Mustafa charger prices

[darkness]

Originally posted by Acieed
Hmm, however good the Sony charger may be, nobody can confirm that it is a "smart charger" ?

I saw it at Mustafa too, but it was labelled "automatic timer" so I doubt it is "smart".

Don't get too obsessed with this dumb or smart charger thing. As long as it gets the batteries charged in a reasonable amt of time I'm happy!!

Anyway, like I mentioned, someone in the forum actually said that he put in a fresh set of batteries in and the charger stopped charging in 15 mins. I dunno if that's smart or dumb. You have to decide for youself... :dunno:

 

[Digipix]

Originally posted by darkness


Don't get too obsessed with this dumb or smart charger thing. As long as it gets the batteries charged in a reasonable amt of time I'm happy!!

Anyway, like I mentioned, someone in the forum actually said that he put in a fresh set of batteries in and the charger stopped charging in 15 mins. I dunno if that's smart or dumb. You have to decide for youself... :dunno:

Totally agreed.

As for the charging time, it's my second concern. My main concern is still whether a charger gives a full mAh charge according to the rating of the batteries, must at least get what you paid for. No use buying a charger that gives you a 1700mAh charge when you bought the 1850mAh Battery.

 

[Trevor_Tan]

Originally posted by Digipix
Let say if you put in 1850mAh batteries in the Sony Super Quick Charger which is rated 1700mAh, will you still get a full 1850mAh charge? :dunno:

I think if the charger is a time base one then you will not have a fully charged 1850mAh batteries.
Cos these batteries will required more time to charge but the charger cuts off the current (or some switch to tickle charge) b4 the 1850 mAh batteries reaches it's peak.
Infact, I saw some where that it is not good to charge batteries that is too much under the charger rated mAh if it is time based. (ie 1600 mAh charger to charge 900 mAh batteries). It will overcharge and shorted the batteries life.

 

[Acieed]

Originally posted by darkness


Don't get too obsessed with this dumb or smart charger thing. As long as it gets the batteries charged in a reasonable amt of time I'm happy!!

Anyway, like I mentioned, someone in the forum actually said that he put in a fresh set of batteries in and the charger stopped charging in 15 mins. I dunno if that's smart or dumb. You have to decide for youself... :dunno:

I don't think it was ever an issue of "fast or slow" with smart/dumb chargers, but rather whether the batteries are charged to the right capacity. If I knew the charger is timer-controlled, I would be using it with only batteries that are meant for the charger i.e. same brand same capacity. :dunno:

Mustafa used to sell nice Minwa Intelligent Chargers (slow but smart) for only $18, that charges in 5 hours but I didn't see them there any more ~2 weeks ago.

 

[kawan]

do you guys notice something??

the 1850 is much hot than 1600 while in charge in the Maha charger or Minwa's.. (I have both)

 

[kawan]

is it due to the batt @ 1850 actually being ""OVERCLOCK"" ??

 

[crazypaladin]

Originally posted by darkness
I went down to Mustafa to take a look at chargers. There have tons of chargers over there, most of them are in the region of $10 to $16, very cheap! Some of the cheap one even have discharging capability (similar to what the Maha charger offers).

Nonetheless, I got a Sony 1hr quick charger instead, the prices are as follows:

Sony 1 hr charger + 2 Sony 1700mAh batts - $38 (retail is $45 I think)
Sanyo 1850mAh x 4 - $11.50 (got from AP for $14... I got another pack from Mustafa)
Sanyo 1850mAh x 2 - $6.50 (bought another 2 to make up with the other 2 sony batts to form another pack)

Conclusion: if you want to buy cheap Sanyo batts go there! Chargers are very cheap too, at least the Sony one is selling below market price. The GP 1 hr charger is selling for $62 compared to $70 market price.

I bought the Sanyo 1850 mAh for a pack of 4 pieces at $11 from W3 Cube.

 

[Acieed]

Originally posted by crazypaladin
I bought the Sanyo 1850 mAh for a pack of 4 pieces at $11 from W3 Cube.

Battery price wars??!

 

[Snowcrash]

So anyone test out how long it takes for the sony charger to charge the 4x1850 sanyo batteries?

The size of the charger look compact for travel...

 

[cruxader]

Originally posted by crazypaladin


I bought the Sanyo 1850 mAh for a pack of 4 pieces at $11 from W3 Cube.

Where is W3 Cube?;p

 

[darkness]

Originally posted by Snowcrash
So anyone test out how long it takes for the sony charger to charge the 4x1850 sanyo batteries?

The size of the charger look compact for travel...

I've tried to charge 1 set of batts for around 3 hours, so should be less time for those batts less than 1850 mAh.

And yes, the charger is really very small and light, and no external transformer required as well.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by cruxader


Where is W3 Cube?;p

www.w3cube.com

They aren't exactly a retailer.

 

[long]

"Sanyo 1850mAh x 2 - $6.50 (bought another 2 to make up with the other 2 sony batts to form another pack)"

I dun think that's a very good idea to put the Sanyo with the Sony (1850mAh vs 1700mAh) to form a pack of 4. When the Sony runs out, the whole pack is dead anyway.

For safety reasons, charging is not uniform too. Could be dangerous with dumb n fast chargers.

The rule of thumb is always to use the exact same brand and capacity batts to form ur packs of 2/4/6/8 etc.

 

[gUARDSbOY]

Agree, if its a smart charger and detects the full charge state by the negative delta voltage. If u monitor the voltage of the battery during charging, u will notice a slight drop in the voltage before its fully charged. Most of the smart charger with - delta voltage detection will use this feature. (Plus other feature like temperature, timer)

However most cheaper charger don't use the voltage detection.
They timed the charging time of their batteries on their charger and then manufactured the charger based on timer instead. Hence if u placed a 1850mah battery into them, they will stop at 1700mah (Based on timing). Hence u must off and then on the charger again to top up the 150mah. However if u didn't manually
switched off the charger, then yr battery will get over-charged.

Pls correct me if I am wrong.

Originally posted by darkness
I mean to say that the charger's voltage is higher than the battery's in order to charge it. So as long as the charger can maintain this potential difference, the battery can be charged. Unless a higher battery capacity equates to higher max voltage (which I doubt, since NiMH are supposed to be rated at 1.2V), the batteries can be charged in any charger regardless of capacity. But of coz, the charger's circuitry may be a lot more complex than I envision, since it's suppose to have some "smart" features to turn off the charger when it's fully charged, etc., so the way it detects whether they are charged or not is quite arbituary.

 

[kawan]

Originally posted by gUARDSbOY
They timed the charging time of their batteries on their charger and then manufactured the charger based on timer instead. Hence if u placed a 1850mah battery into them, they will stop at 1700mah (Based on timing). Hence u must off and then on the charger again to top up the 150mah. However if u didn't manually
switched off the charger, then yr battery will get over-charged.

Pls correct me if I am wrong.

how are we suppose to know when to switch off the charger ?
as I know, the last part in a charging process is the hardest to do..
so.. let sat the charger charge current is 500mA, to charge 150mAh back full is not simply 500 div 150 = 3.33min!!
you need much more then that... but how much more???

 

[gUARDSbOY]

First u can calculate the % loss.
For example at 500 mA, for the 1700mAh battery it need 4 hrs to charge then it has to charge another 300mAh (goes to heat loss). Therefore 300/1700 = 17.6%. Just charge 150mAh * 117.6% / 500mAH = 3.9 mins.
This is only a rough calculation, and that's how I estimate my extra charge time for the time base charger.

Anyone has a better method ?

:gbounce::gbounce:

Originally posted by kawan


how are we suppose to know when to switch off the charger ?
as I know, the last part in a charging process is the hardest to do..
so.. let sat the charger charge current is 500mA, to charge 150mAh back full is not simply 500 div 150 = 3.33min!!
you need much more then that... but how much more???