Gary; Are you sure they are Lead Acid? Presuming that they are..."Shocking" and reverse polarity will not give you a viable battery for resale. Best thing I learned from this post, was the guy that tried to top these batteries up in the Medical Field. I think most of us have no idea what is required, even the manufacturers don't know. Watched a program on TV..two weeks ago, manufacturing batteries for Vehicles. I recorded most of them... But I presume..if someone invented a "Battery" that only needed recharging and no replacement, someone would soon be out of business. Too bad we are "Fixers" and not "Inventors". I will not go (OIL/INTERNAL COMBUSTION/GONE TO THE MOON AND BACK) and we can't even get a decent battery to power our Digital Cameras.;-) Damn..(sorry)..every time I think about it...Some big company decides what we need. They will give us Printers for under $30....next time you need a Cartridge $42.95. And now they have purposely installed a "CHIP" so you can not refill them. Do I need to expand? Probably not. Ed Gaidies Tel-Tek Electronics Ontario-Canada teltek3@xxxxxxxxxxxx On 30-Aug-04, at 9:32 PM, Gary McCartney wrote: > Jim, thanks for the suggestion. So far I have tried the reverse > charging > on one battery. Here is what my observations are: > > -initial battery read 4.1V and would not supply current to a load > -reversed charged for several seconds but would not draw more than > 100mA > during this time. > -then normal charged where it would only draw a few 100mA. Got up to > 7.3V after a few hours and wouldn't supply current to load > -reversed charged again and this time it drew around 200 mA > - normal charging would now draw 100mA but still wouldn't supply much > current to a load. A small lamp lit dimly for 5 minutes and went out. > -repeating the reverse charge- normal charge cycles seems to allow more > current to be drawn each time. > - last I tried, I was able to draw over 1 amp reverse charge and 200 mA > normal charge. Battery reads 9.4V after a few hours charge but won't > supply much current. I will attempt this on another battery to see if > it > reacts the same as the first battery. I will also try to reverse charge > for a longer time period, such as a full minute. Will post another > update on the experiment. > > > > > Gary McCartney > > McCartney Electronics > Guelph Ontario Canada > Est. 1984 > email: gary (at) number63.ca > > > > > > > > Jim Shupe wrote: >> Gary... >> >> Try reverse-charging (limit current to an amp or >> less) for a few seconds to a minute to get things >> going, then forward-charge at no more than 14.75V >> until the current drops below about 100ma. If this >> restores some charge to the battery, put it through >> several normal charge-discharge cycles to achieve the >> best capacity for THIS particular battery(I assign >> batteries a "personality", unique to each one's >> "experiences"). >> If not much happens the first time, repeat several >> times before giving up. In my experience, it depends a >> lot on the brand and storage conditions(the cooler the >> better). >> I used to manage storage, maintenance and testing of >> gel-cell batteries as a test engineer for a medical >> equipment manufacturer, so I experimented with and >> researched a lot of this stuff. >> >> Batteries are still a long way from a reliable >> device. BTW...somewhere I have a schematic for a very >> good, simple two-stage gel-cell charger if you need >> one. >> >> Jim Shupe, CET >> Lloyd's TV >> Yucca Valley, CA >> >> --- Gary McCartney <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> >>> I found a box of 10 brand new sealed lead acid >>> batteries, 12V 4AH that I >>> forgot I had. Problem is, they are all very low or >>> dead. I tried >>> connecting my power supply with current limiting but >>> the batteries >>> aren't drawing any current at all. >>> >>> Is there any way to kick these into charging up, or >>> are they garbage? >>> -- >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Gary McCartney >>> >>> McCartney Electronics >>> Guelph Ontario Canada >>> Est. 1984 >>> email: gary (at) number63.ca >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ------- >> >>> Lost Password: >>> http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login >>> Problems?". >>> Email Archives: >>> //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/ >>> >> >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ------- >> Lost Password: >> http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login Problems?". >> Email Archives: >> //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/ >> > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > ------ > Lost Password: > http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login Problems?". > Email Archives: > //www.freelists.org/archives/techassist/ > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lost Password: http://www.tech-assist.org and select "Login Problems?". 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