Re: [LUG] bluetooth keyboard

On 11 March 2014 17:04, Brad Rogers <brad@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My camera uses 4 AAs, with no option to add a fifth if rechargeable
cells are used. In alkaline batteries equates to 6V, but with
rechargeable batteries it's only 4.8V. A whole rechargeable battery
'missing' if you will. This means the camera will only take a couple of
dozen of shots, whereas with alkaline batteries it'll take well over 100.

Nicads and ni-mh are 1.2v per cell, instead of the 1.5 of alkalines, so that explains it nicely. Although I've not encountered anything that isn't happy with rechargables personally, I can imagine it can happen.

But... I use rechargables A LOT. When I'm out walking, I carry 10 of them. Two each in two GPSrs (high drain), two in a camera, and four spares. (It's overkill really, but they're fractionally lighter than alkalines)

They have advantages over alkalines in that you can take a fully-charged battery at the start, knowing roughly how long it will last and not having the problem of partially discharged batteries.

And as for performance - not all rechargables are equal. In fact, they're nowhere near!

Duracell and Eneloops are the best by far based on my experience with several dozen different brands. Both for capacity (equal to unbranded alkalines), and for chargings.

Beware unbranded or cheap rechargables with capacities that lie or aren't even feasible. (I bought some AA's with a 3800 mah rating out of curiosity - sure enough, they're nearer 200 and almost unusable!)

Also - the chargers are not equal! Smart ones will tailor the current to the individual battery, recognising old or tired batteries. This makes a huge difference to both capacity and lifespan.

So don't write the things off completely, and it saves a lot of landfill if you're a reasonably heavy user.

Although... - alkalines can work out effective if you can buy them cheap enough (Weirdly, Ikea appear to be the best/cheapest) - this site is quite interesting and compares a lot of them; http://www.batteryshowdown.com/