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Red Iguana

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I am betting that if I were not lazy and tech-challenged, I would answer this question myself...

 

What advice is there out there in regards to batteries. I have a Magllen ST pro. Can I use rechargables. I understand the more I ratchet through screens and edit waypoints, the more the drain. I have not found threads yet on this subjec, but certainly, there must be something.

 

Any advice. Please be nice...

Red Iguana

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You can set the MAHA cherger up to completely discharge a battery before it starts the recharge. That is what it mean by conditioning. It is not as important with NIMH since it doesn't have a battery memory like some of the older batteries, but NIMH needs to be completely discharged a few times when it is new to achieve its best charge. B)

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Other NiMH advice:

 

1. Look for batteries that hold the most juice. This is reported as a number like "2100 mAH" (milliAmpHours, I think). I'd avoid anything less than 2000, I think about the highest I've seen being sold these days is around 2300. Price may be a factor here.

 

2. Don't be stingy about buying the recharger. It is going to save you hundreds of dollars over its lifetime, so get a good one.

 

www.thomas-distributing.com has been a good site for reference and buying, but I can't get it to come up when I try it this morning.

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I use the Energizer Rechargables -- I think they are 2200 MAh, they work GREAT! Keep a spare set or two with me, but never had them dye in the field.

 

They aren't too expensive either, I own about 12 AA's and a charger -- looking to get a few more. I power all my devices with them, from CD players, GPSr's, Digital Cameras, etc.

 

Bozz

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Other NiMH advice:

 

1. Look for batteries that hold the most juice. This is reported as a number like "2100 mAH" (milliAmpHours, I think). I'd avoid anything less than 2000, I think about the highest I've seen being sold these days is around 2300. Price may be a factor here.

 

2. Don't be stingy about buying the recharger. It is going to save you hundreds of dollars over its lifetime, so get a good one.

 

www.thomas-distributing.com has been a good site for reference and buying, but I can't get it to come up when I try it this morning.

Actually 3000MmAH AA batteries exist but they are difficult to find. Most stores carry 2300-2600mAH AA batteries as there highest capacity. For reference your standard Alkaline AA such as Energizer or Duracell have a mAH rating around 2800-3500mAH.

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Has anyone tried the new 15-minute batteries/charger from Radio Shack? The batts are 2000 mAh and allegedly last 4x as long as alkalines. The charger, w/ 2 of the special batts, is $39.95 and has a $10 rebate until the end of Nov. The charger can also do an overnight charge on Ni-mh.

 

I'm looking at the Maha charger, but the 15 minute feature of the Radio Shack unit makes it intriguing.

 

Here is a link to the Radio Shack page describing the unit.

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Has anyone tried the new 15-minute batteries/charger from Radio Shack? The batts are 2000 mAh and allegedly last 4x as long as alkalines. The charger, w/ 2 of the special batts, is $39.95 and has a $10 rebate until the end of Nov. The charger can also do an overnight charge on Ni-mh.

 

I'm looking at the Maha charger, but the 15 minute feature of the Radio Shack unit makes it intriguing.

 

Here is a link to the Radio Shack page describing the unit.

Price-wise, they don't make sense. The 15-minute charging can only be done with their special batteries. And they go for $15 for 2. I can buy SIX name-brand 2300mAH batteries for that price, and use them in any charger.

 

My charger drops down to a trickle-charge when it's done, and I always have at least 2 batteries in it (ready to go). I've never had a need to charge batteries in 15 minutes.

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One frustrating thing I've confronted with rechargeables is that the batteries get larger as you go up in mAh ratings. This isn't much of a problem with my Garmin V but the 2300s are a really snug fit in my yellow eTrex. Nothing above an 1800 will fit in my old Kenwood TH78a (ham radio).

 

I'm curious how much bigger the 2600 and 3000 mAh rechargeables are than the 2100s or 2300s.

 

latvija

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I use this that I got at Walmart. They don't have these on their site, though.

 

The reason I use this is price point and the fact the charger will charge the batteries individually AND trickle charge thereafter--not something the typical RadioShack charger does.

 

It came in a pack of charger, AC adapter, DC adapter, and 4 1800mAh batteries at a price around $12. Couldn't beat that with a stick.

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My results so far re: RayoVac (or Radio Shack) 15 minute charger.

 

The batteries charged right up in 15 minutes (they'd better!). In my GPS the battery-charge-remaining indicator showed a charge level just below max (the Eveready E2 batteries I've been using always filled the charge-remaining indicator to the max).

 

The charge-remaining display dropped down a bit on the first day (to~ the 75% level) and has remained there throughout the day today, as I was out gecocaching (and changing screens a lot).

 

It remains to be seen how long the charge will last. I will leave this batch in until they run down almost completely, then let you know.

 

On a side note, the Radio Shack unit did not come with a car adapter, which the RayoVac website says is now included. I sent an email to RayoVac inquiring about this and received a quick response that they would send me a car adapter free of charge.

 

So far, I'm impressed. More to come......

 

(BTW, KMart has the 4 pack of E-C3 batts. for ~14.00

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I just picked up two 4-packs of Energizer 2500mAh AA batteries for $10 per pack at Walmart. That should be a huge boost over the 1850mAh I was running around with before.

How are the 2500 mAh AA's working for you?

How long is the charging time on them?

 

I seen some of the 2500 mAh in Target this weekend with charger.

 

I have been looking for just the 2500 mAh batteries, but can not find them without charger.

 

All the ones I see without charger are only 2100 mAh.

 

The RayoVac 2000 mAh AA's with 15 minute charger I picked up to try works great.

I love the fast charging time.

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I just picked up two 4-packs of Energizer 2500mAh AA batteries for $10 per pack at Walmart.  That should be a huge boost over the 1850mAh I was running around with before.

How are the 2500 mAh AA's working for you?

How long is the charging time on them?

 

I seen some of the 2500 mAh in Target this weekend with charger.

 

I have been looking for just the 2500 mAh batteries, but can not find them without charger.

 

All the ones I see without charger are only 2100 mAh.

 

The RayoVac 2000 mAh AA's with 15 minute charger I picked up to try works great.

I love the fast charging time.

Target has 2300mAh Energizers but they don't have the 2500s without the charger. I've been checking there for a couple years now.

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I guess I'm battery challenged. I've used a mix of batteries since I've had my SporTrak Pro. It didn't take very long after I started caching that I realized that I needed to go with rechargeables as my unit would use up a pair each time I went out. After viewing many web sites, I bought a MAHA 401FS this was in addition to an Eveready charger I had earlier bought at Sam's. Neither unit ever "fully" charges the batteries. At best, I may be at 90 percent. Alkalines will always show 100 percent when placed in the unit. I can see no difference in the MAHA when it is placed in the slow mode or the fast mode. I have used a variety of sizes from 1900 mAh to 2200. Yes, rechargeables are the way to go but there are issues as to which charger to use to fully recharge them.

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I guess I'm battery challenged. I've used a mix of batteries since I've had my SporTrak Pro. It didn't take very long after I started caching that I realized that I needed to go with rechargeables as my unit would use up a pair each time I went out. After viewing many web sites, I bought a MAHA 401FS this was in addition to an Eveready charger I had earlier bought at Sam's. Neither unit ever "fully" charges the batteries. At best, I may be at 90 percent. Alkalines will always show 100 percent when placed in the unit. I can see no difference in the MAHA when it is placed in the slow mode or the fast mode. I have used a variety of sizes from 1900 mAh to 2200. Yes, rechargeables are the way to go but there are issues as to which charger to use to fully recharge them.

You may be misreading your battery indicator on the GPS.

 

Alkaline Batteries start out at 1.5V when fresh. They slowly degrade until they are totally dead.

 

NiMH batteries fully charged are 1.2V and maintain a fairly constant voltage until just before death. As an aside, you NEVER want to let a NiMH battery go completely dead, as it can become impossible to get them to take a new charge. Fortunatly most units will shut off before this happens.

 

This can cause your GPS battery charge indicator to indicate that the battery is not fully charged whin in fact it is. Most newer units (at least all the GARMIN units I've seen lately) have a setting to tell them which kind if batteries you are using so they can make adjustments for the small voltage difference.

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Has anyone tried the new 15-minute batteries/charger from Radio Shack?  The batts are 2000 mAh and allegedly last 4x as long as alkalines.  The charger, w/ 2 of the special batts, is $39.95 and has a $10 rebate until the end of Nov.  The charger can also do an overnight charge on Ni-mh.

 

I'm looking at the Maha charger, but the 15 minute feature of the Radio Shack unit makes it intriguing. 

 

Here is a link to the Radio Shack page describing the unit.

Price-wise, they don't make sense. The 15-minute charging can only be done with their special batteries. And they go for $15 for 2. I can buy SIX name-brand 2300mAH batteries for that price, and use them in any charger.

 

My charger drops down to a trickle-charge when it's done, and I always have at least 2 batteries in it (ready to go). I've never had a need to charge batteries in 15 minutes.

15 minute rechargeables may not be the least expensive solution but...

 

I don't have to leave them in the charger - I can leave them drained down which reduces any "memory" they may have, and...

 

... I never have to worry about "gee the batteries are dead" because I can slap 'em in the charger and be ready to go by the time I've assembled the rest of my gear.

 

So yes, they're not the least expensive, but they are a LOT more convenient, and to me, that convenience is worth a few extra dollars.

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Just a quick update on the 15 minute rechargeables. I have been using these batteries since Nov. 9, on the first charge. Now, I'm not using the GPS every single day, but I estimate that I have about 10-12 hours on these batteries so far, and the battery indicator still shows about 1/3 remaining. I'm leaving the GPS on right now so that I can run the batteries down, in order to find just how long they'll last.

 

I'm extremely impressed so far. Once this batch runs down, I will recharge them with the AC (car) adapter to see if that, too, takes only 15 minutes. I'll let the board here know the results.

 

The I-C3 batteries themselves are available more cheaply than the price Radio Shack gets for them. Try Kmart, for example.

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Just a reminder, Costco will be having an after Thanksgiving sale on a rechargeable battery pack. It'll be a coupon item.

 

Panasonic Rechargeable Battery Package

$25 - $5 coupon = $20

Panasonic 90 Min Charger (w/ 4 battery slots)

AC & Car Power Adapters

8 x AA NiMH Batteries - 2300 mAh

 

Also, they currently sell:

 

Panasonic - 6 x AA NiMH - 2300 mAh - $13

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Geosquid, a couple of things to think about. NiMH batteries don't like being drained completely. If you do it, you'll soon have dead batteries. And NiMH batteries do not have any memory - that is only the case with NiCd batteries, which are very much inferior to NiMH. Keep the NiMH batteries charged as much as possible, and change them, and charge them, when they start to get low. You'll get much better results.

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Re: 15 minute rechargeables

 

I finally ran down the I-C3 batteries in my GPS after about 14 hours of use. I then had to run some errands so I tested the DC (car) adapter and it took exactly 15 minutes to charge them while driving.

 

When I returned home I put the batteries back into my GPS and the battery indicator showed a full charge (i.e., just slightly less than the complete bar graph, because of the batts. being 1.2v instead of 1.5 (thanks to the poster who pointed that out).

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NiMH batteries are great, they do have a slight memory disadvantage. It is one that only somebody who pays very close attention to their batteries will notice. When you use NiMH, use them until the GPSr or whatever device they are in automaticly shuts itself off, then recharge then per the manufactures recomendations. At work, I use NiMH batteries in my Motorola Minitor IV pager, they usually last 36+ hours of continous useage. The pager alerts me when they are low. According to the service tech from the local radio shop, only after the batteries are low should they be recharged. This was confirmed by the tech from Medtronic (The people who make defibrillators). As for my GPSr, I also use NiMH and follow the same guidelines. I have an eTrex Venture & the batteries last 24+ hrs, usually leaving the backlight on continuously (I take it to work & work @ night). They are the Energizer 2300mAh rechargeable that I picked up at Wal-Mart for 10.00 for a four pack. The charger is a 1 hour charger from Radio Shack.

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I have an eTrex Venture & the batteries last 24+ hrs, usually leaving the backlight on continuously

 

Sorry, but I find this very hard to believe.

 

I'm lucky to get 12-14 hours of use out of any set of batteries when using my Garmin Legend and that is without ever turning the backlight on.

 

I use my gps at work daily so I have a preaty good idea of how long a set of batteries is going last.

Edited by Milbank
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Geosquid, a couple of things to think about. NiMH batteries don't like being drained completely. If you do it, you'll soon have dead batteries. And NiMH batteries do not have any memory - that is only the case with NiCd batteries, which are very much inferior to NiMH. Keep the NiMH batteries charged as much as possible, and change them, and charge them, when they start to get low. You'll get much better results.

I don't drain them down completely, just until the GPS says they're done.

 

NiMH batteries do develop memory, just not as bad as NiCd (which can develop memory on the first partial charge). Li-ion batteries have memory too, but less than NiMH. You can see this effect with just about any cellular or cordless phone which will typically be put through a number of partial-discharge/partial charge cycles. They do develop a memory.

 

I have a new set of these and an older set. I'll try keeping the new ones charged up and I can compare against the ones I charge when needed and use until drained and see if I can detect a difference in performance over the coming year.

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FYI re: RayoVac I-C3 (15 minute rechargeables). I purchased a 4-pack of I-C3 batteries yesterday, on sale at Menard's, for $9.97.

 

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this battery charger/battery combo is showing itself to be the real deal. The batteries DO charge in 15 minutes (AC or car adapter); the batteries DO last every bit as long (longer, actually) than standard alkalines.

 

For anyone wanting the convenience of a quick recharge this setup seems to work great.

 

Happy Holidays to all (and a PEACEFUL New Year).

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