This may be more than you want to know but,
 
We have been using the lego pack and assume that after a year we may need to replace them.  After season I'm going to charge up a set of eneloop AA rechargeable and compare them to the Lego pack. The nice thing about the eneloop's are that with a model BC-700 charger by LA CROSSE Technology you can recondition the batteries again and again and remove most of the battery memory problems.  I have old AA recharables that have been reconditioned and I use them in my digital camera and they work like new. Conditioning takes days but you just have to do it once every 3 weeks or so.
 
Once you have the recharger the batteries are a lot cheaper than the lego pack.  I'll report back here on what I find out.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B000LNI5VC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257986455&sr=8-2
 
http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC-700-Battery-Charger/dp/B000RSOV50/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257986546&sr=1-1


   ---
Eric F. Palmer
[log in to unmask]
FLL 2009 Team 956 Coach
FLL 2009 Team 882 Mentor

 

From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sonya Shaver
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 5:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VADCFLL-L] battery question

I have a few battery questions.  There was a lot of discussion about changing batteries and I just wanted to clarify.  Did people say they had better or worse performance when they purchased a new rechargeable battery?  And were you talking about purchasing an actual battery pack from LEGO, not just new rechargeable AA's?  Does the battery pack just sometimes wear out?

Also, is it bad to "overcharge" the battery?  Can we plug it in at night and leave it overnight?  Some batteries can stay plugged in and they stop charging once they are full and don't harm the battery.  Is that the case with this one?

Thanks!

Sonya Shaver in Harrisonburg

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