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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (23459)	2/26/1999 12:25:00 AM
From: DWB	Respond to of 152472

Jon, In fact, a lot of electronic battery powered hardware these days (like cordless phones or rechargeable shavers) will tell you to run the batteries down before recharging them. Unless you do "cycle" the battery, and only partially discharge it in use before recharging, you can quickly see a performance degradation. The reason behind the process is that the battery can actually "learn" to be fully charged at less than it's full capacity, decreasing it's usefulness over time. Lithium, Nickel Metal Hydride and other batteries can chemically form a sort of memory, that isn't beneficial. The act of fully discharging (it's really not taken down to 0%... usually something like ~20% so that the chemistry in the battery doesn't run the risk of reversing), and then up to it's full capacity allows the battery chemistry to properly reset. The smarter charging technologies these days though, will allow you to use a differential temperature sensing algorithm, so that you can charge and discharge at faster rates (like 1C* instead of C/4) without damaging the battery from excessive heat buildup. They will also monitor and cutoff the incoming or outgoing electricity when adequately discharged, fully charged, and in certain safety situations (overheating, internal shorts, etc.). Anyone know what the charge rates are for the Lithium batteries used on Q phones? C in this case is the nominal capacity of the battery. DWB

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (23459)	2/26/1999 1:34:00 AM
From: Asterisk	Respond to of 152472

All right I'll end this one now before it gets out of control. Lithium Ion batteries do not develop a memory and that is why they are better. Nickel Metal Hydride doesn't develop a memory either. Whoever the person at the booth was needs to have their information updated. It is true that the QCOM charger can completely discharge the battery but I think that you need to do something very deliberate to get it to do so. The chargers DO NOT discharge the batteries automatically (as far as I know). I will check this tomorrow with QCOM to make sure but it makes no sense to do so.