Mark wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 07:23:17 -0700 (PDT), "Man at B&Q"
wrote:

On Jun 18, 2:58 pm, Mark
wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:41:29 +0100, "Brian Gregory [UK]"



wrote:
"Mark" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:17:27 -0700 (PDT), "Man at B&Q"
wrote:
On Jun 17, 6:46 pm, Bodincus wrote:
And - by the way - since when is the voltage of a battery an indication
of the residual power in it?
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/97133.pdf
NiCD and NiMH have a pretty flat discharge curve so the voltage
remains fairly stable until they are about 90% discharged.
Therefore voltage is a fairly good, if crude, way of estimating the
charge left it these types. The same is not true for alkalis.
The voltage change is so small with Ni-Cad and Ni-MH that differences due to
ambient temperature changes and between individual cells (due to impurities
maybe, I don't know) can be nearly as much and can make any estimate of
charge left unreliable.
Maybe I did not phrase my point well. What I meant was an absolute
voltage threshold is a useful way of detecting when a NiCD or NiMH is
nearly fully discharged. It's the way my digital camera uses. This
method is not good when Alkali batteries are used since the voltage
gradually drops as it discharges and the camera will report a dead
battery when there is plenty of life left in it.
But only because the wrong threshold is being used for the type of
battery.

I doubt they have the ability to detect the type of battery used.

Mine has a menu setting for the type of battery being used.

--
Adrian