I have the NIMhd rechargeable pack for the Canon A50. I was wondering if it required a complete charge/discharge cycle to maintain maximum battery life or can I just top it off when I want.

-- Dennis Pereira (dpereira@ultranet.com), September 14, 1999

Answers

NiMH cells supposedly don't need to be fully discharged, as do NiCds, so you should be fine topping them off whenever you want.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), September 16, 1999.

NiMH does not have a memory effect like the NiCd do. However, you should once-in-a-while completely discharge the NiMH and trickle charge it for several hours longer than the full charge. This will extend it's life to it's fullest (ie., be it 500 charge cycles or whatever).

-- Stephen Cheok (drcpu@vcn.bc.ca), September 21, 1999.