Xref: utzoo rec.ham-radio:6081 sci.electronics:3857
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cadnetix.COM!cadnetix!rusty
From: rusty@cadnetix.COM (Rusty)
Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: About to buy radio... actually about NiCds
Summary: Make your own charger!
Keywords: NiCds
Message-ID: <4111@cadnetix.COM>
Date: 20 Sep 88 14:56:58 GMT
References: <890@noao.UUCP> <26117@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: news@cadnetix.COM
Reply-To: rusty@cadnetix.COM (Rusty)
Organization: Cadnetix Corp.,  Boulder, CO
Lines: 41

In article <26117@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Brian K. Shiratsuki) writes:
>... a lot of stuff about radios.... deleted<
>i put nicads into the case, and clipped some plastic off the case
>which prevent use of the charger.  this gave me an extra pack for
>$26; we'll see if i have to make up the difference or more later.
>
The most recent issue of Ham Radio Magazine had a really nifty
article about NiCd batteries and how to charge them correctly.
There is a lot of info in the article about sintered-plate
NiCds which I will not go in to here.  Lets just say that,
after my experiences with NiCds I believe him.  Also, for those
of you who agree with me that NiCds are the pits and almost
don't last long enough to make their cost worth it... He has
a sintered-plate nicd battery which is quite old (from
a very poor memory I remember considerably more than 5 years
old for that battery), and it will still start a car!

Anyway, the article gives a VERY easy to build NiCd charger
which is claimed to not ruin your NiCds, and which is claimed
to be able to un-reverse reversed cells (as long as the
batteries are not already ruined by overheating, I assume).
I have an 8-cell pack for my Kenwood 2M transciever which has
2 reversed cells... I will report back to the net how it goes
with the attempt to reverse the cells.

The only problem I had with the construction of the project
was with the quality of my junkbox parts (some of my high-current
diodes were bad), and discovering that those pesky little tantalum
capacitors like to short out when you hit them with the output
of an overloaded (i.e. oscillating) LM317.  Poof, smoke, stink!
(One of these days I will get the right size fuse! :~>  )
				(  holding my nose  ^  )

(If this works, I'm gonna have to build a BUNCH of these buggers!
Each one designed for the battery pack it is to recharge.....
Who knows, I might even start liking NiCds again!)

-----
Rusty Carruth   UUCP: {uunet,boulder}!cadnetix!rusty  DOMAIN: rusty@cadnetix.com
Cadnetix Corp.  (303) 444-8075x296 \  5775 Flatiron Pkwy. \ Boulder, Co 80301
Radio: N7IKQ    'home': P.O.B. 461 \  Lafayette, CO 80026