Battery FAQ
1.What is a battery ?
Re: A battery is a source of electrical energy. It is consisted by two substances, and represented by two electrochemically active electrodes of different composition, both of which are immersed in an electrolyte that provides a conductive medium between them. When a battery is connected on an outside load, it provides energy by conveying its internal electrochemical.
2. What is IEC?
Re: IEC is the abbreviation of International Electrical Commission, which is a worldwide organization of national electrical commission. To promote the standardization in electrician and electron area is its goal. Currently there have been IEC285 for Ni-Cd cell and IEC61436 for Ni-MH. For Li-ion cell doesn ' t have any IEC standards yet, generally it is based on Sanyo or Panasonic.
3. What is the electrochemistry principle of Li-ion battery?
Re: Major element of Li-ion cell positive is LiCoO2 , negative is mainly C. When charged,
Positive reaction is: LiCoO2 ? Li1-xCoO2 + xLi+ + xe-
Negative reaction is: C + xLi+ + xe- ? CLix
Total reaction is: LiCoO2 + C ? Li1-xCoO2 + CLix
The reaction is reversible as discharged
4. What is the difference between NiCd,NiMH,and Li-Ion batteries ?
- Re: Li-ion (Lithium Ion). This is one of the newest cell types available. It is also the lightest battery type currently available on a commercial basis and can provide more power than the other main cell types. There are no known problems of memory effect with this battery type and it is the easiest battery type to care for. The downside of this battery is that it has the highest engineering costs and therefore the price is usually considerably higher than other cell types.
NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride). This cell type is the most common cell type currently available for laptop computers, (although Li-ion is rapidly becoming the most popular) This battery type is relatively cheap to manufacture and therefore tends to be cheaper than Li-ion. This cell type is prone to ??memory effect? ¯ so it is important to take good care of your NiMH battery to ensure that you obtain the best runtimes.
NiCAD (Nickel Cadmium). This is one of the older cell types and is generally only found in older laptops. The main pro for this cell type is its ability to handle higher loads, and therefore is more commonly found in portable power tools or devices that need a lot of power to work efficiently. The main downside of this cell type is that it is notorious for suffering with memory effect so good care must be taken with this battery to ensure most effective use of battery.
5. What is the "Memory Effect"?
Re: NiCad batteries, and to a lesser extent NiMH batteries, suffer from so called the "memory effect". What this means is that if a battery is repeatedly only partially discharged before recharging, the battery "forgets" that it has the capacity to further discharge all the way down. To illustrate: If you, on a regular basis, fully charge your battery and then use only 50% of its capacity before the next recharge, eventually the battery will become unaware of its extra 50% capacity which has remained unused. The battery will remain functional, but only at 50% of its original capacity. The way to avoid the dreaded "memory effect" is to fully cycle (fully charge and then fully discharge) the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Batteries can be discharged by unplugging the device's AC adapter and letting the device run on the battery until it ceases to function. This will insure your battery remains healthy
6. How to Maximize and Battery Performance?
Re: It is recommended to fully charge and discharge the new battery few times to allow it to reach its maximum rated capacity . Recharge the NiMH and Nicd battery at least once a month .It will reduce the memory effect. Use the battery at least once a month even it was kept in a dry and cool storage.
Clean the metal connector by alcohol or Electronics Cleaner Degreaser. It will maintain the good conductivity and improves the power conduction from battery to Notebook. Fully optimize the Power Management features provide in system BIOS and Operating System will also improve the battery performance. Consult the user's manual to fully understand the usage of these features.
7. What is battery Cycle Life ?
Re: Cycle life is measured by the amount of times a battery may be charged and discharged. Every time a battery is charged and discharged, it uses one cycle. Cycle life is very important in battery applications such as laptop batteries and emergency light batteries. A NiCad battery has a cycle life of 500-1000 or more cycles.
8. What is Info-Lithium problem of Sony replacement batteries ?
Re: Many of Sony batteries are Equipped with a microchip, these batteries are able to communicate with the Camera &Camcorder alike to provide statistical information. When the replacement microchip doesn't match with the camera or camcorder. It will give an error information to the camera and shut down the power automatically. This is so called Sony Info-Lithium problem. |
