John Stumbles wrote:


Not saying you're wrong, but how would it get reverse polarised if it
hadn't been on load?

err, mumble, little conductive green elves linking arms between + and -
terminals, maybe? umm, maybe, mumble, when first plugged into the
charger? um, mumble, creeps away...

I still wouldn't be surprised to find an unloved, discharged, multicell
battery to have lost most of its capacity when left at the back of a
cupboard for several years, rather'n having been tickled into holding
charge a few times in that period. But I'd welcome correction from
anyone with more knowledge; hmm, maybe that new-fangled Berners-Lee
InterWeb thingumy has something to say? Lessee... there's a
semi-authoritative-seeming NiCd FAQ at
http://www.verinet.com/~dlc/battery.htm
which suggests NiCds are optimally stored long-term discharged, cold,
and shorted - but the NASA-quoted proceedcakes there require access to
each individual *cell*, not just shorting the whole battery! Panasonic's
guidelines at
http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/...recautions.pdf
say (on p.2) that batteries should be charged once or twice a year when
being stored long-term, but other manufacturers - according to a
collection of quotes at
http://www.powerstream.com/Storage.htm
- are less paranoid, though all agree that several charge/discharge
cycles are likely to be needed after long-term storage to restore
something like the initial capacity.

Isn't the infosuperhypenetwebway just wunnerful? ;-)

Stefek