Batteries packs

[LuckyDragon]

I was wondering Do rechargable battery packs go bad after long time?
because I got my White's XLT in 1989 and the rechargable battery pack is not holding a good charge.
Care to answer?

[pistolpete]

Yes, the rechargeables only last for so long. If you are handy, you can replace the ni-cads that are in your pak or change them to nimh. If you search the web there are a couple of sites with part numbers for making your own rechargeable pak or you can just get a new pak from White's.

[LuckyDragon]

I might just get a replacment battery pack from white's
but nimh batteries don't work on my XLT I tryed it with
standard battery pack by putting nimh batteries in it
my XLT won't turn on with nimh

[GpSnoopy]

There was something wrong then. Perhaps a bad battery, or not charged?

I've used NiMH in my previous XLT machine with no problems, and currently am using 2 NiMH rechargeable packs I built for my MXT and IDX.

And to answer the first question, yes, rechargeable packs can get old and fail to take a charge. I'm impressed with how long the White's packs do last, though. My XLT Nicad pack was almost 10 years old before it went downhill.

[LuckyDragon]

Well I called the White's repair shop and the tech said it could be a blown fuse or some where from the touch pad or the power source is.
sadly I have to shipped it over to the repair shop, 2 mouth with out my XLT
God help me to get by....but this XLT has been with me a long time
so it's worth it to get it going again.

[Carl-NC]

Did you double-check operation with alkalines?

[LuckyDragon]

Yes , It still won't turn on at the push of the button.

[darkkitten2000]

Then it's something wrong with your MD.

Yes, leaving NiMH batteries charged for a longer period, than recharge and leave them again (i.e. standby-use) will severly shorten their life time. They perform best when slowly charged (with up to 0.1C current), (slowly) discharged and so on, keeping this cycle going threwout the entire battery life time, few yares of service could be expected. NiCd are much less sensitive to stendby-use regime (and much better batteries), but are difficult to get since using of toxic Cd is more or less discontinued. Wach out NiMHs for PI devices, if the RC filter is inadequate (high current pulse discharge regime) may last some 3 cycles only.

regards,
d.