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by derekdahmer 1431 days ago
Don’t know much about batteries - what makes these 500mAh battery packs useful/valuable for home projects?

2800mAh NiMH AA batteries are like $1.50 each. Will they not do the job?

1 comments

Lithium batteries are easier to charge, have a more suitable voltage, are lighter for the same energy and have no memory effect. They also have a great even voltage drop during discharge which makes for accurate charge indicators (Sony used to advertise them as "infolithium" back in the day)

Lithium batteries are pretty great except for the fire risk. And Lithium mining is bad for the environment (lots of chemical waste during extraction) so using them for single use stuff is horrible.

NiMH batteries don't have a memory effect either, that's NiCd that does. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93metal_hydride_b...
Oh I thought they did but it was significantly reduced compared to NiCd.

Edit: Yeah it has some but it's reversible according to that article. I didn't know that part.