On 6 Nov, 12:10, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:56:35 +0000, Timothy Murphy wrote:
But I was wondering what it mean if you get a flashing red light when a battery is inserted. Does it mean that the battery is useless?

It means the charger isn't happy about that battery. Had it this
morning on one from a set of three AAA's. Took it out, counted to
ten, put it back in and it was happy.

Consistent flashing red would indicate a battery that really is "past
its best". Before rejecting a battery as truly dead I'd use a normal,
simple, constant current, charger for an hour or so then try the
clever one again.

--
Cheers
Dave.

If a battery has been left in something switched on, it's terminal
voltage goes below a certain value that the charger would regard as
dead. In fact it's partially right as rechargeables do not like being
discharged that low, but I find that if I stick them momentarily onto
a 'simple' charger it brings them up above the trip voltage and they
recharge OK.

Interestingly I've another intelligent charger that does a battery
refresh over several days showing in the end what the capacity of the
cell is, and even these apparantly abused cells come back to near
enough their stated mA-hrs.

Rob