> I'm sure you can do better than that, but I have some nearly 15-year
> old Sanyo NiMH 1600 maH AAs which still retain 900-1000 maH
> capacity

John, that's probably not too bad for that age. My big disappointment
is the two 18V packs for my B&D drill/reciprocal saw. Initially they
were pretty good but over a couple of years their capacity has dropped
to the point where you couldn't wind spaghetti around a spoon. The
charger is just a rough 23V supply through a diode and resistor. A
friend has given me, again, a 12V lighting pack to service, made of 10
D-size NiCd. It's also got a very crude charger, although at least there's
some feedback from a thermistor. His recurring problem is that he
leaves it too long between charges and then finds one or more cells
with reversed polarity, so I have to get in there and charge each
individually to some extent before charging the whole pack. I suspect
there's some dendrite build-up as some need a zap first, and I don't
think cells are ever as good once they've had dendrites

If the charge method of the posted link is OK, I'd like to add switch
selection for various voltages and a discharge function. I'd keep the
pack charging receptacles and use the manufacturer's transformers
for something else

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