Apparently this discussion has gotton pretty interesting. There is very very much more that can be said about the subject of how to PROPERLY charge batteries of various chemistries. But that pointed out I wanted to share the following.

I recently purchased a quite expensive digital camera setup. It came with a set of AA type Nickel Metal Hydride batteries and a "charger" (if you can call it that). I, as an engineer soon decided to invest in a higher quality charger to save the life of my batteries as I noticed that the supplied charger made the cells so hot I could not pick them up.

Being convinced that this charger was a piece of junk, and seeing this extensive discussion here, I decided to disembowel this charger to show how it should NOT be done. Please all readers note that is just the reason why I show this information. So you can see how bad it is!!! Not becasue I condone reverse engineering or capitalizing upon somebody elses cool design, but rather to show what NOT to do.

Here are three pictures of this charger. It is made in China by Panteen and proports to be able to charge 1 or 2 pairs of AA cell NiMH batteries at 2.8V 130 mA.








Here is a schematic of this DigiPower brand DPS1000 charger unit. The design violates everyting I have ever learned about proper maintenance of NiMH batteries!!



The amazing thing is that this product is sold and available on battery counters at even some of the best stores!!

I have one other thing to say about chargers too. The design of in-system chargers versus the design of standalone separate charging device are quite different tasks. However that still gives no excuse to the engineers at Pantene/China the produce the product shown here. AND I wonder, and all of us should, what manner of engineers are working at the UL laboratory that gave the permission for this product to bear this symbol on the label....

Michael Karas