Using rechargable batteries in a Wii-mote.

TechnoCorruption · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:03

My brother bought a plug-in-the-wall battery charger today and some rechargable batteries for use with his Wii controllers.

Someone in the store said that you can't use them though as somehow a rechargeable battery is different to a normal battery?

Is there any truth in this? The details on the battery charger say:

1300mAh

Ni-Cd/Ni-MH

It says on the back that it can be used for cameras/walkmans/toys so I guess they can't be any different to a Wii-mote, anyone confirm this?

vanandjuanunited · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:04

I use rechargables in mine with no issues.

james.miller · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:05

Thats why you shouldnt listen to those people. rechargables are perfectly fine in the wiimote.

Streeteh · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:05

Go back to the store and slap the salesperson who told your brother that.

closeratio · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:11

Afaik the only difference between a rechargeable battery and a normal battery is that normal (once use) batteries have a default voltage of 1.5V. When they've given off all their charge that voltage then drops (pretty much) to 0.

A rechargeable battery however goes up to 1.4V (or around that, it varies from battery to battery) when fully charged, then drops to around 1.2V when they've got about 75-90% of their charge left, and then drop to 0 like the once-use batteries once all of their charge has been depleted.

However like everyone's saying, it shouldn't matter in a Wii-mote because they don't use massively sensitive electronic components.

Edit: My spelling really is horrendous today :/

Yeggstry · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:11

Streeteh said:
Go back to the store and slap the salesperson who told your brother that.

This ^. I've used nothing but rechargable batteries in the wiimote, both uniross and duracell types work fine.

Nismo · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:15

Salespeople are generally idiots, no surprise

Streeteh · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:23

Only last week i got into an argument with a salesperson because he was really adamant i shouldn't buy their 32" panasonic HDTV and should instead get their slightly more expensive LG 32" HDTV. His reasoning is that, while he agreed the Panasonic probably had the better picture quality the LG was in fact better due to having picture-in-picture and it 'looked nicer'.

Fools.

orderoftheflame · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:23

closeratio said:
Afaik the only difference between a rechargeable battery and a normal battery is that normal (once use) batteries have a default voltage of 1.5V. When they've given off all their charge that coltage then drops (pretty much) to 0.

A rechargeable battery however goes up to 1.4V (or around that, it varies from battery to battery) when fully charged, then drops to around 1.2V when they've got about 75-90% of their charge left, and then drop to 0 like the once-use batteries once all of their charge hads been depleted.

However like everyone's saying, it shouldn't matter in a Wii-mote because they don't use massively sensitive electronic components.

+1

Spot on.

TechnoCorruption · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:25

Thanks for the advice lads, the guy who said about it was one of his friends who works in the store with him and not an actual sales person.

If it had of been a sales person who said it I would have instantly dis-credited it as being a load of crap, after all someone in a big high street electrical store tried to sell me a quad core laptop a few years back :rolleyes:

He wondered why I was laughing at him.

Thanks again for the help.

Hyper · 14 Jul 2008 at 16:37

Only difference that I know of is that a none rechargeable battery runs at a higher voltage.

Werewolf · 14 Jul 2008 at 17:48

IIRC it also used to be the case that rechargeable batteries had a lower internal resistance, which meant they could discharge much much faster than a normal battery (which could cause problems in some circumstances).
I suspect it's not a problem with modern devices which have been built with rechargeable batteries being commonplace, and modern rechargeable batteries (much the same way the memory effect nicads could suffer from have largely been overcome).

SC04 · 15 Jul 2008 at 14:26

Manufacturers usually state you shouldn't use them, but I thought that was purely for liability and reliability reasons.

CaDLoN · 15 Jul 2008 at 14:55

closeratio said:
Afaik the only difference between a rechargeable battery and a normal battery is that normal (once use) batteries have a default voltage of 1.5V. When they've given off all their charge that voltage then drops (pretty much) to 0.

A rechargeable battery however goes up to 1.4V (or around that, it varies from battery to battery) when fully charged, then drops to around 1.2V when they've got about 75-90% of their charge left, and then drop to 0 like the once-use batteries once all of their charge has been depleted.

However like everyone's saying, it shouldn't matter in a Wii-mote because they don't use massively sensitive electronic components.

Edit: My spelling really is horrendous today :/

another +1

Only other thing i can think of is that some high capacity rechargeables are a tiny tiny bit fatter, thus are a tight squeeze in some devices!

meths · 15 Jul 2008 at 23:52

Streeteh said:
Only last week i got into an argument with a salesperson because he was really adamant i shouldn't buy their 32" panasonic HDTV and should instead get their slightly more expensive LG 32" HDTV. His reasoning is that, while he agreed the Panasonic probably had the better picture quality the LG was in fact better due to having picture-in-picture and it 'looked nicer'.

Fools.

When I was looking at the Pioneer 4280XD plasma TV in a well known high street chain and the sales guy came up and told me that I should buy it over the Panasonic PZ85 LCD as it's one of the new LCD Plasma hybrid TVs. :confused:

I slapped myself and walked out.