[TriLUG] Linux laptop battery

[Vestal, Roy L.]

Depending on your MFG, this may or may not be true. For the Ni-Cad and NI-MH
batteries in toshibas, for example, have a small circuit built in to protect
from any kind of polarity reversal. I believe Thinkpads do as well.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Merrill [mailto:cmerrill at nc.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 7:53 AM
To: trilug at trilug.org
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Linux laptop battery


al johson wrote:

> You should also NEVER run Ni-cad or NI-MH batteries until they are dead
> either!! If you do, you will risk reversing the polarity of one of the
cells
> and the battery will never recharge properly again. (a battery is composed


Either this is not true, or the chance of it happening is very,
very small.  I have always fully drained my NiCad batteries after
use prior to storage or charging.  A few particular sets (used in
a walkman during college) went through literally _hundreds_ of
cycles - most of which had a _full_ discharge: which (for me)
meant discharge to the point where they would not even warm
the filament of a 3W light bulb.  I have NiCads that have been
used in this manner for >10 years - and they work fine.

I have never heard of 'reversing the polarity' of a dry cell,
or any other battery, for that matter.  From what little I
remember from chemistry 101 it is not chemically possible in
wet cells.  I am very interested in this 'reversing polarity'
concept - Do you have some sources of information on this?

I'd also like to see the NASA research paper...since I have
seen research to the contrary (I wish I had a copy...).

*********************************
Chris Merrill
cmerrill at nc.rr.com
*********************************

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