So I have an Energizer rechargeable battery station that tells you how many hours it's going to take to fully recharge the batteries. How would we implement this into a project?
I think it would be cool to output on a screen "Recharging - Time Remaining: 2.5 hrs"
Look forward to your responses.
Well - if you know the particular charging rate of the batteries you are using, and you know how much current you are supplying over time, it's not a very difficult calculation.
Likely, though, that recharger station expects you to only use Energizer brand batteries of a certain type(s) which have known charge/discharge curves (by the manufacturer). For instance, I wouldn't expect that charger station to report the proper time needed to charge, say, a set of Sanyo rechargeables or such (unless the curves matched)...
The batteries I use for my robot have the following charge instructions for standard charge.
Charge at 4.6volt with max 7 amp and stop charging when the charge current is equal or below 0.1 Amp.
If you take into account that wear reduces the maximum Ah a battery can hold there is no exact way to predict the charge time.
You could predict the charge time by the current drawn.
You could predict the charge time by temporarily stopping charging; measure the current voltage and calculate.
best regards
Jantje
I plan on using one of the rechargeable batteries from SparkFun I'm sure so it won't be typical AA batteries. The techs at SparkFun will have all the necessary info for calculating. Now that you've explained it, it does seem rather simple once you know all the right numbers. Certainly worth giving a shot.