> I think the "trickle" can be more than is really
> needed.
Right. "Trickle charge" is bad news for any kind of sealed battery. The
optimum cycle for maximum life varies with the cell in question, but usually
involves some sort of "fall back" where a charging cycle is completed with
just a bit of overcharge (to equalize cells, etc.) and then charging stops
entirely until the cell self-discharges by some amount.
> For example, I see a lot of
> cheap car chargers that claim "contains IC chip to
> prevent overcharging". But these chargers are
> supposed to be simple constant-voltage DC power
> supplies,
I'm not sure I see the contradiction there. An IC regulator to say, 5
volts, seems to fit both descriptions. But I've had my cell phone charger
apart, and I do believe there are more smarts than that in the charger. The
phone plays a role too, I'm certain; so maybe it's something like a
programmable inverter in the cord that gets controlled by the phone.
> I hope that someday they can actually make
> rechargeable batteries that work as well as they are
> claimed to!
It's a marketeer's job to stretch the truth as far as possible ... while
you're at it, might as well wish for world peace !
> I have read analyses of electric cars that showed that
> even for ordinary lead-acid deep-cycle batteries, the
> battery replacement cost will exceed the cost of the
> electricity consumed (and more than yo would have paid
> for gasoline a few years ago).
Which is exactly the problem ! There has been a lot of R&D work done in the
last few decades trying to solve that issue (which is exactly why there are
so many different battery chemistries on the market today); but they aren't
quite there yet, IMO.
Randall
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