Topic: Li-ON battery charge question

[jimmc]

I've just spent almost 2 hours reading through this site and the njb3tapers newsgroup on yahoo and havent found the answer to this question yet. Hoping for some help:

I just got a JB3 and purchased 1 extra Li-ON battery for it. Do I need to run the batteries down to dead before I charge them fully, or do they not have a "memory" to the cells the way a NiCad battery does?

Sorry if this has been answered before, but I couldnt find a thread that cleared it up. On the yahoo group people posting say yes and no, with no resolution to the question.

Thanks in advance,
jimmc

[dklein]

You don't have to worry about it.  Li-ion batteries are supposed to store better with a partial charge so that's probably how it comes.  You can charge it up right when you get it and don't worry about it after that.  No memory effects.  Time, heat and # of cycles are the things that influence the life of your batteries.

here's a good link
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-5.htm

[jimmc]

Thanks for the info dklein. You've helped me out twice today already.  

+T
(I'll hit ya with the +T in 12 hours)

[drumminj]

With all the hubub about the batteries in Apple's iPod, I've seen a lot posted about how to properly treat Lithium-Ion batteries.  Granted, the iPod uses Lithium polymer, I think (is that even different?), but it seems that it's actually a bad thing to regularly run the batteries down completely.  The only reason you would do so is to re-calibrate the battery meter every once in a while.

I didn't read david's link, but it probably says something about this.

J