) stop; leaving the other battery of the pair only partly charged. If is doesnt stop it will 'overfill' the full battery while trying to fill the not completely full one. Normally that is not a great problem since you use the batteries in pairs, so both will be at more or less the same charge. When you mix batteries from different pairs, they do not work as good as the should. Thought that might be the case but as a stop gap seems to work! I'll do it and measure the voltage of each cell at the end of the charge and see how different they are. Quote Link to comment
insig Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Also make sure that both are used up before charging them, and that the capacity is the same (2000 mAH vs. 2500 mAH for example). Quote Link to comment
gmphoto Posted July 8, 2013 Author Share Posted July 8, 2013 Amazing what you find when you clean out your drawers! "> Quote Link to comment
+luvvinbird Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 you will need to bye a bratty charger. have a look on e-bay nothing found on ebay for bratty charger. do you have a link? Quote Link to comment
+Mimi & Bod Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I appreciate that this is an old thread, but just in case somebody else is looking for a similar solution: You can easily (< click the link to see a demo video). Personally, I think it's better to charge the batteries separately and outside of the unit whenever possible. All decent NiMH chargers will charge each battery on its own, monitoring its voltage and temperature so that each cell gets the right amount of charge - the Garmin GPS doesn't do this, it charges the two batteries in series rather than individually, which will ultimately shorten their life span. Quote Link to comment
39_Steps Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Buy a charger that lets you charge individual batteries (not like the cheap charger that came with my eneloops), and charge one of the batteries in the pack. After that, flip it over and charge the other one. Brilliant! Great suggestion! Thanks, insig. Works a treat! Based on insigs suggestion. Thx! Ha, I didn't think to take a different pair of batteries and use them one at a time to fill the other slot on my cheap eneloop charger. I'll have to remember that. The first Sanyo Eneloop NiMH AA cells that I purchased circa 2008 were bundled with a dedicated charger that not only charged the cells individually to 1.49 volts, but also had a removable cover to keep the cells warmer during charging. Perhaps that cover was there to prevent overcharging. The Japanese made Eneloop NiMH cells themselves were labeled with various manufacturing dates going back a dozen or more months. Obviously Sanyo had mixed and matched stored batches to let the users beta test the low self discharge claims. Subsequent Sanyo Eneloop Charger/AA/AAA bundles sometimes contained cheaper two cells in series 3.0 volt chargers. Then years late Panasonic became the Eneloop manufacturer of record after lengthy legal wrangling. Retail sales of battery/charger bundles resumed in California, at least at Costco. The first Panasonic branded charger bundles that I purchased once again charged cells individually, but seemed to be of somewhat better quality than any of the previous Sanyo offerings. But none of the Sanyo chargers, single cell or two cells in series, ever gave any noticeable issues or battery damage that I noticed. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Too weird. ...circa 2008 were bundled with a dedicated charger that not only charged the cells individually to 1.49 voltsToo much....but also had a removable cover to keep the cells warmer during charging. Too unlikely! That would be the last thing you'd normally want to do since it reduces the speed at which you can charge them without degrading the chemistry. Quote Link to comment
+T.D.M.22 Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Too weird. ...circa 2008 were bundled with a dedicated charger that not only charged the cells individually to 1.49 voltsToo much....but also had a removable cover to keep the cells warmer during charging. Too unlikely! That would be the last thing you'd normally want to do since it reduces the speed at which you can charge them without degrading the chemistry. Ya, you don't want them warm. Unless you want them warm enough to start a fire. Plus I'm sure those chargers are cheap ones that take a 45 minutes or more to charge, I doubt there's not enough energy going in fast enough to get them anything more than room temp. Now if you're using a good charger (that I don't think they make for AA or AAA batteries) it could take 10 minutes and they they'd be a bit hot, Quote Link to comment
39_Steps Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Obviously we are living on different planets, because I just found a translucent original slide-in-place temperature controlling cover for what I believe is the only remaining Sanyo Eneloop NiMH charger in my possession. I left one white charger hanging on a white motel wall years ago when I checked out, and another got rained on in a box of stuff on the patio at about the same time. But yes, all of these bundled NiMH Eneloop chargers do require several hours, not minutes, for a full recharge to 1.49 volts per cell although charger battery covers were not included in any retail bundles after the first year or two. Quote Link to comment
+GeoTrekker26 Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Obviously we are living on different planets, because I just found a translucent original slide-in-place temperature controlling cover for what I believe is the only remaining Sanyo Eneloop NiMH charger in my possession. I left one white charger hanging on a white motel wall years ago when I checked out, and another got rained on in a box of stuff on the patio at about the same time. But yes, all of these bundled NiMH Eneloop chargers do require several hours, not minutes, for a full recharge to 1.49 volts per cell although charger battery covers were not included in any retail bundles after the first year or two. Why do you feel the cover was to control the temperature? Quote Link to comment
39_Steps Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Keep in mind that the first Sanyo Eneloop chargers were bundled with the first retail versions of the Sanyo Eneloop AA and AAA cells. I do not remember the exact wording of the Sanyo instruction sheet, but IIRC the stated purpose of the cover was to provide a covered enclosure to assist the charger circuitry in shutting down if the cells got too hot internally [in a cold or windy location?]. Perhaps it would also have protected the user from outgassing or explosion?? In any event, within a year or two the bundled Sanyo Eneloop NiMH newer chargers had neither single cell charging circuitry nor the plastic slide in cover. Update: My "original" Sanyo Eneloop charger, as well as a work-alike interim Sony brand NiMH charger w/o cover warnings [on the back] do mention the possibility of bursting in addition to fire. The latest Panasonic Eneloop 4x1 charger does not mention bursting in the similar fine print molded into the back. Back in the day, I inferred that the cover was provided both for temperature sensing and possibly leakage or bursting issues. Over and out on this one. I have been satisfied with just placing multiple cells in multiple chargers for multiple hours overnight and have avoided Quick NiMH chargers. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 (edited) OK - If your recollection about 'assistance' is correct, I think I'm getting it. Sanyo's charger designer didn't trust the [mechanical design of their case + thermistor(s)] to actually pick up a hot cell (lack of good thermal contact between the two, I suspect), so they threw a cover on top of everything to trap the heat and raise the ambient inside the 'cavity' so they could sense that instead. Poor approach, since 1) it will be slower to sense the rising temperature of a cell, and 2) it also has the inevitable affect of doing exactly that .. raising the ambient temperature around the cells, which is precisely the opposite of what you want to do. A piece of thin acrylic (if that's what it was) won't help much with fire or explosions, either. It burns great and shatters nicely. Edited January 10, 2016 by ecanderson Quote Link to comment
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