Battery Question (mah)

[kilolima]

I have two Intellect batteries, both are mini types and both are 9.6v. One is 1600mah and the other is 1200mah. The 1600mah one has trouble pulling a stock CA M4, but the 1200mah one does it with ease. So my question: doesn't more current mean more power?

[m102404]

Yes...but between 1200 and 1600 I would guess that it'd be pretty marginal.

Check the pins/plug on the battery to make sure they're not pushed back and not making a solid connection when hooked up.

Try running the 1600 one down until it just can't go anymore...do you have another AEG with a weak spring that you can run it on. Run it until it's "dead"...don't go below 8v (measure it with a voltmeter).

Then fully charge it up with a good charger. If I recall correctly, a fully charged 9.6v will be about 12v.

If you still have problems after that...junk the pack or keep it for testing.

[Styrak]

Batteries can also have VERY differing quality. Example, cheap chinese batteries not being able to pull crap vs quality battery being able to pull amazingly stiff springs.

[Jimski]

mini cell size => low discharge rate (will pull a light spring)
big cell size=> high discharge rate. (better for heavy spring)

higher capacity=>higher discharge rate=> takes more space

check the output voltage as m102404 said, if it is below nominal current after charge then the battery has a problem.(it's usually more than 1V higher when charged)

[chaosnemesis]

mah refers to miliamphour and is the capacity of the battery and not directly current. current is voltage divided by resistance.

The problem is your 1600 mah battery probably has a couple of bad cells or something and is outputing a low voltage and thus current would also be low(not enugh to pull spring). nickel anythings (cadmium, metal hydride, copper\zinc etc.) ability to output stated voltage diminishes quickely(aa or aaa only output 1.2v) unlike alkaline or lithium batteries. older ni** batteries will be even worse.

[Neil_N]

Originally Posted by chaosnemesis

mah refers to miliamphour and is the capacity of the battery and not directly current. current is voltage divided by resistance.

The problem is your 1600 mah battery probably has a couple of bad cells or something and is outputing a low voltage and thus current would also be low(not enugh to pull spring). nickel anythings (cadmium, metal hydride, copper\zinc etc.) ability to output stated voltage diminishes quickely(aa or aaa only output 1.2v) unlike alkaline or lithium batteries. older ni** batteries will be even worse.

Lol just about to type this before I saw your post. High mah has nothing really to do with current other than that it will allow the optimal voltage and therefore current to maintain itself longer. So the most likely problem is one of your batteries has a dead cell creating extra resistance. Mah is a measure of a batteries chemical potential energy at a given voltage. This is usually created by immersing Zinc and Copper I believe, into an acidic solution. (this is going off of wet cell batteries I’m not sure about dry cell)

The voltage is based off of the ph level of the acid or the number of Zinc and Copper plates/electrodes. The amount of said acid gives its potential to create that voltage for a given time or its total life cycle. Would go into how the acids actually creates electrons / current but I’ll quit boring you guys lol.

[Jimski]

High mah has nothing really to do with current other than that it will allow the optimal voltage and therefore current to maintain itself longer

apart from the fact that a high-capacity battery usually has a higher discharge rate, which in turn pulls a bigger spring.

for instance this Raijin battery will not pull a sp100.
it's 2000 mah, 9.6V, but the cells are too small.

The voltage is based off of the ph level of the acid or the number of Zinc and Copper plates/electrodes. The amount of said acid gives its potential to create that voltage for a given time or its total life cycle. Would go into how the acids actually creates electrons / current but I’ll quit boring you guys lol.

and brings unwanted complexity without answering the question.

[chaosnemesis]

bwahaha. lol. yeah i origionaly had 3 times as much written but decided to cut out most of the finer details. that's why my post kind jumps from point to point without much transition.

[chaosnemesis]

Originally Posted by Jimski

apart from the fact that a high-capacity battery usually has a higher discharge rate, which in turn pulls a bigger spring.

Just to avoid confusion discharge rate has to do with cell type (2/3 subc etc) and not the capacity alone. There are plenty of high drain large type batteries with <2000mah. However, high cap. cells are generally high drain.

In this particular problem discharge is not the case. Two mini batteries of the same type and manufacture were used. the smaller cap. battery was able to pull with ease. it's the voltage across the resistive motor. whether it's poor contact or bad cells....meh, you'd have to investigate. this just narrows down the posibilities.

[voorhees -FWA-]

Also, I've noticed that the Intellect batteries have smaller pins.
I was having connection problems with mine.
Before I installed Dean’s connectors on the batteries, I soldered the pins on both the power n ground; I gave it a liberal coating and that helped out a lot.
Not sure if this is help, but you can give it a try.

[kilolima]

K I just fully charged both batteries with a smart charger and they both give 11.6v. Bad cell is out? Also I made the diameter of the plug on the gun smaller and I think the problem is solved. But just to be sure it's that I'm gonna run it alittle more and see what happens. Thanks for all the inputs.

[chaosnemesis]

Keep in mind that bad cell doesn't always = dead cell. The initial reading may be normal but how long will it stay at that voltage. Wait a day or two, then measure again.