AA NIMH 3000MAH Transmitter Batteries
 

Hello,

What rate should I charge the above batteries at?

Regards
Gareth

Is there not information on the cell or on a the manufacturer website?

In the case of a very high capacity NiMH AA such as this I would limit the charge current to 1.5A and ensure your -dV termination is 0 to 3mV per cell and your max capacity is no more than 120%. 3000mAh really pushing the limits on capacity and the cells probabaly wont be that good in terms of cycle life or self discharge. Cell design is all about trading performance factors. If you want high capacity then you trade away other desirable traits. It's not all about mAh.

Neil

It seems to defy logic that there is physically room in a AA for 3000 of them.

1/10C charge for longevity, or 0.5C+ for quicker charging and less longevity.
Who is the manufacturer?

The normal charge rate for Ni-Mh is 0.5C-1C if using the delta peak method. The reason not to go below 0.5C is chargers find it very difficult to pick up the delta peak below this which can lead to over charged cells. If you go over 1C the cells can get a little hot and that is one of the biggest killers of Ni-Mh.

Check the capacity with your charger if it has that option. I think you will be in for a bit of a suprise. These cells will also very likely develope high self discharge rates in a few weeks/months of use.

For a transmitter pack there is only one type of battery i would recommend and those are the LSD variety. Eneloop are the top dog but nearly all the other types are very good also.

i purchased my 8 x aa transmitter pack from www.component-shop.co.uk and rang them up to get the best charge rate for the batteries i purchased from them.

i purchased 2 x 3600mah nimh aa packs for my futaba 3vcs and they recommended a charge rate of 500mah (0.5a) to 600mah (0.6a) to conserve battery life.

and as they are a battery manufacturer thats the charge rate i use, so i'd suggest same rate for yours, but its your choice.

I think it is easy to see that people are easily mislead when it comes to AA batteries. There is huge amounts of falsly inflated mah figures and some very comical marketing going on. Do a capacity check on these batteries.

If you want to extend battery life charge at 0.5C with a delta peak charger and if you are charging with a dumb charger then yes you can charge way below that although i don't think many people have the dumb chargers anymore. These are just unregulated power supplies. You will need to time your charge with these as they will continue charging if not turned off manually. If you do charge with a dumb charger you will also need to determine what capacity your pack actually is. The reason for this is if the pack has a false mah figure you could be overcharging your ****mah pack that is labeled as a 3000mah pack.

Probably the best place for information on AA cells is candlepowerforum. You can find real results here normally done a CBA or CBAII.