This is gold. Thanks for all the info guys.
Quote: (Originally Posted by TobinGeorge)
Lets look at the typical charger used for Nimh. The chargers sense the change in voltage relative to time (Delta V / Delta T) For Nimh they are attempting to detect when the voltage stops changing (zero delta v) which is pretty hard to do, and requires a fairly sensitive circuit. When charging a parallel series pack the first string (the one that's actually accepting current) reachs this zero delta v condition, and the charge terminates.
This fits with my observations of charging my 9Ah pack. My old charger was a Maha 777-something-or-other which had an LCD readout in mAh for the amount of charge. Even with my pack fairly well discharged, it was nye on impossible to get any more than about 5,000mAh into the pack before the charger would beep loudly at me and proudly announce that it was "full".
3,000mAh was more typical and I usually always had to charge it twice.
What are the pros and cons of quicker vs slower charging? My new charger is a 'Universal' charger (one of
these which now ship with the newer Salvo lights) which at the setting Barry recommends (1.9A) is faster than my old charger I think. The charger has no read out and I've yet to do a burn test to see how much charge I'm getting.