Charging batteries.

[Sarah Winfield]

I am just about to charge a set of 4 AA rechargeable batteries. This is my first time of charging any batteries that came with my Playmobil locomotives, hence the question.

The batteries I'm charging are Tronic Energy Ni-MH 1.2v 2400mAh AA Mignon HR6 HRMR 15/51. I have measured the voltage of each cell and on my analogue meter they are all 1v. The locomotive was certainly straining to power up just a slight incline.

Will I be OK to charge them on my Energiser 4AA NiMh 2000mAh charger please? The Energiser batteries, which came as a package when I bought the charger are 2000mAh and should charge in 4-5 hours but I want to use the Tronic Energy batteries because they came from Aldi and possibly are of an inferior quality.

Another question please. Are volts a measure of power please?

Sarah

 

[trammayo]

I am just about to charge a set of 4 AA rechargeable batteries. This is my first time of charging any batteries that came with my Playmobil locomotives, hence the question.

The batteries I'm charging are Tronic Energy Ni-MH 1.2v 2400mAh AA Mignon HR6 HRMR 15/51. I have measured the voltage of each cell and on my analogue meter they are all 1v. The locomotive was certainly straining to power up just a slight incline.

Will I be OK to charge them on my Energiser 4AA NiMh 2000mAh charger please? The Energiser batteries, which came as a package when I bought the charger are 2000mAh and should charge in 4-5 hours but I want to use the Tronic Energy batteries because they came from Aldi and possibly are of an inferior quality.

Another question please. Are volts a measure of power please?

Sarah

I have quite few Tronic rechargeables rated at 2500mA - it states the recharging time as 7 hours. and the charge rate as 500mA. I use a universal charger which takes all popular battery sizes. They are (for me) quite a good battery. The voltage rating is 1.2v and they work in my Playmobil loco.

 

[Brixham]

Non technical terms...

Your Energiser batteries are like a bucket of capacity 2400....you're filling them from a charger or jug of around 500 capacity. So the jug will take several fill operations to fill your bucket.
So yes, they will be fine, but will take in theory 5-6 hours. ( 5 lots of 500 =~2400 )

The tronic batteries have a smaller capacity of 2000, so with a 500 jug, 4-5 hours ( 4 lots of 500 =~ 2000 )

Normally, the batteries ( or bucket ) will not be completely empty, so your charging ( or filling ) will take less time


I'll let someone else answer the volts question

Malcolm ( who's bucket is half full, rather than half Empty! )

 

[Rhinochugger]

I am just about to charge a set of 4 AA rechargeable batteries. This is my first time of charging any batteries that came with my Playmobil locomotives, hence the question.

The batteries I'm charging are Tronic Energy Ni-MH 1.2v 2400mAh AA Mignon HR6 HRMR 15/51. I have measured the voltage of each cell and on my analogue meter they are all 1v. The locomotive was certainly straining to power up just a slight incline.

Will I be OK to charge them on my Energiser 4AA NiMh 2000mAh charger please? The Energiser batteries, which came as a package when I bought the charger are 2000mAh and should charge in 4-5 hours but I want to use the Tronic Energy batteries because they came from Aldi and possibly are of an inferior quality.

Another question please. Are volts a measure of power please?

Sarah

Quick answer, yes you can charge them in the Energiser charger - does it have a light or indicator when they are fully charged - if not, don't go over the 5 hours (over time you'll kill 'em)

Volts as a measure of power - not entirely, but I think there are some highly qualified people who are about to give you some technical answers

For my sins, my surname is Watts, and at an impressionable age I was told that my father was Volts, my mother was Amps, and that's how they got little Watts - scarred for life

 

[Zerogee]

A brief and non-qualified, non-techy answer, I hope - I expect all the true electrickery geeks will soon explain where it is wrong....
Power is measured in watts, which equals volts x amps - so a motor drawing (say) 0.5 amps at 12 volts is using 6 watts.
However the voltage of a cell, as I understand it, is a reasonable rough indicator of its state of charge - if the nominally 1.2v cells are reading down around 1v, they're pretty well discharged.

Jon.

 

[Sarah Winfield]

Ah, I do love non-teche answers and ones I can relate to. I understand the bucket and jug analogy, thanks.

SW

The charger does have an indicator for charging stages and at the moment there is a red light showing against the empty icon.

SW

 

[Rhinochugger]

Ah, I do love non-teche answers and ones I can relate to. I understand the bucket and jug analogy, thanks.

SW

The charger does have an indicator for charging stages and at the moment there is a red light showing against the empty icon.

SW

Aha, then you can charge until it goes green - sounds like an intelligent charger which will not overcharge your batteries

 

[Brixham]

Another non technical analogy.....

imagine a car and driver doing 50 mph on a single carriageway at 50 mph ( * other speeds are available! )

There are 5000 million cars on the motorway ( well, sometimes it feels like that ) also all doing 50mph.

Their speed ( or voltage ) is the same....50

But all the cars on the motorway have 4 passengers...so the flow of occupants is much higher than the single car on the single carriageway..this could be the current.

So the power of the motorway is it's ability to deliver passengers..a product of the speed and car capacity.

If the speed drops to zero ( what? here? on our motorways? ), then the power is zero ( no passengers being delivered )

The same is true with voltage...no volts....no power

Or..if all the motorway cars are driverless, and have no passengers, then no occupants are delivered..in our analogy then there is no current...and no power.


Going a bit teccy.....

power is voltage x current....and measured in watts

a 12 volt bulb drawing 1 amp is a 12 watt bulb ( now now PhilP...you'll tell me off and say it should be called a lamp, bulbs are things you plant in the garden! )
a 24 bulb taking half an amp is also a 12 watt bulb

a 12 volt bulb taking 1/10th amp is only a 1.2 watt bulb

So power depends on both voltage and the current..or as I tried to imagine above....the speed of traffic, and how many occupants in each car

Malcolm

 

[Paul M]

The volts are the petrol to run the car, the amps are the people in the car.

 

[PhilP]

I prefer 'plumbing' analogies...
Means I can p*ss-*ff two trades at once!

 

[Greg Elmassian]

One of the best analogies is the garden hose....

Volts is the water pressure
Current is ability to deliver volume, like the diameter of the hose.
Watts is the gallons per hour...

You can have a little fun too, a resistor is like stepping on the hose... a capacitor is like filling a balloon with water, it stores voltage and current (pressure and volume)

Greg

p.s. back to the first question, there are slow chargers and fast chargers... and crappy examples of both types... if you do not have a charger that signals the battery is full, throw it away... I prefer fast chargers, battery technology has advanced such that you are not making the batteries live longer by slow charging.

Exception: the super fast high current chargers for model airplanes are another world... but they are LiIon or LiPo not nicad or nimih

 

[Sarah Winfield]

Charge indicating light went from RED to ORANGE to GREEN - sounds about right. Took 4 to 5 hours as anticipated. I can now run trains tomorrow.

Oh, and as it is 02.04 Wednesday morning I'm probably up before My Jones.

SW

 

[Gavin Sowry]

My charger flashes green when it is ready to accept a battery for charge. Turns red when the charge cycle starts, then solid green when topped up.
Once, it stayed flashing green, didn't go red, or charge. Through process of elimination, it was determined the battery was dead (Cue the parrot sketch.... outa here).

 

[PhilP]

Lovely plumage on that battery...

 

[Paul M]

Back to birds are we?

 

[PhilP]

Back to birds are we?

No, they make custard powder!

 

[Greg Elmassian]

 

[Rhinochugger]

Yes, one of the all time classics, along with'What's your name, boy?' from Dad's Army

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Never saw the one from "Dad's Army", just the Holy Grail movie: