Hi,
At my local tip recycling shop, they have a fair few power drills there, and batteries too. Right now i have discovered the wonders of Li-ion technology, and how awsome it is compared to NiMH ( found i could power an entire project with a single 18650, that otherwise would have needed 4xAA's).
Anyway, they have quite a few drill batteries laying about ,however, they generally charge $5 minimum for anything you buy, regardless of size shape or quantity (that said i can buy several batteries and only pay $5 all up), and generally only have like 3 batteries there at a time. Now sometimes the battery could be in good condition, only tossed because the drill messed up and other times its because they are so old or worn out they expire, they are all flat though and i need to be able to tell the difference. I have a few high power projects comming up in which i basically NEED a big fat Li-ion power pack, or a bigger heavier SLA which probably wont work out.
So my question is this, is there a quick way i can test to see how good a random Li-ion drill battery still is?
Something i can do to get a rough grip on its remaining capacity, just a quick test to see if it is still above 50% its original capacity without actually completely charging it and seeing how long it takes to discharge.
So any suggestions on what i can do to test how good the battery still is?
The project demands high energy output for cheap, though size and capacity are somewhat irrelavent, so this is my best option, i dont want to buy anything because itle cost way too much.
I also dont want to risk them bumping up my tab considerably in a gamble for potentially broken Li-ion batteries.
Please help
At my local tip recycling shop, they have a fair few power drills there, and batteries too. Right now i have discovered the wonders of Li-ion technology, and how awsome it is compared to NiMH ( found i could power an entire project with a single 18650, that otherwise would have needed 4xAA's).
Anyway, they have quite a few drill batteries laying about ,however, they generally charge $5 minimum for anything you buy, regardless of size shape or quantity (that said i can buy several batteries and only pay $5 all up), and generally only have like 3 batteries there at a time. Now sometimes the battery could be in good condition, only tossed because the drill messed up and other times its because they are so old or worn out they expire, they are all flat though and i need to be able to tell the difference. I have a few high power projects comming up in which i basically NEED a big fat Li-ion power pack, or a bigger heavier SLA which probably wont work out.
So my question is this, is there a quick way i can test to see how good a random Li-ion drill battery still is?
Something i can do to get a rough grip on its remaining capacity, just a quick test to see if it is still above 50% its original capacity without actually completely charging it and seeing how long it takes to discharge.
So any suggestions on what i can do to test how good the battery still is?
The project demands high energy output for cheap, though size and capacity are somewhat irrelavent, so this is my best option, i dont want to buy anything because itle cost way too much.
I also dont want to risk them bumping up my tab considerably in a gamble for potentially broken Li-ion batteries.
Please help