How to prepair a virgin battery?

[ken830]

I mostly agree with MSWLogo... People shouldn't be giving advise based on some perceived, uncontrolled, un-reproducible test results... I mean.. not even test results, but merely personal observation...

Lithium-Ion cells are created by chemists, researchers, and engineers, all of whom studied the chemistry of various cells and designed the batteries to be charged and discharged in a very specific manner for some very good reasons.

And the phone/charger manufacturers designed the battery packs and charging circuitry so that you and I don't have to have a deep understanding about the way it works.

Lithium-Ion cells should never, ever be discharged completely. In fact, they should really never be allowed to drop below about 2.7V cell to prevent permanent damage. Below 2.5V, and most won't even be usable anymore. And if it's severely discharged, internal shorts will form, creating dangerous conditions if charging is attempted. But consumers don't need to know all of this. So, the battery packs all have built-in circuitry to cut-off current when capacity reaches a pre-defined level. You and I don't have to worry about it.

Lithium-Ion cells should also never, ever be over-charged. They can be charged at a constant pre-defined current, or charge rate (about 0.8 to 1.0 C), until a threshold voltage is reached (about 4.2 V) and then the current will need to be throttled down to maintain a constant voltage. Charging should stop when the charge current to maintin the constant voltage is below a certain threshold. So, the battery chargers and phone manufacturers build-in charging circuitry that will NOT trickle-charge the battery after going through the proper charge cycle. It should be smart enough to periodically keep it topped-off with short periods of current. You and I don't have to worry about it.

Lithium-cells (as with cells of any other type of chemistry I know of) also have maximum discharge rates as well. Unlike Nickel-based cells that simply loose much of their capacity and efficiency when you discharge too quickly, Lithium-based cells can become dangerous. But they have safety circuitry to prevent that from happening too. So you and I don't have to worry about it.

We only need to keep the battery at a reasonable full level, and that's the best we can do.

There are a lot of blantent misconceptions/rumors/misinformation floating around about Lithium-Cells:
- Lithium-based cells do no exhibit "memory" effects.
- They do NOT need "cycling" or "priming" and it will not help in any way. Period.


In contrast, in the R/C hobby, we don't have a lot of these inherent safety mechanisms built-in. We use raw-cells and have to program our chargers to properly and safely charge and monitor our battery packs.

[silver-eagle]

It's hard to let the device charge uninterrupted for 12 hours when it is your primary phone as mine has been for the last 4 years. (Odd, but that seems to be true now with most folks. Call the cell because they're more likely to be close to it.)
As to battery life, google lists lots of references. One of the things I noticed though, is the lack of battery manufacturers from the list. Most are either echos of what's printed in our owners manual or anecdotal
Good luck. These batteries are in everything. And they hardly last as long as we need them (my GPS seems to have about 4 hours).
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com...n-battery2.htm

[nelly48237]

actually, both of you are right. batteries have cells in them, and when a battery completely drains, the cells can get damaged... and when cells get damaged, they can no longer hold a charge. as time passes, more cells gets damaged and the battery life runs out faster. so mswlogo, you are partially right. as for completely draining a battery to make it work longer, this too works... when done correctly. sometimes a damage cell can correct itself when all of the power is drained out of the battery and its recharged. it's something like resetting a phone to correct a problem or turning your computer off and re-starting it. so EtherealRemnant, you are partially correct too. when it's not okay to drain a battery completely is while using it and it dying while using it or using it when it has very little power because it creates a high current draw and this is what can damage some of the cells. as for leaving it charging all day. it is good to keep it charging when not using it. however, when the phone says the battery is fully charge, you should take it off the charger because over charging a battery can also damage some of the cells. it like when you give a guy a boost with jumper cables to jump start his car. when his car starts, you need to take off the cables as soon as possible so the it is not receiving an overcharge from getting charge from two different sources; the car alternator and the car giving it a jump. i am a license electrician, thats how i know about this

[EtherealRemnant]

I don't really think that you have to worry about over-charging the device... I can tell you that when I take my phone off the charger after leaving it on it all night, the phone is ice cold with a green light whereas when it is charging, it gets extremely warm. The device probably stops the current flow when its fully charged.

The difference is... if you have a battery that is almost completely charged and then you put it on a charger, its going to try charging the battery even though its full and I could see how that could damage the cells.

Honestly though, the only device I've ever had from a Nokia 3390 Gold to a SE T300 to the T610 to the Sidekick II to the Sidekick III to the 6700 to the 6800 to the 6900, only the Sidekick II ever had a severe loss of charge... the other phones still charged just as well as when I bought them even if they were sitting on a shelf with a completely drained battery for months (T610).

[sn0b0ard]

Originally Posted by shortstack2000

Its pretty simple, the very first time your battery is charged, to not inturrupt the charge and let it charge fully, best to just leave it on the charger overnight. The very first charge is a "memory" that the battery will keep, so a full charge the first time and after that it does not matter, ive done that with over a dozen phones, pda or not, and always had exceptional baterry life for the phone i am using.

Lithium Ion batteries DO NOT HAVE MEMORY. This was from the old Nickel-Cadmium batteries. The first charge will only take a few hours (depending on the capacity), and this does not change at all during the life span of the battery. In short, you do not have to charge Lithium Ion batteries for 12+ hours if the regular charge is only 3-4 hours.

[Lylej2k]

Originally Posted by ken830

.


In contrast, in the R/C hobby, we don't have a lot of these inherent safety mechanisms built-in. We use raw-cells and have to program our chargers to properly and safely charge and monitor our battery packs.

woooohoooo another R/C guy! I'm not the only one... but I'm a nitro nut. i think its the fumes...

[shortstack2000]

Originally Posted by sn0b0ard

Lithium Ion batteries DO NOT HAVE MEMORY. This was from the old Nickel-Cadmium batteries. The first charge will only take a few hours (depending on the capacity), and this does not change at all during the life span of the battery. In short, you do not have to charge Lithium Ion batteries for 12+ hours if the regular charge is only 3-4 hours.

as far as all information i have read on all lithium ion batteries, they do not keep a memory based on how they were last charged, but they do have a memory on there initial charge, as i stated earlier. the old nik cad batteries had a refreshed memory everytime it hit a charger. With the new ones, the initial charge is all that matters. Yes 2-3 hours is usually all it takes to fully charge a new battery, but leaving it on overnight makes the user less likely to play with it while it is charging initially and taking the change of it being removed from charger

[sn0b0ard]

Originally Posted by Lylej2k

woooohoooo another R/C guy! I'm not the only one... but I'm a nitro nut. i think its the fumes...

I love nitro!

I have a Team Associated RC10GT2. What do you run?

[Lylej2k]

Originally Posted by sn0b0ard

I love nitro!

I have a Team Associated RC10GT2. What do you run?

Traxxas Jato 3.3 and 33% nitro just for fun.

and just like my phone I've modded and tweaked the hell out of it.

[sn0b0ard]

Originally Posted by shortstack2000

as far as all information i have read on all lithium ion batteries, they do not keep a memory based on how they were last charged, but they do have a memory on there initial charge, as i stated earlier. the old nik cad batteries had a refreshed memory everytime it hit a charger. With the new ones, the initial charge is all that matters. Yes 2-3 hours is usually all it takes to fully charge a new battery, but leaving it on overnight makes the user less likely to play with it while it is charging initially and taking the change of it being removed from charger

Seriously though, they don't have any memory at all. And that's a good thing, because it doesn't take as long to charge initially!

It's a common misconception because we have all been indoctrinated with overcharging on the first charge. That's mainly because Nickel-Cadmium was the battery of choice for so long. And then came Litium-Ion. From Cadex Electronics:

"Lithium-ion is a very clean system and does not need priming as nickel-based batteries do. The 1st charge is no different to the 5th or the 50th charge. Stickers instructing to charge the battery for 8 hours or more for the first time may be a leftover from the nickel battery days."

Source:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm