On 8/15/05, Wouter van Ooijen <wouter@voti.nl> wrote:
> > Anyone know of a method of detecting if a battery that is 
> > inserted into a charger is alkaline or nicad/niMH?
> 
> apply a square-wave load, observe the voltage difference, estimate
> source resistance? AFAIK the source resistance of NiCad is *much* lower
> than a compareable alkaline. But you might get introuble distinguishing
> a very small NiCad from a large alkaline.

  Apply a square wave when ? after a complete charge-discharge cicle
of the NiMh when it's fully charged, after 30 minutes with heavy load
on the battery, or when the battery is completely discharged? When it
have 60C or when have -10C ?
Source resistance of a good NiMh or NiCd is modifying with about 5-10
x between these situations. So everything is pure fantasy.

Vasile

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist