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Unread 05-07-2016, 13:10
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Re: Battery increasing in capacity over time?

Quote:
Originally Posted by IKE View Post
A quick question:
Are you using the same chargers that you were using 2 years ago?

Here is a neat site that has a lot of articles on batteries, battery management and pros/cons vs. types:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/

Anecdotally, I have heard with specific types that there are different techniques you can do to increase a batteries capacity.
During the minibot effort in 2011, I heard many rumors of different tricks that would eek out slightly different performance curves. Slight changes to charging rates and voltages.

During my solarcar days, I remember hearing about a team doing controlled battery cycling using a specially designed oven to increase a batteries useable capacity. While controversial, I will say that particular team was able to run much longer in cloudy weather than all the other teams so I have to believe there was something to the effort they were doing.
Yes, all batteries are charged with the Schumacher SC-600A chargers using the 2A setting prior to testing (though 6A is normally used at competition). There may have been various amounts of rest between charge and testing, but I wouldn't expect the capacity to change too much.
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