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For this to have worked, the frame must be quite heavy to allow the shredder mechanism to be hidden within a hollowed out area and not be noticed by being heavier at one end. Along with that, the canvas must have seemed to be mounted in an atypical fashion so that the feed and guides were invisible. Finally, I presume that the shredder was controlled by something like a cell phone - I presume there would be a big honking battery in there because I would have to think would be days/weeks between receiving the art, having it on display and then starting the auction.

I disagree.

First hardwood frames are REALLY heavy, like surprisingly so. The shredder mechanism isn't going to be an office-type shredder which can handle 6 sheets at once and has a service life of thousands of sheets. It had to shred half a thing once ever. So, it could be of a much lighter construction; it's not like banksy had to worry about it getting blunted through use.

For the power source, a stack of primary lithium AAs would be more than adequate. And they have a very long shelf life (95% after 20 years).

http://data.energizer.com/pdfs... (page 14)

Triggering is an interesting one. Banksy was clearly there or sent someone there since he's subsequently posted a video of the shredding. So, the triggering could have been local either by RF or infra-red. That leads to a lot of interesting options. Sensors based on those are much, much lower power than a cell phone. And you could do something like wake up for a second every hour to listen for a signal, then either deep sleep or stay alert depending.

It would take some decent EE nouse to design that to last for a long time, but then again a smoke alarm can last a decade off a lithium PP3, and this thing could have had a lot more battery power in it.

That discharge curve you posted lacks context. What's the discharge rate? What battery?

And unfortunately, the source page does not provide these details either, basically making the chart useless. In fact, I suspect that the author just drew it freehand rather than actually measuring it? Certainly, his starting voltage is flat out *wrong* and his curve seems too flat. (In fact, he has the NiMH voltage *increasing* slightly during parts of the discharge period!)

Here's a better reference, with a much more useful discharge curve on page six. This is for a specific battery (Energizer NiMH NH15 AA) at a specific discharge rate (750 mA with a pulse (presumably the pulse is to remove the effect of the internal resistance when measuring and to simulate a low discharge rate -- which I would call slightly misleading, but they did disclose it.) Note the starting voltage of a bit over 1.4 volts, and note that once the battery hits 1.2 volts ... it is indeed about halfway discharged.

If you'd like to see a bunch more *real world* NiMH discharge curves, here you go. Keep in mind that they're not all for a single cell, but those that are start at a bit over 1.4 volts for lower discharge rates and a bit under 1.4 volts for higher discharge rates. And here's the alkaline discharge curves to compare to.

Self-discharge alone will drop most NiMH/NiCd cells to below 1.4V pretty quickly.

They do have a significant self discharge rate -- but still, they start at 1.41 volts, not 1.22 volts. And the low-discharge rate NiMH cells (like the Eneloops) have *greatly* reduced the self discharge rate.

Either way, if you were trying to explain why primary batteries are rated based on their starting voltages and primary batteries on their "middle of their discharge curve" voltages ... you didn't really succeed. The real world discharge curves for NiMH and alkaline batteries look pretty similar, but why should we look at the very highest point for alkalines and the middle point for NiMH beyond "that's the way it's always been done" ?

There sure seems to be a lot of variance in published OC voltages, I agree. It's handy to know the no-load OC voltage of batteries (so that you can spec other components in the system), but as you state it would also be interesting to know the V/I curve. Most manufacturers actually do publish that sort of data.

There sure seems to be a lot of variance in published OC voltages, I agree. It's handy to know the no-load OC voltage of batteries (so that you can spec other components in the system), but as you state it would also be interesting to know the V/I curve. Most manufacturers actually do publish that sort of data.

Hundreds of thousands killed is bad, but: with hydro, people die, and that's that.

Not so with nuclear: It keeps going and going.

With nuclear you have to have trust in humans, and especially politicians and corporate executives, for thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of years. You've never doubted their absolute integrity, right?

Energizer advertises a 15 year shelf life for their Ultimate Lithium AA.

Shelf life and active life (for lack of a better word) are two completely different things.
The shelf life refers to the rate at which the battery will self-discharge.
The actual usefulness of the battery afterwards depends entirely on the chemistry and the application you intend for it.

That particular lithium you referenced will last hours longer than most batteries, not years longer.

Timex makes several watches with an advertized battery life of 10 years.

Besides, the battery doesn't particularly need to be in any standard form factor if it will never be replaced.

I guess Energizer doesn't know as much shit as you either? Lithium Ion Batteries PRODUCT SAFETY DATA SHEET

We are pointing fingers at Chinese and Energizer for this.
What I want to know is where were our army of nerds that are supposedly looking for these types of trojans or viruses and why did it take 2.5 years to find out about it?
Surely some of the big companies selling us anti-virus and anti-trojans had some of there products on infected machines. Why weren't they able to catch on to this? I'd assume that some of them were using heuristic algorithms
What I would assume is that a lot of people saw the sign but didn't act on the problem (open 7777 ports)?
But it also may be that this trojan didn't effect that many computers and that is why it wasn't seen for a long time.

When someone complained about this software and reported as a possible trojan/virus this is the answer that was given in a "Windows User Group" in 2008
I found this DLL comes from Enegizer USB Charger: http://www.energizer.com/usbcharger/language/english/download.aspx
Aside from causing reported problems, this is not a trojan.

So really looking at it, I see it as a failure of our community.

Did snort ever detect an infected machine as having malicious activity?
Why didn't we catch this sooner and how many more like this are out there?

We have now given the recipe for having a non-detectable root-kit, use something that isn't going to be used by a lot of people and infected a small number of computers, use these as stations to infect others.

I agree that AA's suck as a battery choice, but they do also come in Lithium.

I've been using these in my old hp 3.1 megapixel camera, these last longer than any other AA I've used, it may help you the next time you have to use AA's.

http://www.energizer.com/products/hightech-batteries/lithium/pages/lithium-batteries.aspx

"Forget the charger, and get him something nice that runs on AAs."

Good luck. There's almost no mp3 players or cameras that run on AAs. However Energizer has the Energi To Go that charges most devices with regular AAs, including a version for iPods and one that has a mini-USB plug that's very popular on many digital cameras and cellphones. I'd suggest buying a device that can be charged with those.

Energizer charger model CHM24: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/chm24.pdf

Energizer NiMH batteries (silver in color): http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/nh15.pdf

I've used these exclusively for several years (the same batteries) and they work great in all applications.

You can find these everywhere: online, drug stores, supermarkets, department stores, etc.

Charge time on this charger model is 15 hours - but this extends the battery's functional lifespan. These batteries are cheap enough that I keep several more than I need in all my devices at any given time, so I never have to wait for a charge.

Have had a pair of these AAA in a TV remote since 2004- still going without a charge. Haven't bought batteries in 3 years.

Energizer charger model CHM24: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/chm24.pdf

Energizer NiMH batteries (silver in color): http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/nh15.pdf

I've used these exclusively for several years (the same batteries) and they work great in all applications.

You can find these everywhere: online, drug stores, supermarkets, department stores, etc.

Charge time on this charger model is 15 hours - but this extends the battery's functional lifespan. These batteries are cheap enough that I keep several more than I need in all my devices at any given time, so I never have to wait for a charge.

Have had a pair of these AAA in a TV remote since 2004- still going without a charge. Haven't bought batteries in 3 years.

The Eveready site, http://data.energizer.com/ shows that NiMH AA batteries have 30-40 milliohms internal resistence and can be used to put out 4A continuously. For the Li AA they don't recommend more than 3A burst mode, so in fact the NiMH batteries should be just as suitable. I always do carry some Li batteries as emergency spares, for one thing they have essentially unlimited life (90% power after 15 years!). NiMH batteries lose 1-2% of their charge per day so you need to charge every month to make sure they aren't too low on charge.

If the publishers and content produces for MMO's are going to stick advertising in games, then I have no problem continuing to pay my monthly fee so long as the revenue from said advertising is used to improve the game im playing. Less downtime should be a top priority for both sides because downtime = less advert money. More content in general would also be nice. More places for that advertising to go i figure. You have to remember that disneyland is like the real life equivelent for an MMO, and in addition to your entrance fee, many of the E Ticket rides have corporate sponsors, which is totaly cool because it means the ride is better than it otherwise would have been. As long as the big wigs at the publishing companies arent just fattening their wallets, im cool with in-game advertising.

I throw all my used batteries in the garbage. Is that wrong? http://www.energizer.com/products/faq.asp?q=3%233

Parent has obviously never looked at a discharge curve for either NiMH or Alkaline batteries, otherwise he'd know that the 1.5V vs 1.2V is absolute bullshit; neither stays above 1.2V for more than about 5% of its life under any real load. See for the specs on an Energizer e91 (2850 mAh, Alkaline) vs here for specifications on a 2300 mAh Energizer NiMH rechargable. Furthermore, NiMH capacities are up to Alkaline capacities these days, without the obnoxious strain alkalines have under high drain (like say running a digital camera, Alkalines typically die after a tenth of what a high capacity NiMH will do, simply due to how Alkalines react to a high current). That is plainly visible in the above, at 0.1C, the NiMH outperforms the Alkaline by 90 minutes of discharge, and the difference only gets bigger from there on out. Please note that the NiMH is 550 mAh smaller than the Alkaline, yet is outperforming it by 15%.

The only good use for Alkalines is in very, very low discharge devices like remote controls. NiMH batteries have a steady self-discharge, which means that in a remote, NiMHs might only last 1/3rd the time as an alkaline, due to the NiMH discharging itself.

Parent has obviously never looked at a discharge curve for either NiMH or Alkaline batteries, otherwise he'd know that the 1.5V vs 1.2V is absolute bullshit; neither stays above 1.2V for more than about 5% of its life under any real load. See for the specs on an Energizer e91 (2850 mAh, Alkaline) vs here for specifications on a 2300 mAh Energizer NiMH rechargable. Furthermore, NiMH capacities are up to Alkaline capacities these days, without the obnoxious strain alkalines have under high drain (like say running a digital camera, Alkalines typically die after a tenth of what a high capacity NiMH will do, simply due to how Alkalines react to a high current). That is plainly visible in the above, at 0.1C, the NiMH outperforms the Alkaline by 90 minutes of discharge, and the difference only gets bigger from there on out. Please note that the NiMH is 550 mAh smaller than the Alkaline, yet is outperforming it by 15%.

The only good use for Alkalines is in very, very low discharge devices like remote controls. NiMH batteries have a steady self-discharge, which means that in a remote, NiMHs might only last 1/3rd the time as an alkaline, due to the NiMH discharging itself.

A buncha "D" cells. Yes, a buncha "D" cells. What do you think are in some of those nifty sealed battery packs, anyway, these days?

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/cta-d-rechargea ble-batteries.php

has rechargables, Ni-MH "D" cells rated at 12 amp-hours; yes, 12,000 milliamp-hours each, if you hafta be Green. However, the Real Deal, eTanium(TM) is rated at 21.5 AH each:

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/x95.pdf

and even your buy-them-at-three-AM-from-7-11 variety alkalines develop 20.5 AH

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/e95.pdf

Buy once, run down, throw them away. Cheap, cheap, cheap. You don't need a gauge; your spendy laptop has one.

Add two of these
http://tinyurl.com/4m6my

a little soldering, the right length of cord & the right-sized connector tip
http://tinyurl.com/5x4om

an Bob's Yer Uncle.

Don't add more than you need, and jump across the contacts if you only need seven cells to make the optimal voltage, instead of going over your laptop's rated voltage by more than a volt. The voltage regulator would just have to step down the power, which makes extra heat in your laptop, which slows down your processor, and accelerates battery drain.

Seven of the el cheapo "D" cells plus a jumper wire give me 20.5 AH for $10, plus $2 in parts and the connector I scrounged off a blown power supply. That's 10.7 times the capacity of the standard battery (2 hour run time) on my Fujitsu Lifebook. Geez, fly to Oz on those suckers. Then, I can go to a 7-11 there, buy another set of "D" cells, and have juice for the flight home.

If you're neither handy nor handsome, Mouser
http://tinyurl.com/6wq7g
has every power connector in the Twelve Colonies,
http://scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast
everything the Lords of Kobol ever designed. Or, pay $10 to The Shack for the aforementioned iGo tip, cuz, well, iGo tips are right there in the store, where the rest of your parts are.

Too bulky? You can downsize it to "C" cells, or even "AA" cells, as seven "AA" batteries exceed the capacity of my spendy, storebought factory battery pack by 50%.

But, then, I'm a ham, one of the crash test dummies of the electronics world, and we do these things so you don't have to.

A buncha "D" cells. Yes, a buncha "D" cells. What do you think are in some of those nifty sealed battery packs, anyway, these days?

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/cta-d-rechargea ble-batteries.php

has rechargables, Ni-MH "D" cells rated at 12 amp-hours; yes, 12,000 milliamp-hours each, if you hafta be Green. However, the Real Deal, eTanium(TM) is rated at 21.5 AH each:

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/x95.pdf

and even your buy-them-at-three-AM-from-7-11 variety alkalines develop 20.5 AH

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/e95.pdf

Buy once, run down, throw them away. Cheap, cheap, cheap. You don't need a gauge; your spendy laptop has one.

Add two of these
http://tinyurl.com/4m6my

a little soldering, the right length of cord & the right-sized connector tip
http://tinyurl.com/5x4om

an Bob's Yer Uncle.

Don't add more than you need, and jump across the contacts if you only need seven cells to make the optimal voltage, instead of going over your laptop's rated voltage by more than a volt. The voltage regulator would just have to step down the power, which makes extra heat in your laptop, which slows down your processor, and accelerates battery drain.

Seven of the el cheapo "D" cells plus a jumper wire give me 20.5 AH for $10, plus $2 in parts and the connector I scrounged off a blown power supply. That's 10.7 times the capacity of the standard battery (2 hour run time) on my Fujitsu Lifebook. Geez, fly to Oz on those suckers. Then, I can go to a 7-11 there, buy another set of "D" cells, and have juice for the flight home.

If you're neither handy nor handsome, Mouser
http://tinyurl.com/6wq7g
has every power connector in the Twelve Colonies,
http://scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast
everything the Lords of Kobol ever designed. Or, pay $10 to The Shack for the aforementioned iGo tip, cuz, well, iGo tips are right there in the store, where the rest of your parts are.

Too bulky? You can downsize it to "C" cells, or even "AA" cells, as seven "AA" batteries exceed the capacity of my spendy, storebought factory battery pack by 50%.

But, then, I'm a ham, one of the crash test dummies of the electronics world, and we do these things so you don't have to.

The /. crowd have learned that MHz isn't the sole measure of a CPU... and chastises others for not knowing that. They're long overdue for this basic electricity lesson.

The comparison I make is:
Bob: I've got 2048 files.
Alice: Wow, that must take up a lot of space!

My first thought when I saw the 10 AH spec was, "I just bought a 4 pack of 2500 mAh AA batteries, are they advertizing that they're no better?"

Does your razor take AA cells? Or AAA, or C, or, ...

Either way, there is no consumer charger out there which will charge each cell individually

You are a little out of date. For example, see the Energizer CH30MN smart charger, which charges 4 AAs or 4 AAAs individually in 30 minutes. I saw some for sale at Best Buy a couple days ago. Even Wal-Mart sells Energizer 2300 mAh NiMHs (at rather low prices too).

I think Energizer and Wal-Mart fall under the definition of "consumer".

Throw a rider on your bill to allocate funds so that medicaid and medicare can provide chargers and rechargables to all patients using medicaid/medicare provided equiptment that can use rechargable batteries (like blood sugar monitors) and help defray the cost of lithium over alkalines for those pieces of equiptment that can't, and some fundage for providing chargers and rechargable batteries to public schools, hospitals, etc, and I might even support it, but that is one hell of a price tag.

I'll agree on the medicare/medicaid, but not the schools. It's asinine that schools are still buying, and throwing away, alkaline batteries. That's your tax dollars and mine being wasted.

Perhaps more practically, there really ought to be a public service announcement type of campaign for rechargables. I've noticed that a lot of the non-geeks around me still believe many outdated things about rechargeables.

That's reasonable, but most people just need to know that, for 99.9% of devices, rechargeables work fine. Then show them how much they will save over a year of typical use.

But even with soap, sometimes it's really a price constraint. If you've got $2 to your name and no soap and no toliet paper, it makes more sense to buy the smaller (though more expensive per unit)packages so that you can buy both. Because twice as much soap does not make up for no toliet paper, nor vice versa.

With batteries, if they can't afford rechargeables, put whatever the battery powered device is (except smoke detectors) into a drawer for a month or two. Or borrow the money from a friend or family member. It's friggin' nuts to see welfare recipients buying 8-packs of AA alkalines for $5-$6 once or twice a month. That's $60-$144 per year! They could to to Walmart and spend less than $30 for 8 Rayovac AA NiMH cells and a Rayovac charger. That would save them over $30 and maybe over $100 (depending on usage) in the first year alone.

Yet I keep reading that they only start at 1.2V-1.25V. Is my meter screwed? Am I missing something?

Yes. The 1.2V-1.25V rating is a nominal rating over the useful discharge life of the battery. Here is the data sheet on Eveready AA NiMH batteries. Look at the discharge curve and you will see that the battery quickly drops to the 1.25V range in use and stays there a long time. Now look at the Eveready alkaline AA cell data sheet and you can see that the voltage just keeps dropping off instead of remaining relatively constant. That's why NiMH batteries work so much better in digital cameras, photo flashes, etc. The alkalines quickly lose voltage while the NiMH cells keep right on to the end.

I don't know enough about walkie talkies to know if this is the case for them, but I had an ex whose vibrator was battery voltage sensitive. It was significantly stronger when one dropped in an alkaline than when one dropped in a rechargeable, though the difference didn't last all that long

Again, it's the discharge curve. They could easily put voltage regulation into them to keep them at maximum and constant performance throughout the life of the batteries. It's being done with some LED flashlights already.

Sorry for such a short reply to your message, but work calls and I must go.

Throw a rider on your bill to allocate funds so that medicaid and medicare can provide chargers and rechargables to all patients using medicaid/medicare provided equiptment that can use rechargable batteries (like blood sugar monitors) and help defray the cost of lithium over alkalines for those pieces of equiptment that can't, and some fundage for providing chargers and rechargable batteries to public schools, hospitals, etc, and I might even support it, but that is one hell of a price tag.

I'll agree on the medicare/medicaid, but not the schools. It's asinine that schools are still buying, and throwing away, alkaline batteries. That's your tax dollars and mine being wasted.

Perhaps more practically, there really ought to be a public service announcement type of campaign for rechargables. I've noticed that a lot of the non-geeks around me still believe many outdated things about rechargeables.

That's reasonable, but most people just need to know that, for 99.9% of devices, rechargeables work fine. Then show them how much they will save over a year of typical use.

But even with soap, sometimes it's really a price constraint. If you've got $2 to your name and no soap and no toliet paper, it makes more sense to buy the smaller (though more expensive per unit)packages so that you can buy both. Because twice as much soap does not make up for no toliet paper, nor vice versa.

With batteries, if they can't afford rechargeables, put whatever the battery powered device is (except smoke detectors) into a drawer for a month or two. Or borrow the money from a friend or family member. It's friggin' nuts to see welfare recipients buying 8-packs of AA alkalines for $5-$6 once or twice a month. That's $60-$144 per year! They could to to Walmart and spend less than $30 for 8 Rayovac AA NiMH cells and a Rayovac charger. That would save them over $30 and maybe over $100 (depending on usage) in the first year alone.

Yet I keep reading that they only start at 1.2V-1.25V. Is my meter screwed? Am I missing something?

Yes. The 1.2V-1.25V rating is a nominal rating over the useful discharge life of the battery. Here is the data sheet on Eveready AA NiMH batteries. Look at the discharge curve and you will see that the battery quickly drops to the 1.25V range in use and stays there a long time. Now look at the Eveready alkaline AA cell data sheet and you can see that the voltage just keeps dropping off instead of remaining relatively constant. That's why NiMH batteries work so much better in digital cameras, photo flashes, etc. The alkalines quickly lose voltage while the NiMH cells keep right on to the end.

I don't know enough about walkie talkies to know if this is the case for them, but I had an ex whose vibrator was battery voltage sensitive. It was significantly stronger when one dropped in an alkaline than when one dropped in a rechargeable, though the difference didn't last all that long

Again, it's the discharge curve. They could easily put voltage regulation into them to keep them at maximum and constant performance throughout the life of the batteries. It's being done with some LED flashlights already.

Sorry for such a short reply to your message, but work calls and I must go.

I am sorry, but this is just wrong. I have a DX4900 and it uses AA's just fine. Sure, they WILL not last all day, but they will get you through when your battery pack is gone. They also can use KCRV3 batteries which are NOT proprietary and commonly available at most department stores. You can also use rechargable lithium batteries and regular NiMH batteries as well. I DID buy a travel kit (which came with a bag that I needed at the time as well as voltage convertors) and I use the battery that came with it. If you look, it's just made out of standard AA NiMH batteries. Nothing really proprietary about it other then the stupid clip they are held in. What I DID notice about this clip....it does seem to press a switch when it goes in. Not sure what that does exactly but I bet it changes the camera's circuit to work better with the Kodak battery. In any case, regular AA's do work. The AA's that work even better are the newer Lithium batteries like these e2 Lithiums. These are designed to last longer in digital cameras. Sure, they are not rechargable, but when you rechargable pack is out, they work.

If Kodak was really out to make money on their NiMH Pack for Easyshare cameras, then, how come I can't find them?? I have not been able to find this battery pack anywhere.

Anyone know of a battery that can provide 3.5V @ 3W and only weighs .4 grams?

Here's a commodity cell that's close. It weights 0.32 grams and has a capacity of 112 mW-h, which would give the robot a flight time of about 2.2 minutes. Granted, you'd need a charge pump to get the required voltage, but that isn't really big deal. And you'd need to get the impedance down to get enough current. But it's not inconceivable.

Actually, they already do. One of Energizer's AA alkaline batteries weighs 23.0 grams, 23.0 grams = 4.94e14 calories, and 1 megaton energy = 10e15 calories, so one AA battery yeilds 494 kilotons of energy. By comparison, the Little Boy was 13 kilotons.

So there you have it - a AA battery is could destroy Hiroshima 38 times over.

let take a look at some numbers...

From the energizer web site battery AA e91
Capacity 2850 mAh tested at 25 mA drain to 0.8V... Not bad but alkaline batts have a funny discharge curve... not very flat... but generally good performance. shelf life of 7 yrs approx

NiMH AA energizer nh15
Capacity 1850 mAh tested at 370mA drain to 1V. NiMH calls have a fairly flat discharge rate making them compairable to alkaline in spite of capacity differences. est 500 recharge cycles and charged shelf life of 120 days or so. note: this measure is varying a lot on different web sites. no real consensus. your milage will vary.

Nicd AA Sanyo KR-1100AAU
Capacity 1100 (high capacity). Nicd cells have a flat-ish discharge curve and the ability to support *very* hi discharge currents. Anyone that has messed with R/C cars can attest to this. est recharge cycles 300 est. charge cycles. Shelf life. Who knows... similar to NiMH I think. Toxic.

OK it depends on your use. The remote control for your TV? Use the super cheap Zinc-Carbon. Ya know the eveready cheap-o's.
If you are using these for medium-high drain devices like flashlight, Portable margarita blender, what have you. Use NiMH cells. For *very high* discharge rates (>2C) NiCad still rocks!
I personally recommend Sanyo cells. capacities are good and they can take an astonishing amount of abuse and still work. Big two thumbs up...

Charger. Make sure that the charger you get can deal with the differences between NiMH and NiCad for quick charging and the abaility to do "stand by" or "trickle" charging as well.

let take a look at some numbers...

From the energizer web site battery AA e91
Capacity 2850 mAh tested at 25 mA drain to 0.8V... Not bad but alkaline batts have a funny discharge curve... not very flat... but generally good performance. shelf life of 7 yrs approx

NiMH AA energizer nh15
Capacity 1850 mAh tested at 370mA drain to 1V. NiMH calls have a fairly flat discharge rate making them compairable to alkaline in spite of capacity differences. est 500 recharge cycles and charged shelf life of 120 days or so. note: this measure is varying a lot on different web sites. no real consensus. your milage will vary.

Nicd AA Sanyo KR-1100AAU
Capacity 1100 (high capacity). Nicd cells have a flat-ish discharge curve and the ability to support *very* hi discharge currents. Anyone that has messed with R/C cars can attest to this. est recharge cycles 300 est. charge cycles. Shelf life. Who knows... similar to NiMH I think. Toxic.

OK it depends on your use. The remote control for your TV? Use the super cheap Zinc-Carbon. Ya know the eveready cheap-o's.
If you are using these for medium-high drain devices like flashlight, Portable margarita blender, what have you. Use NiMH cells. For *very high* discharge rates (>2C) NiCad still rocks!
I personally recommend Sanyo cells. capacities are good and they can take an astonishing amount of abuse and still work. Big two thumbs up...

Charger. Make sure that the charger you get can deal with the differences between NiMH and NiCad for quick charging and the abaility to do "stand by" or "trickle" charging as well.

What do you think you're talking about?

The datasheet is right here for NiMH. That is a very flat horizontal curve until the cliff right at the end. For comparison, the Alkaline curve is here (look on page 2). That curve drops steadily throughout the life.

Jason
ProfQuotes

What do you think you're talking about?

The datasheet is right here for NiMH. That is a very flat horizontal curve until the cliff right at the end. For comparison, the Alkaline curve is here (look on page 2). That curve drops steadily throughout the life.

Jason
ProfQuotes

I've had a wonderful experience with the Energizer Rechargables, using the wall charger by the same name. I was given the charger and a set of batteries. I'm still on the same set of batteries (which I mostly use for my Olympus D-390 digital camera). I've recharged them about 8 times and they haven't lost any lifespan between charges (my old Rayovac Renewable system suffered from this).

At Target, you will probably find 3 or 4 brands of rechargeable batteries. Since all the brands are about the same in performance, you should select the brand based on country of origin. Remember. When you buy a product, you indirectly support the value system in the country of origin. In other words, avoid "Made in China". You can find enough reasons for avoiding "Made in China" at Amnesty International or Tibet Online . "Made in China" also includes "Made in Taiwan" or "Made in Hong Kong".

"Made in USA", "Made in Japan", or similar Western-country label is usually a safe bet in terms of (1) the quality of the product and (2) the value system in the country of origin. As an example, consider the Energize Rechargeable Batteries.

A pink bunny playing a drum and wearing shades and blue sandals has got to be cool. And the Energizer Bunny® is cool.

I got an Eternalight "Ergo-Marine" for Christmas, and it's defintely worth the money. The four LEDs are microprocessor-controlled, so they can be dimmed, made to flash in sequence, or strobe. There is a lot of "spill" light, so it's very useful for walking in the dark. Unfortunately, since there are no focusing lenses, the range isn't that great, and you need a precision screwdriver to change the batteries. More information can be found at Technology Associates (yes, their website is poorly named :).

I also have an Energizer folding LED light. It's a great booklight and nightlight, but it's fragile and hard on batteries.

Quoting from the article (emphasis mine):

The unit uses a NiMH battery which means that there may be a memory problem so make sure it has a good first charge. Once and awhile it is good to totally drain the battery and recharge it totally, this is called refreshing.

NiMH rechargeable batteries have a negligible memory effect (the correct technical term would be voltage depression). References:

Duracell (HTML)
Duracell (PDF, more exhaustive)
Energizer (search for voltage depression)
Greenbatteries

My experience is that most so-called memory effect problems with NiCd and NiMH rechargeables can be traced back to cheap charger units which overcharge the batteries. Use a microprocessor controlled charger whenever possible, it may be a little more expensive at first but it will save you trouble in the long run.

Ah, yes, and the ANSI animations - quite possible because of the tediously slow data transfer rates of the day. On the BBS we ran, The Igmeister Zone, we spruced up the code so every once in awhile when the user least expected it, an ANSI animation of the Energizer Bunny would come marching across the screen - of course right around the time they came out with the bunny.

Answer: 2

I bought one of these nifty things at Wally World a couple of weeks ago. Great reading/camping light. It has 2 LED's in white plastic tubes that mimic flourescent.

I use energizer NiMH rechargeable AAAs. They last me about 2-3 weeks, and supposedly last 1000 cycles.