Now for the really geeky amongst us. My new toy, the iCharger 106B+
(from a suggestion I got from a new friend Henrik in Denmark)
http://www.progressiverc.com/icharger-106b.html
This will do everything you ever wanted. It is what is called a Hobby Charger. They do not come with a power supply so you have to buy one separately or make one using a spare PC power supply. They are immensely useful and can be used with a 12V car battery to run some really cool tests on batteries.
(from Henrik's site)
*LiIon fast charge, this will usual charge until the current are down to 1/5 of the charge current. This is the fastest charge, but the batteries are not completely filled.
*LiIon charge, this will usual charge until the current are down to 1/10 of the charge current.
*LiIon slow charge, this will charge until the current are somewhere below 1/10. This is the slowest charging and will stuff the most energy into the battery.
*LiIon balance charge, this requires connections from the balance port to each cell and will supervise that each cell in a series connection to prevent it from being overcharged. This is used with battery packs and can also exist in slow/fast versions.
*LiIon storage, this will charge or discharge the cell to optimal voltage for long term storage (i.e. storage for months or years).
*LiIon discharge, this will discharge the battery while measuring how much current was in it. This function is very useful to check a cells capacity.
*LiIon cycle, a combination of charge and discharge, it is often possible to do multiple cycles and see how much current was charged and discharged for each cycle.
*LiIon balance, only do the balancing, i.e. discharge the cells with high voltage until they all have the same voltage.
*NiMH/NiCd charge, regular fast charge that uses dv/dt to stop the charge.
*NiMH/NiCd forming charge, a special charge that is used to balance new battery packs.
*NiMH/NiCd discharge, this will discharge the battery while measuring how much current was on it. This function is very useful to check a cells capacity.
*NiMH/NiCd cycle, a combination of charge and discharge, it is often possible to do multiple cycles and see how much current was charged and discharged for each cycle.
*Pb charge, normal charge.
*Pb discharge, this will discharge the battery while measuring how much current was on it. This function is very useful to check a cells capacity. Some Pb batteries do not like a full discharge!
*Measure internal resistance in batteries.
*Regenerative discharge, when discharging the battery the power is not wasted as heat, but returned to the supply leds, this will only work if the charger is supplied from a rechargeable battery! When the charger has this function it can usual discharge at very high rates.
