TakeTheActive said:tripper said:Does anyone know what may be going on with my charger? Is it defective? It will charge the batteries for as long as it's supposed to, then it says that they're "full."...No idea. You haven't given enough details for someone to even suggest an appropriate answer.

• What capacity / kind of batteries?
  
• New or old?
  
• "...as long as it's supposed to..." - What does that mean?
  - What charging rate?
  - What mode?
  - Maybe the batteries are worn out?
  - Maybe you got a FALSE FULL indication?
  
• etc...

• What kind of batteries?
  
• New or old?
  
• What "device"?
  
• "...noted the same behavior..." - what behavior? Is it another camera?

Actually, I was mostly hoping for someone to say "yeah I have the same problem, and I sent mine back to be replaced and now the new one works fine!" I don't expect to find that I did something wrong...

Now that I think about it more, it did not NOT work right out of the box. The first time I ever charged those new batteries that came with the charger my camera worked beautifully and I took over two hundred pictures over a course of a month or two before the batteries gave out. It's only the NEXT time when I charged the batteries that the charger showed "full" but they did not work in my camera for more than a few shots.

tripper said:

Actually, I was mostly hoping for someone to say "yeah I have the same problem, and I sent mine back to be replaced and now the new one works fine!" I don't expect to find that I did something wrong...

Now that I think about it more, it did not NOT work right out of the box. The first time I ever charged those new batteries that came with the charger my camera worked beautifully and I took over two hundred pictures over a course of a month or two before the batteries gave out. It's only the NEXT time when I charged the batteries that the charger showed "full" but they did not work in my camera for more than a few shots.

Revisionist history is meaningless vs reality.. What's the model number on that camera? Probably won't take 30 seconds to plug it in on Google and see that it is known to not work well with NiMH.

tripper said:
OK I really have no clue what that first sentence meant... But, whatever.

I bought a new BC-900 and put in the batteries from the first charger into it. In about an hour they all read "full" but displayed about 700mAh each, while the stated capacity on them is 2600mAh. I read the manual and decided to put them in "Test" mode - and after about 24 hours at 200mA current, they discharged then charged back up and now read around 2.45 Ah, which is great. So, what gives??

It meant that telling a bunch of facts that fit your camera not working on NiMH batteries, someone telling you that's clearly the case, then you saying 'Oh but it magically worked the first time and took 200 shots, so it is my charger like I thought', doesn't make it so. OJ has a better chance of not really being the killer than everything having done exactly as you've described. Your initial set of facts simply match a known problem and nothing else, no amount of revising a few details to try and support your incorrect preconceived notion will make it any more likely.

Even here you're thinking "700 isn't anywhere near 2450, so that supports me". Not the case. 700 is all the BC-900 had to put in to go to full charge, so they already had 1700 mAh or so in them. Having it take them all the way down and back up for 2450 reading just gives you the number to know there was 2450-700 so 1750 or so already in the batteries that first time. IOW there was plenty in them and your camera should have been working fine, if it worked ok with NiMH batteries. Won't be a few shots difference now than before.

What gives is you've got a camera that needs more than the 1.2V that NiMH batteries put out so won't do more than a few shots on them, batteries that can't run your camera since they only give 1.2V each, a charger that works fine but charges batteries that won't run your camera, and now another much better charger for batteries that still won't run your camera for more than that first few shots. And are still keeping the model number to yourself, so we can't do a 30 second search and post a link for how it is well known that your camera doesn't run on NiMH batteries..

Can't start the next reply with the model of your camera then no need to bother, everyone else is pretty much up to speed by now, no sense rehashing it any more.

Alan69 said:tripper said:
OK I really have no clue what that first sentence meant... But, whatever.

I bought a new BC-900 and put in the batteries from the first charger into it. In about an hour they all read "full" but displayed about 700mAh each, while the stated capacity on them is 2600mAh. I read the manual and decided to put them in "Test" mode - and after about 24 hours at 200mA current, they discharged then charged back up and now read around 2.45 Ah, which is great. So, what gives??


It meant that telling a bunch of facts that fit your camera not working on NiMH batteries, someone telling you that's clearly the case, then you saying 'Oh but it magically worked the first time and took 200 shots, so it is my charger like I thought', doesn't make it so. OJ has a better chance of not really being the killer than everything having done exactly as you've described. Your initial set of facts simply match a known problem and nothing else, no amount of revising a few details to try and support your incorrect preconceived notion will make it any more likely.


Even here you're thinking "700 isn't anywhere near 2450, so that supports me". Not the case. 700 is all the BC-900 had to put in to go to full charge, so they already had 1700 mAh or so in them. Having it take them all the way down and back up for 2450 reading just gives you the number to know there was 2450-700 so 1750 or so already in the batteries that first time. IOW there was plenty in them and your camera should have been working fine, if it worked ok with NiMH batteries. Won't be a few shots difference now than before.

What gives is you've got a camera that needs more than the 1.2V that NiMH batteries put out so won't do more than a few shots on them, batteries that can't run your camera since they only give 1.2V each, a charger that works fine but charges batteries that won't run your camera, and now another much better charger for batteries that still won't run your camera for more than that first few shots. And are still keeping the model number to yourself, so we can't do a 30 second search and post a link for how it is well known that your camera doesn't run on NiMH batteries..


Can't start the next reply with the model of your camera then no need to bother, everyone else is pretty much up to speed by now, no sense rehashing it any more.

Oh my God, give it a rest, will ya? Are you one of those people who give a cat a piece of meat on a string and then pull on the string once the meat is in the cat's stomach? If you wanna help, please save the sarcasm, or else don't bother answering.

My camera is Canon S3 IS, and my 30 second google search shows that it has no problems running on NiMH batteries. Why do you assume that I did not try that out first, before I even posted my first question?

And, if, as you say, it even was my camera, there is no way that it would have worked with those batteries the FIRST time, as it did just fine.

What I was not sure of was whether the display of the charger showed the *total* capacity of the battery or just how much extra it put into it. I will test out those batteries now that I got a new charger and see if there was any difference.

Thanks for your "help."

ptpt said:Agreed, friend. However, one thing I have not been able to find out is if the BC-900 tests the level of charge (and therefore gives of reading/level) by actually applying some kind of load to the battery, or not.

Does anyone know for sure?Yes.

RTFM (Read the !@#$ manual) : La Crosse Technology: BC-900 Alpha Power Battery Charger $79.95

There is SO MUCH information available on the La Crosse BC-900 (and the more expensive Maha MH-C9000) that I personally just cannot understand WHY folks post such questions insteading of just GOOGLE'ing for the answer. Is it that they're LAZY, or that they just don't know???

Yes, I'm on a "Rechargeable Batteries & Chargers" kick right now (I *STILL* have a few GE NiCds from ~1988 in service ), so, that's what I'm currently reading (mostly over at the CandlePower Forums). If you check my FW post history, I was previously on a "Mio DigiWalker C320x GPS" kick.

I feel that as long as I'm investing my time and energy to find the answers to *MY* questions, I might as well share the answers with others...

Alan69 said:tripper said:...The first time I ever charged those new batteries that came with the charger my camera worked beautifully and I took over two hundred pictures over a course of a month or two before the batteries gave out. It's only the NEXT time when I charged the batteries that the charger showed "full" but they did not work in my camera for more than a few shots.Revisionist history is meaningless vs reality.. What's the model number on that camera? Probably won't take 30 seconds to plug it in on Google and see that it is known to not work well with NiMH.Actually , if the camera worked fine the "...first time...", there's probably nothing wrong with the camera.

More than likely, it's "Operator Error"...

Alan69 said:...I was planning on building a custom charger for myself, and discussion of some of the limitations of the La Crosse and Maha has given me some extra ideas and convinced me to build it as a product as well. Can't wait to get it done now! Please keep me informed of your progress (PM / E-Mail) and when you're ready for a BETA TESTER, I'm available!

Alan69 said:...Thanks for these links guys.. I'm as ADDICTED to the CandlePower Forums now as I was ADDICTED to the GPS Passion Forums a few months ago...

older people are more inconsiderate and bitter. The young are just rash and impatient.

if you must know the bc-900 is not that good of a product. honestly I think the company has quite a few employees spamming forums and giving it rave reviews. The only use for this product maybe to recondition battery but it's cheaper to buy some name brand batteries and replace them quite honestly non working battery. Like you said you have to be pretty anal to waste time troubleshooting a product or the other time consuming and energy consuming features. Get a low slow charge charger and some name brand low discharge batteries like eneveloop or duracell precharged and you will save loads more than wasting money on this product.

TakeTheActive said:ptpt said:Agreed, friend. However, one thing I have not been able to find out is if the BC-900 tests the level of charge (and therefore gives of reading/level) by actually applying some kind of load to the battery, or not.

Does anyone know for sure?Yes.

RTFM (Read the !@#$ manual) : La Crosse Technology: BC-900 Alpha Power Battery Charger $79.95

There is SO MUCH information available on the La Crosse BC-900 (and the more expensive Maha MH-C9000) that I personally just cannot understand WHY folks post such questions insteading of just GOOGLE'ing for the answer. Is it that they're LAZY, or that they just don't know???

Yes, I'm on a "Rechargeable Batteries & Chargers" kick right now (I *STILL* have a few GE NiCds from ~1988 in service ), so, that's what I'm currently reading (mostly over at the CandlePower Forums). If you check my FW post history, I was previously on a "Mio DigiWalker C320x GPS" kick.

I feel that as long as I'm investing my time and energy to find the answers to *MY* questions, I might as well share the answers with others...

I still have a few of the old GE nicads C/D's (white with black lettering and picture of black power plug/cord) around but not in service. Also have some of the Radio Shack nicad AA's (white with purple lettering). Using Rayovac nimh 2900 C/D's from a few years back at HD for $1.50 2pk. Using Sanyo and rayovac hybrids AA/AAA's now for a few years now. Snagged the hybrids with the $5 off coupons a few years back.

I have 3 bc-900's I have been using for about 3 yrs. firmware 33.