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> A huge number of appliances seem to be designed for the 1.35V NiMH chemistry now. Yes, this is my experience too. One of the problems with NiMH is that appli

> A huge number of appliances seem to be designed for the 1.35V NiMH chemistry now. Yes, this is my experience too. One of the problems with NiMH is that appliances have helpful low-battery indicators which might light up as soon as you put NiMH cells in them, even though the appliance might continue working for a long time yet. A prime example is the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which was released in 2001. The thing is powered by switching regulators which work fine with the lower voltages of NiMH cells! Newer appliances have solved these problems. For example, the Yamaha PSS-A50 (a fantastic, inexpensive portable keyboard) has an option to configure the low-battery indicator for alkaline or NiMH chemistry.

ace2358 5y ago
Totally agree! My Game Boy Advanced power light is green for about an hour then red for hours and hours on my eneloops. Also my Tascam field recorder has the option for alkaline or NiMH batteries. I still have some kitchen scales that won’t work with NiMH though :( I’ve had my energiser batteries for almost 10 years and I’ve been rotating them through devices and the charger. Only recently have I begun to lose some cells. Time to upgrade them all to eneloops!!
- dragontamer 5y ago
  Honestly, Eneloop's advantage is overstated these days. Amazon Basics is likely an older Eneloop design for example (Panasonic makes eneloop, and seems to be making Amazon-Basic NiMHs). Energizer's "AA Recharge" series is also LSD these days, and probably easier to source than Eneloop. Eneloop deserves credit for shifting the market-perception on NiMHs a decade ago. But the other companies have caught on and have created well functioning, low-self-discharge chemistries of their own by now. ------- I'd recommend "whatever is cheapest to ship to you". Energizer mostly for me, since I buy from Walmart / Home Depot (etc. etc.). A lot of people buy from Amazon, so "Amazon Basics" tacked onto your next order is probably a good idea. Eneloop commands a higher price and has some advantages. But I find that Energizer / Amazon Basics are both good enough for me.
- mikepurvis 5y ago
  A quick googling reveals nothing, but I wonder if a simple hardware mod could address this— basically, identify the voltage divider that's doing the measurement across the battery and change out one of the resistors so that it "sees" 1.35V as 1.5V. Most GBA battery mod posts are about people upgrading units to have built-in lithium packs, USB-C charge ports, etc etc.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    Nope. Alkaline at 100% charge is 1.5V, at 50% charge it's 1.2V, at 0% charge it's .9V. NiMH at 100% charge is 1.35V, at 50% charge it's 1.35V, at 0% charge it's like 1.2V Totally different discharge curves. There's no simple circuit to convert between the two. ----- EDIT: For hard data, see: Energizer NiMH : https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/nh15-2300gl1220.pdf https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/nh15-2300gl1220.pdf Energizer Alkaline: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/e91gl0320.pdf https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/e91gl0320.pdf
    - mikepurvis 5y ago
      Oh yeah, I'm aware that for any other chemistry you need an actual coulomb-counter to get a proper gas gauge. My suggestion was more about the specific matter of suppressing an unwanted and inaccurate low battery light. Though maybe instead of trying to mod the circuit board, it would be easier to just disconnect the LED itself.
      - stavros 5y ago
        Or just to ignore it.
        ace2358 5y ago
        Haha try as I might, my child brain still panics when I see that red LED and I end up saving more often because of it haha
        5y ago
justinator 5y ago
Thankfully my not so new handheld Garmin GPS unit has a specific NiMH battery mode. I'm sure it just changes the algorthm slightly to work with the NiMH's discharge rate.
dragontamer 5y ago
> Newer appliances have solved these problems. For example, the Yamaha PSS-A50 (a fantastic, inexpensive portable keyboard) has an option to configure the low-battery indicator for alkaline or NiMH chemistry. Different NiMH chemistries have slightly different voltage curves. Its an insidious problem. Different brands of NiMH just discharges in a "flat" manner, and all of them are at slightly different voltages. The electronics assume a voltage curve of Eneloop (typically, since Eneloop is the most popular NiMH brand), and other brands with their slightly different voltage-curves will throw it off. ----------- I find it more important to locally source NiMH batteries (ie: what I can buy from Walmart / Home Depo down the street, rather than paying for Amazon shipping) rather than standardizing upon the Eneloops that everyone else is buying, lol. When I need a new AA cell, I buy it in my typical shopping runs, rather than waiting for shipping. I don't care enough about the voltage-curve problem to mass buy Eneloops yet. I largely just accept that the "low-battery" indicators are perpetually wrong.
Gigachad 5y ago
One interesting solution I saw was batteries which stick a lithium battery + charge controller / voltage adapter inside the AA package so they can be used on any device.
_whiteCaps_ 5y ago
I had some old (built in the 80s?) handheld radios that included a dummy battery for when you were using alkalines, and you'd populate all the positions with real batteries if you were using rechargables. I think it was something unusual like 8 batteries in series.

ace2358 5y ago

Totally agree! My Game Boy Advanced power light is green for about an hour then red for hours and hours on my eneloops. Also my Tascam field recorder has the option for alkaline or NiMH batteries. I still have some kitchen scales that won’t work with NiMH though :( I’ve had my energiser batteries for almost 10 years and I’ve been rotating them through devices and the charger. Only recently have I begun to lose some cells. Time to upgrade them all to eneloops!!

dragontamer 5y ago
Honestly, Eneloop's advantage is overstated these days. Amazon Basics is likely an older Eneloop design for example (Panasonic makes eneloop, and seems to be making Amazon-Basic NiMHs). Energizer's "AA Recharge" series is also LSD these days, and probably easier to source than Eneloop. Eneloop deserves credit for shifting the market-perception on NiMHs a decade ago. But the other companies have caught on and have created well functioning, low-self-discharge chemistries of their own by now. ------- I'd recommend "whatever is cheapest to ship to you". Energizer mostly for me, since I buy from Walmart / Home Depot (etc. etc.). A lot of people buy from Amazon, so "Amazon Basics" tacked onto your next order is probably a good idea. Eneloop commands a higher price and has some advantages. But I find that Energizer / Amazon Basics are both good enough for me.
mikepurvis 5y ago
A quick googling reveals nothing, but I wonder if a simple hardware mod could address this— basically, identify the voltage divider that's doing the measurement across the battery and change out one of the resistors so that it "sees" 1.35V as 1.5V. Most GBA battery mod posts are about people upgrading units to have built-in lithium packs, USB-C charge ports, etc etc.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  Nope. Alkaline at 100% charge is 1.5V, at 50% charge it's 1.2V, at 0% charge it's .9V. NiMH at 100% charge is 1.35V, at 50% charge it's 1.35V, at 0% charge it's like 1.2V Totally different discharge curves. There's no simple circuit to convert between the two. ----- EDIT: For hard data, see: Energizer NiMH : https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/nh15-2300gl1220.pdf https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/nh15-2300gl1220.pdf Energizer Alkaline: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/e91gl0320.pdf https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/e91gl0320.pdf
  - mikepurvis 5y ago
    Oh yeah, I'm aware that for any other chemistry you need an actual coulomb-counter to get a proper gas gauge. My suggestion was more about the specific matter of suppressing an unwanted and inaccurate low battery light. Though maybe instead of trying to mod the circuit board, it would be easier to just disconnect the LED itself.
    - stavros 5y ago
      Or just to ignore it.
      - ace2358 5y ago
        Haha try as I might, my child brain still panics when I see that red LED and I end up saving more often because of it haha
        5y ago

justinator 5y ago

Thankfully my not so new handheld Garmin GPS unit has a specific NiMH battery mode. I'm sure it just changes the algorthm slightly to work with the NiMH's discharge rate.

dragontamer 5y ago

> Newer appliances have solved these problems. For example, the Yamaha PSS-A50 (a fantastic, inexpensive portable keyboard) has an option to configure the low-battery indicator for alkaline or NiMH chemistry. Different NiMH chemistries have slightly different voltage curves. Its an insidious problem. Different brands of NiMH just discharges in a "flat" manner, and all of them are at slightly different voltages. The electronics assume a voltage curve of Eneloop (typically, since Eneloop is the most popular NiMH brand), and other brands with their slightly different voltage-curves will throw it off. ----------- I find it more important to locally source NiMH batteries (ie: what I can buy from Walmart / Home Depo down the street, rather than paying for Amazon shipping) rather than standardizing upon the Eneloops that everyone else is buying, lol. When I need a new AA cell, I buy it in my typical shopping runs, rather than waiting for shipping. I don't care enough about the voltage-curve problem to mass buy Eneloops yet. I largely just accept that the "low-battery" indicators are perpetually wrong.

Gigachad 5y ago

One interesting solution I saw was batteries which stick a lithium battery + charge controller / voltage adapter inside the AA package so they can be used on any device.

_whiteCaps_ 5y ago

I had some old (built in the 80s?) handheld radios that included a dummy battery for when you were using alkalines, and you'd populate all the positions with real batteries if you were using rechargables. I think it was something unusual like 8 batteries in series.