Batboard

Hi,
I have a question that has probably been asked a million times before....What is the best way to prepare a NiCad Battery Pack like NTN7143 for storage.....I have a VHF JT1000, and have 2 hi-cap, and one ultra Hi-Cap NiCad battery.....the ultra hi battery i keep just for emergencys or when i need extra run time....but i dont cycle it thru like the other.....whats the best procedure to prepare it for storage until needed again, I have heard many things about this, but wanted to ask here, since more people probably have had to deal with this.....Thanks, David KD6RFS

I hate to say it but replace them with impres batteries and the question becomes a moot point

I would...but i cannot afford 3 new impres batteries and charger...so, I am stuck with 3 brand new NiCads.....and I dont want NiMH, Nicads are better from what I have seen, and Lion is too expensive and rare for Jedi models, I havent seen to many....even in Impres I would get Nicads.....I heard you have to halfway charge it for storage, like 50%?(reg. nicads like mine) or store them fully drained? I dunno, I hear so many things about, everyone has his own way...

The Motorola battery tips card says:
For extended storage(>3 months), discharge batteries to 40-50% of full charge capacity, then store in a cool dry place. Recondition before placing back into service.

the problem is how do I know when it is about halfway done? if I turn on a JT1000 and leave it on standby on a squelched channel (no activity) on a fully charged 1500mah NiCad how long till it drains to 45%?

The most accurate way would be to run the battery on an analyzer to determine storage capacity in mah, then use that number and the discharge mode of the analyzer to determine when about half the mah capacity is removed. If you're in the habit of only charging your battery when it needs it(as recommended by M), you know about how long it takes in standby mode on the JT from full charge to when you first hear the low battery beeps. Half of that time would be about 50% discharge on that particular battery.

Really, don't worry about it. Charge it and leave it.

I can't even find someone who can PROVE that all these "battery preservation methods" work outside of the "controlled tests" in a laboratory. My previous NiCad NP-1 video camera batteries, I'd charge them every night without discharging them and they still last a good 3 years with daily news use and all the bumps on the road going to stories.

Like in the Motorola battery "proven tough" video with all their drops etc. - rarely have I found I'd ever drop a radio perfectly horizontal or vertical on any axis. It's always a corner that hits the concrete first, and that isn't in the "controlled tests" they perform.

Same thing with ruggedized laptop hard drives - I asked Hitachi what they mean by "withstands 300G." They came back with a long answer that basically says under controlled laboratory conditions our test equipment says it's 300G. What is that equivilent to in real life? They won't/can't tell me. It also means theoretically that one drop to a corner of the drive (which they don't test) could destroy it.