Renew and Reuse Your Renewal Brand Charger!

Brief Introduction and Background introduction **: Rayovac corporation launched and sold a rechargeable battery system called \"Renewal\" in 1993.
This is unique because it uses a rechargeable alkaline battery that is very similar to the normal \"disposable\" battery and promises to fill the gaps left by the \"normal\" rechargeable battery.
They have several years of shelf life compared to the best months, and they offer the same shelf life.
5 V power is normal alkaline compared to 1. 2 volts of Ni-Cd or Ni-
MH batteries are of course very eco-friendly because they are basically alkaline batteries that can be charged and do not have heavy metals or toxic materials that require special treatment.
However, you have to buy a special \"smart\" charging unit and only last 20-
With the rapid drop in capacity per charge, the charging cycle is 50 times.
In addition, these special batteries are notorious for leaking and often damage the charger and the equipment they use.
Needless to say, the whole system is not well satisfied when it stops running around 2000 (? ).
Thousands of chargers and batteries are still on sale in the United States.
I happen to be one of the people who buy chargers and batteries and use them for a long time.
However, in the end, I just retired my last updated battery a few days ago.
This left me out but due to the lack of rechargeable alkali, the 4 newer brand chargers are now completely useless and the early model chargers I have cannot be used to charge the normal Ni
CD or NiMH battery! (
Yes, I know they are still a bit available under different names, but they are terrible, as they were at the time)What to do? What to do. . .
* In order to find the good things that magic happens, avoid all these long-winded nerds cruft and jump to step 2!
To solve the problem, you need to find a problem first!
Now, due to the limitations of conventional charging devices, I still use disposable alkaline batteries in several places in my home, such as flashlights, wireless keyboards, remote controls, when the rechargeable battery dies, clock and \"emergency\" backup, I don\'t want to wait for them.
As you can see most of these devices have a fairly low to very low battery \"flip\" rate, so my alkaline battery \"stock\" is very small when I need it, I often don\'t have batteries or run out of some fresh ones. Problematic no? Yes!
Not to mention the expensive and hard environment!
Well, I have long known these special chargers for normal alkaline batteries and can \"turn off\" normal non-
Rechargeable batteries that allow you to get more use from a disposable battery that was originally \"dead.
The problem is, I don\'t want to buy another charger to match the stack I already have, only NiCad, only NiMH, and of course NiCd and NiMH. . .
Kidding, I have 11 battery chargers in my house.
So, the other one is not welcome.
Still, I\'m curious about the concept, spending some time on the internet browsing some tidbits of interesting ideas about doing something that shouldn\'t be done, even trying to follow the warning on the disposable battery. . .
There is little reliable information about the whole concept, but I find that if you follow some basic rules, it can be done fairly safely, with a custom charger and baby sitting on it. . . Oh goody!
I don\'t need to buy another charger, I love building electronics and I can use one of these old useless newer chargers on parts! Whee! Wait. . .
I\'m going to make a charger to charge the alkali. . .
I have a charger dedicated to charging rechargeable alkali. . .
What\'s the difference?
Not that much, it turns out.
Rayovac\'s research on Google is about half an hour.
Com and Wikipedia make my lazy side grinning like an idiot.
The chemical reaction is slightly different between the rechargeable alkali and the disposable alkali, so the rechargeable change is better recharged repeatedly and provides better leakage protection. . .
What\'s the difference?
I grabbed my tool and I was happy to find that the average current used to update the charger was low (~20-40ma)
Supplied by a 2 Volt Pulse of 50% duty cycle. . .
Based on the information I found, this is almost perfect for normal alkaline batteries!
It was even cut off \"fully charged\" at 1 point \".
7 V, a bit high, but I don\'t even need to sit on it when charging!
Also, if the battery explodes, it\'s not a big deal, I have 3 more batteries and the charger is useless!
I can reduce, reuse and recycle at the same time!
I\'m happy to start squeezing electrons at this point.
I think I should be able to add regular alkaline substances to the update charger and can continue to use, I took a near dead battery from my remote control, then put it in and witness amazing behavior. . . nothing.
Go back to my tools and check more carefully.
It turned out that the battery was not connected and because Rayovac designed a safety system, people couldn\'t do what I wanted to do. (ref:-
Near the bottom of the picture.
After a lot of marketing and useless nitpicking)
Now, if I learn one thing in my life (
After recovering consciousness)
The best part about security is to find a way around them; )
Let\'s get started!
\"D @ mn for torpedo!
Advance at full speed!
It is very simple to update the \"safe\" system implemented by the charger, which charges on the outermost edge of the positive pole (\"nub\").
Now,> 99% of modern disposable batteries all have a plastic sticker that covers where the updated charger is trying to touch in order to charge the battery.
So, the easiest solution is to take a nail or knife and peel the sticker back to reveal more front terminals.
Please see my picture below. Beautiful!
The whole thing can work without any more effort, allowing you to inject new vitality into the soon-to-run Battery with only a slight risk of nail breakage! Am I satisfied? Heck no.
Modifying every dying alkaline substance I want to lift is a pain, especially when you can only charge them about 5 times in a diminishing return before they are useless or leaking
Not at all.
Not only am I too lazy to do so much tedious work, I am also a nerd and I should not put up with this annoyance!
Let\'s get into more advanced solutions!
* Warning that advanced solutions do not work for people who get sick when they think about taking apart things that use mains voltage!
Let\'s start working on making these old crap more useful.
As we know, the culprit for this dilemma is the positive charging terminal, which avoids any contact with areas exposed to standard disposable alkaline environments.
So to make sure we don\'t have to modify every battery we want to charge, the solution itself is simple.
Modify the positive charging terminals for all 4 slots! (
The picture is as follows)1. )
Remove the screws on the back of the Renewal charger. 2. )
Now we have to pry it open.
Starting at the top of the charger, the screws there are the work you do along the way.
I recommend using an putty knife or a thin screwdriver instead of a knife as shown in the picture, I am an idiot and am trying to cut off my finger. 3. )
After opening, the part we need to fiddle with will be highlighted in the picture.
There are many ways to modify the contact once it is open, but I am lazy here. 4. )
Grab a reliable pair of pliers, grab the contact, \"bend\" it to the area where the battery usually stays when charging, and then flatten it so it can go through the case.
This effectively moves the contact point from the outer ridge of the battery to the middle (ish). 5. )Re-
Assembly use. Perfect! It works great!
After modification, it is a bit difficult to initially insert a AAA-sized battery, but after the contact \"forms (aka bent)
They are easy to get in and out under pressure.
Best part now!
Charge them with some dead batteries!
Make sure you read my disclaimer! ! ! ! ! !
I believe anyone who may still be interested would like to know how well the process works, how safe it is before they venture to damage their outdated equipment and have the possibility to blow a hole in the wall.
I am happy to say that it works very well!
The battery doesn\'t even warm up during the charging process, but the charger releases a lot of heat and keeps them warm, but it\'s not a big deal.
From my own experiments, the less battery power the better it will be to charge.
Cells that drop to about 1.
Excellent 2 Volt charging, can be in 10-
15 times before its capacity (life)
It is shortened to a point where it is useless.
When charging from this point on, I did not have a single battery leak during charging or use (
See catch below)
A modern standard battery that has dropped to 1 volt \"dead\" and is charged normally and can survive several charging cycles (
The best so far is 7)
But their abilities are severely weakened each time and quickly become useless after several charges.
I also found that these batteries are easier to leak, and during my test there are two leaks when charging, either after 8 cycles.
I haven\'t had a leak in the test device yet. . . (
Please read my catch section! )
Some numbers of the status of a nerd type battery like me after charging: charge termination voltage: 1. 7 volts (
Down to about 1.
No further decline was found after 3 hours.
The second cycle makes the \"static\" voltage reach 1. 55)
Initial battery voltage: 1.
62 voltsNew universal test cell capacity is 1.
2 v, 200 mah discharge rate: the charging capacity of 2300 mahPost is 1.
Discharge rate of 2 v and 200 mah: 1400 mah (1 cycle)-350mah (@7 cycles)
The charging cycle is doubled to 1 after charging capacity.
Discharge of 2 v, 200 mah: 1700 mah (1 cycle)-500mah (@7 cycles)
Sorry I don\'t have fancy computer data collection hardware or I will post some charts!
Let me know if you would like more charging/discharging information!
There are several problems with using rechargeable alkaline batteries, please read the following! 1. )
As you can see, the capacity is not going to be like the new one, and every cycle drops rapidly.
In a single charge cycle, the update charger turns off when the battery reaches 1.
However, when the battery is \"still\", the voltage will be about 3-5 hours.
I find it usually stabilises around 1. 4 volts.
At this point I put them back for another round.
After charging, it seems to maximize their capacity and usefulness and does not seem to have much impact on how much they will charge.
You only get about 5-
Take out 7 cycles from any battery, regardless of use, and reduce to 1 volt, so why not calculate each cycle? 2. )
It is more alkaline to recharge, and it is easier to leak.
Do not use them in expensive or irreplaceable equipment or equipment that will remain idle for a long time.
* New Information Update! (5/2/2010)***3. )
Re-charge if the \"AAA\" size battery is less than 1.
2 V or lower voltage is now \"officially\" discouraged due to failure rate, I would think \"very high\" and even have a battery (started at . 8 volts)
With enough force to vent its electrolyte, I heard a \"bang\" sound.
The current of this charger is a bit too high to safely charge AAA. 4. )
Charge any battery over 2 years old
3 years and/or a terminal voltage of 1 volt or lower is now considered a \"bad idea \".
In the days or weeks after charging, I have been given a failure rate of more than 5% of the seals, causing them to leak in the device that is put in.
More than 1 new battery.
These failures rarely occur at 2 volts. 5. )
The \"high performance\" alkaline battery seems to be better charged after charging, retaining more original capacity.
Reading instructions and safety tips on step 5 (OR BELOW! )! ! ! ! ! !
Please pay attention!