Do I really have to discarge the batteries manually?

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #2584213
Soon to be 3 years... in my use. The other one is 2 years.

That's getting up there for Li-ion. Might think of a replacement pretty soon. Paragraph #4 pretty much nails your situation, old battery, high internal resistance but still works because the device has low current draw. I would use it until it's no longer practical and think about replacing it soon.

Doc, you must be bored =) Sterlingteks are how much? $30? Hahaha. I wouldn't trust the meter anyway. The 1D meter is a joke. It's either full, or 1/3... then "you're screwed".

Info in viewfinder would be nice...

gjl711 wrote in post #2584239
That's getting up there for Li-ion. Might think of a replacement pretty soon. Paragraph #4 pretty much nails your situation, old battery, high internal resistance but still works because the device has low current draw. I would use it until it's no longer practical and think about replacing it soon.

It's pretty practical. I'm getting 500-600 shots with it... that's my dilemma.

I was under impression that the camera doesn't measure anything, but the CPU in the battery "knows" how much it's been charged and now much it has been discharged during operation and behaves according to that...

What's happening now is that when I stick it in the charger - it's full. In the camera it's "low"

KevC wrote in post #2584248
Doc, you must be bored =) Sterlingteks are how much? $30? Hahaha. I wouldn't trust the meter anyway. The 1D meter is a joke. It's either full, or 1/3... then "you're screwed".

Info in viewfinder would be nice...

Haha. I want everything OUT of the viewfinder and to make it brighter.

If it didn't run at all, then I'd toss the battery. But my electronic self wants to experiment.

BTW: the 25watt resistor is too hot to touch!

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #2584292
Haha. I want everything OUT of the viewfinder and to make it brighter.

If it didn't run at all, then I'd toss the battery. But my electronic self wants to experiment.

BTW: the 25watt resistor is too hot to touch!

BTW, I would be carefully discharging a LI-ion battery as shorted Li-ion batteries can get quite energetic as Sony has discovered. Also, it ain't the wattage, it the resistance. How many ohms is the resistor? My guess is somewhere between 5~10 based on the info and using Ohms law. In your case, you know voltage, 7.4 and assuming that you heating up a 25 watt resistor too hot to touch lets call it 25w of heat. So voltage squared divided by power gives resistance. Ohms law also states that power/ voltage gives current. So, you are pulling 3.3 amps out of that little battery. Your asking for a thermal event.

Haha

I was aiming for 1 hour discharge time, but the only resistor I had which could handle the heat was a 25 watt 15 ohm one. Give or take - 2-3 hours to discharge the 1500 mAh battery.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #2584213
Soon to be 3 years... in my use. The other one is 2 years.

Alright, here's another "I read somewhere" answer.

Lifespan of the 511 is supposed to be 2 years, whether you are using it or not. Something about Lion characteristics. How many cycles does that make? I don't know. I do know that Lion laptop batteries count every charge as a cycle.

Getting 3 years out of a 511 sounds great to me. I know the 511 in my G3 that my Dad is using is still going strong.

At this point I'd recommend getting a couple new Sterlingtek batteries and recycling the ones you have.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #2584292
Haha. I want everything OUT of the viewfinder and to make it brighter.

Hehehe, I've looked through 1Ds (100% full frame) viewfinders, there's enough space for a battery gauge!

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #2584292
BTW: the 25watt resistor is too hot to touch!

Be careful there, don't burn yourself =) I think batteries meters are generally very inaccurate.... so I wouldn't even bother. Having a warning in viewfinder would be nice though. I was shooting away and it just died one me once.... I didn't bother looking through the top LCD cos I was too busy shooting!

I think that for the most part, you will get out of your batteries what you put in. Lithium Ion batteries do not like to get drained completely. They do not have memory! But they will die much quicker if you drain them. They are actually made to be charged regularly - something like your cell-phone batteries. So treat them with care and you'll get long life from them.

I remember reading something about this in a computer tech journal.

Li-Ion batteries have an odd property about them. They will lose battery life over time whether they are used or not. it has to do with chemical breakdown in the battery. A 2 yr old Li-Ion with 500 charges will drain just as fast as a 2yr old Li-Ion with 50 charges, and they'll both hold a charge close to the same length of time. Lithium Polymer Batteries were invented to help with the problem, and with the overheat issue, but they are still expensive and not in widespread use due to cost.

As for the internal battery gauge being off, this has very much to do with how those gauges measure the battery life, and the wear down of the Li-Ion substrate in the battery.