low battery indicator on DS

[danielchtong]

pwithem wrote:

Fantastic. I ordered a pair of Moby RCRV3 chargers w/ batteries. I dislike how the chargers will only do one battery at once, so you have to have two if you want them done at the same time.

I had the same thought you had. But I ordered one charger for 4 batt (RCRV3). Well I have found out that I used it very infrequently anyway. That good.

The use of Moby has been extensively reported in the very active Pentax site in Taiwan. As far as I know nobody reported problem at all.

Daniel

[bilybianca]

I can only confirm what others have said: rechargable NiMHs are good at a start, but too soon start to deteriorate.

I started with two sets of texcus 2500 mAh. They didn't last many cycles before the battery indicator started to behave strangely, and finally I got only 20-30 shots out of them after a fresh charge. Bought two new sets, GP 2700 mAh, and have been happy for a year. But now they have started to loose capacity too fast, and it won't be long before I'll have to find something new. So I follow this thread with maximum interest.

Kjell

[pwithem]

^Yeah, I'm glad I started it. It's comforting to hear the consensus on NiMHs and know it's not my DS. I think the only question in my mind is how well the LSD NiMHs work after a year or more of use. Granted from the get-go they have LSD, but my normal NiMHs were quite fine in that regard for the first year or so.

Can any early adopters of the the LSD NiMHs comment on battery longevity? ...or maybe folks have already implied that...

[pwithem]

Just got my batteries yesterday. Got an interesting mix of results with regard to the lithium cells (Moby R-CRV3). After charging both cells, I said what the hey and put them in my camera just to see if it'd work. It didn't, and it game me the dead battery indicator. So then I took turns swapping the cells with my one-use CRV3s and found one of my rechargeables was fine while the other wasn't.

At this point I thought, I'm not going to mess with these further until I take them to work and test their voltages. Upon testing the good R-CRV3, it's unloaded voltage was right near 3.25 V. When I loaded it with a small 3 V DC motor, the voltage blinked but maintained a strong 3.25ish V. Upon releasing the load, the voltage blinked to 3.8 V or so and returned promptly to 3.25 V. I'm thinking the high volt spike doesn't mean much, but when I did the same test with two AA alkalines in series, they didn't produce a spike.

Then I tested the bad R-CRV3 battery. It's unloaded voltage was 3.84 V. When loaded, the voltage dropped to about 2.8 V or lower.

The combined voltages at load would be plenty sufficient to run the camera, but I'm guessing maybe the unloaded voltage seen when turning the camera on may have "scared" or confused it, as it would be seeing ~ 7.1 V. In any case, I called Thomas Distributors and told them and the guy said he'd send me another battery. I mentioned how the Moby cells were advertised as being conditioned for staying near the 3 V mark, but he was a little dubious of that. Since my good cell is solid at 3.25 V, I really hope what he sends me goes no higher than that or I will feel very hesitant about putting them in my DS.

For reference, my one-use CRV3s were dead on at 3 V with or without load.

[danielchtong]

pwithem wrote:

Just got my batteries yesterday. Got an interesting mix of results with regard to the lithium cells (Moby R-CRV3). After charging both cells, I said what the hey and put them in my camera just to see if it'd work. It didn't, and it game me the dead battery indicator. So then I took turns swapping the cells with my one-use CRV3s and found one of my rechargeables was fine while the other wasn't.

At this point I thought, I'm not going to mess with these further until I take them to work and test their voltages. Upon testing the good R-CRV3, it's unloaded voltage was right near 3.25 V. When I loaded it with a small 3 V DC motor, the voltage blinked but maintained a strong 3.25ish V. Upon releasing the load, the voltage blinked to 3.8 V or so and returned promptly to 3.25 V. I'm thinking the high volt spike doesn't mean much, but when I did the same test with two AA alkalines in series, they didn't produce a spike.

Then I tested the bad R-CRV3 battery. It's unloaded voltage was 3.84 V. When loaded, the voltage dropped to about 2.8 V or lower.

The combined voltages at load would be plenty sufficient to run the camera, but I'm guessing maybe the unloaded voltage seen when turning the camera on may have "scared" or confused it, as it would be seeing ~ 7.1 V. In any case, I called Thomas Distributors and told them and the guy said he'd send me another battery. I mentioned how the Moby cells were advertised as being conditioned for staying near the 3 V mark, but he was a little dubious of that. Since my good cell is solid at 3.25 V, I really hope what he sends me goes no higher than that or I will feel very hesitant about putting them in my DS.

For reference, my one-use CRV3s were dead on at 3 V with or without load.

Sorry to hear that you have to return one.
Test the voltage (on the output side) immediately and after 1/2 hr after charging. See if there is any difference.
As long as it is within 10% which is 3.3v, you be fine particularly for DS.

Daniel , Toront

[pwithem]

He was cool about it. He's just going to send me another battery, so I don't have to return anything. I really like the R-CRV3 technology, so I hope what he sends me works out ok.

[pwithem]

I got my replacement battery the other day. Took it to work and it gives 3.26 V or so without load and 3.23 - 3.25 V under load, following a brief dip when the load is applied. The camera zips along nicely.

[danielchtong]

pwithem wrote:

I got my replacement battery the other day. Took it to work and it gives 3.26 V or so without load and 3.23 - 3.25 V under load, following a brief dip when the load is applied. The camera zips along nicely.

Let us know in 1-2 months time about their long term use. Meanwhile I keep snapping my DL with 2 RCRV3 therein. I hardly notice it at all which is a good part using full voltage batt even in -10-20 deg C weather . And that is the reason why Pentax has proprietory batt for K10D

Daniel