Russell,

On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 02:33:36 +1200, Russell McMahon wrote:

>...<
> LiIon tends to be dear and potentially tricky to charge (although 
> simple scheme that don't develop full capacity may be OK).
> LiIon would be acceptable performance wise if cost was acceptable wrt 
> Lead Acid.
> 
> Any comments most welcome. 

Just one:  as far as I know there is *no* simple scheme to charge Li-Ion batteries (like constant current or 
constant voltage) - you have to follow the rules and they aren't that simple!  Lead-Acid are by far the most 
simple to charge and the most forgiving of abuse.

And (OK, two!) if you're using the charging-effort as the fitness element you will need an alternative energy 
dump (say a big hefty heat-sinked resistor) as well because you can't be sure the battery will always take the 
energy the punter is putting into the system.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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