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- <TD HEIGHT="19">November 17, 2017</TD>
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- <H1>NiCad Battery Charging Basics</H1></TD>
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- <H2 ALIGN="Left">NiCad (NiCd, Nickel Cadmium) Battery Charging</H2>
-
- <H2 ALIGN="Left">Nickel Battery Charging Basics</H2>
- <P ALIGN="Left">NiCad and NiMH batteries are amongst the hardest
- batteries to charge. Whereas with lithium ion and lead acid batteries you can
- control overcharge by just setting a maximum charge voltage, the nickel based
- batteries don't have a "float charge" voltage. So the charging is based on
- forcing current through the battery. The voltage to do this is not fixed in
- stone like it is for the other batteries. </P>
- <P ALIGN="Left">This makes these cells and batteries especially
- difficult to charge in parallel. This is because you can't be sure that each
- cell or pack is the same impedance (or resistance), and so some will take more
- current than others <I>even when they are full.</I> This means that you need to
- use a separate charging circuit for each string in a parallel pack, or balance
- the current in some other way, for example by using resistors of such a
- resistance that it will dominate the current control. </P>
- <P ALIGN="Left"><FONT COLOR="#000000">The coulometric charging
- efficiency of nickel cadmium is about 83% for a fast (C/1 to C/0.24) charge,
- and 63% for a C/5 charge. This means that at C/1 you must put in 120 amp hours
- in for every 100 amp hours you get out. The slower you charge the worse this
- gets. At C/10 it is 55%, at C/20 it can get less than 50%. (These numbers are
- just to give you an idea, battery manufacturers differ).</FONT></P>
- <P ALIGN="Left"><FONT COLOR="#000000">When the charge is complete
- oxygen starts being generated at the nickel electrode. This oxygen diffuses
- through the separator and reacts with the cadmium electrode to form cadmium
- hydroxide. This causes a lowering of the cell voltage which can be used to
- detect the end of charge. This so-called minus delta V/ delta t bump that is
- indicative of end-of-charge is much less pronounced in NiMH than NiCad, and it
- is very temperature dependent. Many of the chargers listed here use a
- sophisticated algorithm that uses the -deltaV to accurately charge NiMH and
- NiCad packs <A
- HREF="NiCad-NiMH-Catalog.htm">/NiCad-NiMH-Catalog.htm</A></FONT></P>
- <P ALIGN="Left"><FONT COLOR="#000000">As the battery reaches
- end-of-charge oxygen starts to form at the electrodes, and be recombined at the
- catalyst. This new chemical reaction creates heat, which can be easily measured
- with a thermistor.. This is the safest way to detect end-of-charge during a
- fast charge. This method is often used with multi-cell packs and the 20, 30,
- and 40 cell pack chargers here use a thermistor
- <A HREF="NiCad-NiMH-Catalog.htm">/NiCad-NiMH-Catalog.htm</A></FONT></P>
- <P ALIGN="Left"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Nickel cadmium battery
- chargers should cut the charge off when the temperature exceeds the maximum
- charging temperature, typically 45 degrees C for a controlled fast charge, and
- 50 degrees C for an overnight or fast charge.</FONT></P>
- <H2 ALIGN="Left">Overnight Battery Charging</H2>
- <P ALIGN="Left">The cheapest way to charge a nickel cadmium battery
- is to charge at C/10 (10% of the rated capacity per hour) for 16 hours.. So a
- 100 mAH battery would be charged at 10 mA for 16 hours. This method does not
- require an end-of-charge sensor and ensures a full charge. Cells can be charged
- at this rate no matter what the initial state of charge is. The minimum voltage
- you need to get a full charge varies with temperature--at least 1.41 volts per
- cell at 20 degrees C. The best charging practice is to use a timer to prevent
- overcharging to continue past 16 hours. An example of this kind of charger is
- shown at <A HREF="Ni-6-200.htm">/Ni-6-200.htm</A> . This charger uses a
- microprocessor to report the state of charge via an LED as well as performing
- the timing function. </P>
- <H2 ALIGN="Left">Faster Charging</H2>
- <P ALIGN="Left"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Some nickel cadmium cells are
- designed to be "quick chargeable." This is just a timed charge at C/3 for 5
- hours, or C/5 for 8 hours. This is risky because the battery should be fully
- discharged before charging. If the battery still has 90% of its capacity when
- the timer starts you would have a good chance of venting the battery. One way
- to ensure this doesn't happen is to have the charger automatically discharge
- the battery to 1 volt per cell, then turn the charger on for 5 hours. The
- advantage of this method is to eliminate any chance of battery memory.
- PowerStream does not currently have such a charger, but the microprocessor
- board used in the C/10 charger <A
- HREF="NiMH-NiCad-solar-charge-controller.htm">/NiMH-NiCad-solar-charge-controller.htm</A>
- could easily be modified to do the discharge. A power dissipating package would
- be needed in order to dissipate the energy from a partially charged battery in
- a reasonable amount of time. </FONT></P>
- <H2 ALIGN="Left">Fastest Charging</H2>
- <P ALIGN="Left"><FONT COLOR="#000000">If a temperature or voltage
- monitor is used NiCad batteries can be charged at rates up to 1C (in other
- words 100% of the battery capacity in amp-hours for 1.5 hours). The PowerStream
- battery charge controller shown in <A HREF="Product3.htm">/product3.htm</A>
- does this, as does the battery management board shown in <A
- HREF="Product5.htm">/product5.htm.</A> </FONT></P>The termination can be done
- with minus delta V, when the battery voltages drops -10 to -20 mV per cell. To
- terminate the charge on temperature requires a temperature slope
- measurement.<BR><BR>This board also has the ability to sense voltage and
- current for more sophisticated algorithms required for ultra-fast charging.
- These algorithms require constant monitoring of the voltage, temperature, and
- sometimes pressure, to actively determine the amount of current a battery can
- take without damage. This is sometimes called a smart charge, or a controlled
- fast charge.<BR><BR>A cheaper version of the fast charger can be made by just
- monitoring absolute temperature. The charge rate is set at C/2 until 45 degrees
- C is reached, then switched over to a C/10 charge to complete the charge. This
- is the most common NiCd fast charger of the 1960's through the 1980s because it
- could be controlled by a simple bi-metallic thermostat switch mounted on the
- battery.<BR><BR>
- <H2>Trickle Charging Nickel Batteries</H2><BR>In a standby mode you
- might want to keep a nickel cadmium battery topped up without damaging the
- battery. This can be done safely at a current of between 0.05 C and .06 C. The
- voltage required for this is dependent on temperature, so be sure to regulate
- the current in the charger.<BR>
- <P ALIGN="CENTER">Custom design and manufacture of state-of-the-art
- battery chargers, UPS, and power supplies for OEMs in a hurry!</P> </TD>
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- <P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="-2">© Copyright 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008,2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 <br> Lund Instrument Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved. by Mark W. Lund </FONT><br><a href="https://plus.google.com/109788128074027893638?rel=author">Google Author Verification</a> </P> </TD><SCRIPT SRC="/__utm.js"><SCRIPT SRC="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" TYPE="text/javascript">
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