How to find out mAH of a battery
 

Is there a way to find out the mAH of a battery pack?

I got a TLP 4000C charger, and the seller threw in two extra batteries for me for free (1 8.4v large mini and 1 9.6v nun-chuck). I PMed the seller about the mAH ratings on them, but haven't gotten a reply from him for like 3 weeks.

There are no markings on the cell anywhere. The TLP charger chargers both NiCD and NiMH, so I'm not worried about finding what cells it is, but I need to adjust the mAH on the charger to charge the batteries.

So is there any other way of finding the mAH?

No idea, not likely, best bet is to set the charger for a lower setting just in case. Whenever I have the time to charge batteries, I just set my charger for 1A and let them go. In a rush I'll set it higher, but I'm not comfortable doing that regularly, since I only have one battery.

Take the connector off and lick the bare wires at the same time. If it tingles lightly, it's 600mAh or under, if it really tingles, it's probably an 1100mAh, if your tongue goes numb it's probably a 2000mAh and if you smell burning it's 3000mAh or over...

Hope that helps!

[disclaimer]This was ment purely for sarcastic benifit and to lighten the dark day that has gripped Toronto, if you are actually dumb enough to attempt this I take no responsibility what-so-ever for the outcome, though I will laugh my ass off.[/disclaimer]

A mean reply, but funny as hell.

No kidding! What happened in Toronto today for that sarcasm to come out?

A very violent storm is all I can think of...

Yeah, I guess I'll just charge it to 800-1000mAH. It's not a big worry since these will be my spare batteries anyway.

Thanks guys!

(If I'm bored, maybe I'll start licking the wire. lol)

My guess would be (from your description) that your batteries are minimum 1700mAh. Any chance the charger you have notifies you when the charging is complete? I've got a relatively basic charger, real simple, but it beeps when the battery is charged.

A top end charger can get it, also tell you if they are NiCd or NiMH (since you need to fully discharge NiCd's or they get bogged with memory effect.)

One of my housemates (or whatever you want to call him) has a charger for R/C car batteries and you can set it to charge and it will keep track of how many mah's it puts into it and tell you. Maybe you can find someone who has one, have any friends that race R/C cars seriously? (Its a $200US charger.) The charger its self isnt all that useful to airsofters, they kill a set of batteries in a season or less, doing deep discharges and overcharges all the time to increase the voltage of each cell, my friend discharges at 30amps and charges at 5amps and were talking 2/3A cells here, the ones in mini packs so no more than 1400mah.

There's always the option of investing 10-20$ and buying a simple voltmeter?

I have the TLP 4000C IntelliCharger with Fuzzy Logic.
http://www.airsoftclan.com/images/4000C%20charger.jpg
It does beep when batteries are fully charged, but the knob has different mAH settings. (Which I assume give different charge rate)

Voltmeter will be useless (for measuring a battery, becasue yo ucna't measure current if no current is drawn by the load) unless you plug it in series with the gun's wiring, and even then, you'd only be able to measure the amount of current drawn when the gun is shooting. Can't measure mAh that easily with just a voltmeter and a battery.

Some can, I'm using a pretty generic term for the gizmo in question.

Ah, the gizmo! Why didn't you say so in the first place? Lol

Pooh to you too. No Beer For You!

Cheers man. ASC will be safe since I'm going camping all weekend.