new life to dead Ni-Cad, AND disposable batteries

In this Instructable, I'm going to show you a secret battery company's DON'T want you to know!!! How to give new life to dead Ni-Cad batteries AND disposable batteries

This was not 100% my idea. I got the idea from here,Bring Dead Ni-Cad Batteries Back To Life


Disclaimer: This project is extremely dangerous. high voltage capacitors can KILL YOU. do not attempt to build this project unless you know what you are doing and you know high voltage safety precautions. I am not responsible for your actions.

PLEASE, COMMENT & RATE!!!

Step 1 Parts you will need

You will need the following,

• a oscillator circuit (I’m using a self oscillating relay parts, for old schematic, relay, 100uf cap, and clips)

• A high voltage diode with at least a 200V rating (I had one lying around)

• heavy duty alligator clips or wires

• A high voltage capacitor or a photo flash cap. ( you can get it from a disposable camera with flash)

If you want, you can use the circuitry from a disposable camera Here’s the instructable.

Comments

[jbaker22]

Hey Max, I was wondering if you could tell me the voltage amperage, and frequency that it puts to the battery? I also want to know if I should fix one cell at a time? I tried making a nicad battery fixer with these ratings and it hissed like it was about to explode, I put 15 volt at 1 amp 60 Hz to a 7.2 volt nicad. Thanks for publishing the instructible.

[-max-]

any source of high voltage DC should work. (a camera flash circuit, maybe)

do you mean you powered the circuit off the 15V 1A power supply? if so,
did the relay buzz, charge the capacitor, and shorting the cap made make loud blue sparks? (step 5) 

the freq. in not important, im just running a mains transformer from the pulsed DC, (so it will make the high voltage,) im not sure, maybe about 50-80Hz-ish im guessing by my ears from memory since this wasnt a final project

that charges a large capacitor with DC and jolts the battery with it.

do one cell at a time and don't hold the terminals on, why your batterys went POOF, they were probably bad beyond recovery.

[jbaker22]

I hooked15volts ac to separate diodes and then a capacitor. This was connected to the 7.2 volt I tried to fix and threw away. My curcuit was fine no short curcuitsand no sparks or smoke. It seems like you build a device similar to a battery desulfater low amperage and high current.

[-max-]

so you went directly from 15Vac to diode/capacitors and to the battery. well the key to this is high voltage. 15V at 1A is too much amps and too little voltage.

my guess is too much power was absorbed by the batteries and not instantaneously destroying crystals. and the low current, high voltage charges the capacitor to about 200-600V and [when you touch the terminals to the battery it] zaps the battery instantly. smoke should only come out if you hold the electrodes on for more than a few seconds, with high current.

i have been doing this to drill batteries (took apart to get to individual cells) and the 4 i had, i only got 2 of them to work. (the other ones had bad cells in them)

i have the impression that you are holding the terminals on and leaving it that way. this isnt like a charger, i think i forgot to mention tn the instructable. sorry about that...

[jbaker22]

I was wrong I just gave it 15v dc from a supply @ O hz

[-max-]

i re-read your last post a bit more carefully, and it looks as if you just 15Vdc power supply. was this connected to a dc to HV dc converter? (in this case, a relay circuit?)

if you already have a AC supply, then just connect that to the transformer directly. (not turning AC to DC just to turn it back in a AC-ish current)

just connect the ac power supply to the (what used to be) the secondary of the transformer. the (what used to be) the primary to a rectifier and capacitor in series with the what used to be the primary, now the secondary.

let the capacitor charge, and and short the cap out to test. turn it off, discharge the cap, and connect two wires to that. those are the wires to touch to the battery after the cap is done charging. there should be a diminished spark. at one or both terminals.

[mangelox]

This was really interesting and informative. I especially like your schematics...makes your instructions much clearer.

[-max-]

thanks, i draw them schematics in paint. but the ones on this page or for other circuits. they just happened to work!

[ZxxxY]

Havent your disposabe batterys explod? Recharging dispsables spounds very scary to me!please someone insire me that it is safe.

[-max-]

i now got some news that it will work for a while, but since the battery's AREN'T designed to recharge. "after a while of charges, they will catastrophically fail (BOOM)" one tells me.

[-max-]

at wost case scenario, they will leak.  usually they just get VERY warm. i only tried with alkaline battery's