Ok, then
you don't know how to use a mulitmeter.
Snide? Saying that when it's true is a truth statement and not an attack...
What you did was just short-circuit the charger. You're lucky you weren't using Ni-Cad/Mh because you would have gotten 100amps, smoke, burnt fingers, a melted controller and possibly a fire.
Think about this, if the Tomy controller put out the full current of the AA's, what happens if you use Ni-Cads that put out 100amps?
The only way to measure current across a circuit is to break the circuit and measure across the open terminals.
In this case, lift one side of the car off the charger and connect the meter across the (now open) terminals. Should read around 300ma.
This sort of stuff is second nature to me, I assumed I'm not the only one here who knows how to use a DMM, but...you've clearly held this belief for some time and never been set straight.
But if you just looked at the maths I provided, you'd know that a 2.2a charge current is just not possible, you don't need to measure it to know that. Therefore I knew that the 2.2a figure was flawed, because I've measured it and the maths proves it's impossible.
Electronics begins with maths.
I considered putting the car on the charger first, then reading the output but I thought the output of the battery would interfere with the reading.
This is heading off topic into general electronics theory, but, 'electricity takes the path of least resistance'. Since the multimeter is a short circuit (0 resistance), you can put whatever else you want across the circuit and it's won't affect the reading. However, in this case, (assuming you already have some charge in the Ni-Cad)you'd be shorting out a Ni-Cad and would have gotten a much higher reading (and the fire as you may remember
)
Actually, I'd say my test did BOTH.
I'll give you that, though the pain threshold is purely by accident. I still feel that it's not a 'runtime test' if the batteries are only 50% full.
I too reply here only in the interests of furthering the hobby. As you know I don't come here much, but there were too many points that needed addressing, and stood unrefuted/unquestioned/undebated for four months.
If people think these cells should be charged at 1a+ then it's to the detriment of the hobby, particularly since the same cells are used in Epochs and Yokomos where replacing them every 100 charges or less, isn't quite so cheap.
Moreover, in an Epoch (and Yoko) where a peak charge (real) gets 22mins, it's worth charging slower and getting the longer run time.
Mainly, I wanted people to know:
Not to charge above 300mah
These results are for cells only about 50% full, much less in the case of the ZZ cell.
Fully charging (not overcooking) a cell is actually good for it.
And if I've taught you to use a DMM, that's a bonus
