Originally posted by jahlad
rechargeables run at a slightly lower voltage than normal batterys so reduce performance slightly....otherwise we would all be using em!
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Actually this is only partly true. Many of the MAJOR battery manufacturers make lower voltage (7.4v, 8.2v, etc) NiMh batteries that are sold as 9v batteries, but if you shop around, and bring a voltage meter with you, you can find batteries that are rated at 9v true, or higher...I've had some peak out at 10v fresh off the recharger. True, they appear not to last as long as the heavy duty alkaline, but that's what the recharger and spare batteries are for (ie make a routine of recharging them a few days before every practice and rotate the batteries so you always have a fresh spare set). Actually, the power curves between the NiMh and the alkaline are different, but one set easily lasts for 3 days of tourney play, and for the finals, I pop in a fresh set and put the old ones on the travel charger I bring with me.
There are several brands that top out at 9v+ and you can order them online. The kind I use are Vartecs and are colored black and work well enough for me. Some of the online places offer a good package deal where you get a decent recharging unit with the batteries. Don't go cheap on the recharging unit, it's the most important component. The ones that sense the needed voltage and automatically supply what's needed and then shut off automatically are the best, and not much more expensive than the cheap units. Next best, and more common are the ones that just time how long the battery has been charging and then shuts off the current. Worst are the ones that just charge the battery, no matter how long they're in the charger. A fast charger in a small form (charging time is 1 to 4 hrs) is great for traveling but the fast charge is usually harder on the battery. You don't have to have a full charge for the battery to be useful, but it helps. My 9v sometimes takes two days to recharge on my usual charger, and sometimes a little under a day-and-a-half for a full charge from being almost fully drained, but an overnight charge is also good enough. My AA's usually recharge fully overnight.
If you really wanted to, and you know how to use a soldering iron, you could wire up a charging jack for ANY gun, and any hopper. Just have the Jack isolate that battery while charging. The only real issue is how to mount the jack cleanly, and finding a cap to cover it (I'm in favor of gluing a trimmed rubber eraser to a rubber tire patch for the jack cover). Then all you have to do is run wires from the charging unit you bought, to the male part of the jack and you have an in-gun charger. The only thing about recharging a battery inside something is that the battery can generate alot of heat, and heat is bad for electronics and batteries.
I've been thinking about doing this for a long time, but I know that the devil is in the details and I'd want the install to look pretty and I'm waiting for W.A.S. to enable the pager motor output for their 'timmy board, so space might be a little tight in my grip frame...there is a little space below the ram cap though...I've even considered using contact patches instead of a jack so that there's no hole in the frame for water/dirt to get into, with a transistor setup that will automatically disconnect the battery from the board while electricity is applied to the contact patches. Of course adding anything to your gun automatically increases your chances of something going wrong, but I seem to remember it was like pulling teeth to get Smart Parts to admit that the Shocker could use an On/Off switch so we had to wire in one of our own, along with a blinking LED so that I knew for sure that the gun was on (sometimes the switch needed a little nudge) just before the game starts so home grown projects are sometimes a Good Thing
Ray "That's not a blowtorch I'm using on your gun, it just my lighter" N.
