On 2012-04-04, Chris K wrote:

Also, if you get an 'intelligent' charger for single cells, they are
often a bit too clever and fail to recognise the presence of a cell that
has been over discharged or reverse charged (can easily happen in multi
cell packs). A quick blast (~1A for a few seconds) gives it enough of a
start for the charger to see it. Either keep a 'dumb' charger or
connect across an alakaline cell for a few seconds.

Aha!

My favourite home battery charger is the one I bought in Tesco in
Korea a few years ago: you can charge any number (up to 4) of AA or
AAA batteries, mixed in any order, independently, and it has a
sensible set of light meanings:

* no light: no battery in this slot
* red: charging
* green: charged
* blinking red: battery doesn't work

and I've been getting quite a few of the last one recently. I guess I
should get those NiMH batteries back out of the bin and try them in a
"less sophisticated" charger to see if they work again after that?


I've used this one for a number of years

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/techno...line-BL700.asp

I certainly like that one. All the numbers & options have a lot of
geeky appeal. ;-)


Flexible if a little slow. I've found the very fast chargers prone to
killing the batteries after a few cycles.

(The one I mentioned above is fairly fast.)


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