The remote control devices for the Wii operate on AA batteries - and they go quickly!
The manual says “Use only alkaline batteries. Do not use lithium ion, nicad, nimh, carbon zinc, or any other non-alkaline batteries.”
I know nothing about electronics/physics - current is current, no?
Is this a real & serious warning to be followed, or is it safe to ignore it?
I’d like to use rechargeable NiMH batteries like these:
Link
Thanks in advance.
Current is current. However, Alkaline batteries have a higher voltage output than NiMH batteries you have shown. Alkaline batteries are 1.5V those are 1.2V they are different.
I will add I use those exact batteries in my Wii controlons and they are working fine.
Remember, NiMH batteries have lousy shelf-life. You better plan on having a set of batteries on charge and ready to go.
There are “new” NiMHs, that come precharged and claim a 1 year shelf life with only 25% charge loss.
CMC +fnord!
???
All those batteries – AA, AAA, C, and D have 1.5 volts output, whether they’re alkaline, NiCad, Carbon-zinc , or anything else. They’re standardized. I KNOW my old carbon-zinc batteries put out 1.5 volts.
The NiMH batteries in my OP are 1.2V.
But does it matter?
From the link provided for the batteries they are labeled as outputting 1.2V. Check. Perhaps the link does not work well because it is to long I know I had to cut and paste to follow the link. LINK
Actually, NiCad and NiMH put out a nominal 1.2 volts. Since alkalines & carbon zincs have a gradual voltage drop as they deplete, most equipment runs OK at 1.2V.
Check out the data sheets from the duracell website. As the batteries are used, the voltage drops.
NiMH rechargables (and maybe other rechargables) are only rated at 1.2 V. (I’m looking at one now.)
Also, keep in mind that voltage and current are two different things. While all of the batteries may produce the same voltage they may not all be able to produce the same current and so may not all be able to deliver the same power.
IIRC, alkaline batteries maintain a steady and stable voltage output until they’re almost completely discharged. Most others have a steady voltage drop until until they’re dead.
This is easily noticable in incandescent flashlights as the light gets dimmer and more yellow over time.
Nope. Check out the duracell link above. Battery voltage drops as the battery is used. It’s rechargeables that generally retain the same voltage until they’re nearly discharged. Which sucks when you’re scuba diving at night, and go from a fully bright flashlight to following the other guy’s light stick in a 4 minute time frame.
Terminal voltage depends on chemistry. Carbon-zincs are 1.58 V, alkalines are 1.52 V, NiCd’s are 1.20 V, NiMH is 1.25 V and lead acid is 2.1 V per cell, give or take.
Oh well, that’s what I get for trying to access a 20 year old memory.
Thanks for the update!
Yeah, current is current. I speculate that the reason for Nintendo’s warning is two-fold: First, the Wii has a battery-life reporting capability. I would be willing to bet that their method of estimating remaining battery life is based on an estimated curve of voltage drop for alkaline batteries. So they tell you to use alkaline so that it will give correct results. Second, with the exception of some of the new NiMH batteries, such as those crowmanyclouds linked, rechargables tend to lose their charge pretty quickly when sitting idle. I imagine Nintendo may have wanted to spare you the annoyance of finding your batteries dead or near dead after periods of not playing.
I’m currently using Sanyo’s Eneloop batteries for nearly all battery applications, including my Wii, and I’m quite happy with their performance. Sanyo claims a 15% annual self-discharge rate for these batteries, and data from independent reviewers seem to corroborate that claim.
I wonder about the current limitations on the different batteries. My nominal physics tells me that V=IR so if you connected the terminals with a superconductor your current should be really high, but there has to be a limit to this. I think at some point an internal battery resistance of some kind has to develop.
One reason they might recommend against metal hydride and lithium batteries is the tendency to fling these controllers around the room. If those batteries break open, they could be a serious fire hazard.
I’ve been using these Powerex ones for the kid’s Wii ever since we got it. Seems to work fine. I’ve got a couple dozen on them in use all over my house and haven’t had any problems with them.
Electrically, a battery looks like a perfect voltage source connected through a resistor. The voltage of the perfect voltage source depends on the cell chemistry (and on how many cells are in series, if it’s a true “battery”, a true “set of connected cells”, like the 9 V batteries are). This voltage doesn’t change over the life of the battery.
But, as Christopher guesses, there is the equivalent of a resistor in there too. What happens as a battery runs down looks the same as the value off that resistor getting higher and higher until you can’t get much current out. When that happens, the system acts dead.
Perfect voltage source and a series resistor is a pretty simple model of a battery.
Higher internal resistance is not all that happens. The voltage as measured with a high impedance meter shows the voltage getting low as the battery is drained. This voltage lowering cannot be due to internal resistance if there is very low current draw.
Can’t believe no-one’s mentioned it yet, but NiCads and NiMHs are rated at only 1.2V, not 1.5V. That said, they will whack out a far larger current than zinc-carbons - their internal resistance is way lower. If you try to draw a lot of current out of zinc-carbons, you’ll find they’re unable to sustain that nominal 1.5V.
The SDMB has that effect.
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