Duracell BLN-1 battery

[Guest]

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

Will it charge in the Olympus chargers though? Or will it need its owner brand charger?

[Guest]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

Good point. There's nothing in the literature to say it needs the Duracell charger. The only reference to a charger is a recommendation to use the device's own charger. And to use the battery only with equipment that specifies its use. So presumably fine in any charger. It's charging in a third party charger at the moment.

Will it charge in the Olympus chargers though? Or will it need its owner brand charger?

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

Good point. There's nothing in the literature to say it needs the Duracell charger. The only reference to a charger is a recommendation to use the device's own charger. And to use the battery only with equipment that specifies its use. So presumably fine in any charger. It's charging in a third party charger at the moment.

The problem with a 3rd party charger though is the lack of temperature protection that the Olympus charger has. I'd like to know if it will also charge in the Olympus charger. If the battery isn't configured internally to connect with the temperature control pins of the charger then it won't charge.

[Guest]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

Charges fine in the Olympus charger. Do I need to be careful with third party USB chargers? One thing I've noticed is they seem to charge a little longer than the Olympus charger. I'm not sure if they maybe go into trickle charge mode.

Perhaps I'll charge the better quality Olympus and Duracell batteries in the Olympus charger and the el cheapo batteries in the third party dual charger. The dual charger is certainly handy.

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

That sounds sensible, maybe the USB chargers are safe taking longer, but I don't know though.

[Guest]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

Thought I'd measure the voltages after a full charge in the Olympus charger. The Olympus battery had 8.6v, Ex Pro White 8.22v, Duracell 7.93v.

I then used a third party charger with the Ex Pro and Duracell. The Ex Pro went up to 8.38v and the Duracell 8.38v.

Surprised by the Duracell. Although it is new. Perhaps not that surprising though because after reading around, others have found the Olympus charger only appears to charge the Olympus battery to its full capacity. It doesn't seem to charge third party batteries to their full capacity - usually to around 8v. Third party batteries usually charge to 8.4v in their own charger. This was news to me but born out by my findings.

Be interesting to see how well the Duracell holds its charge compared to the Ex Pro. I wonder if Duracell's BLN-1 charger would get the Duracell battery to 8.6v. Probably.

Actually the Ex pro already had an almost full charge on it so I'm guessing the the Oly charger would charge it to something similar to 7.93v as well.

That sounds sensible, maybe the USB chargers are safe taking longer, but I don't know though.

[iso]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

Chip - Interesting that - I have Oly and 3rd party batteries and chargers, but have always used the Oly Charger. Will try your mix & match idea. Thanks

[PeterBirder]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

The Duracel battery has a lower capacity than the Original Olympus so will in principle give fewer shots per charge. Olympus 1220 mAh, Duracel 1140mAh.

The charging time, open circuit terminal voltage and self discharge time for Li-Ion batteries vary with age,number of charge/discharge cycles and temperature amongst other factors so comparing two individual batteries other than in controlled circumstances may not give very meaningful data.

Regards.

[Guest]

Re: Duracell BLN-1 battery

True. I think the takeaway from this is to only use the Olympus charger for the Olympus battery. If you want a fully charged third party battery anyway. I'm really just echoing what others have found on Mu43 and DPR.