Wiimote With Rechargeables???

valve90210 · 4 Jan 2008 at 22:36

Having got myself a Wii back in October, the batteries finally ran out recently and having replaced them with another set of non rechargeables I decided to get myself a new charger and 4 really good, high capacity rechargeables so I would have 2 sets of that I could bung into my remotes.

I got myself a nice Uniross Sprint 1Hour charger (model AAB04541-3) which came with 4 2700mah NI-mh batteries. I charged them and bunged one set (somehow I managed to completely lose one set...) into my wiimote. They initially came up full on the battery meter. I used them for about an hour playing Wii sports. I switched the wii on the next day and the meter was down to half way. I played for about an hour or so again, by which time the meter was down to 1 bar.

I've since played for about another hour in 20 mins slots over the last day or so and now the remote is completely dead, to the point that the blue lights don't come on at all when any buttons are pressed.

Having read that people have used rechargeables with the wii and had no problems with them, I'm wondering why mine have only lasted for a total of about 4 hours of use, way way way less than I was expecting from them!!!

I have read that, the battery meter might not work properly cos of the way rechargeables discharge etc but I'd also read that they have worked well for a lot of people.

Has anyone used such batteries and had any problems with them not lasting very long?

I do wonder if the charger I got isn't working very well but I don't know how I might check that the batteries are fully charged when it stops charging them. Anyone know how I might be able to check them with a multimeter?

Any help very very much appreciated!!!

Valve

steinooo · 4 Jan 2008 at 23:00

My rechargables are fine in my wiimote, i'm sure I get lots more than 4hrs out of a pair. Although I've heard that on new Ni-Mh batteries they take a few charges/discharges to reach their full capacity, not sure if this is true tho. hth

dannyjo22 · 5 Jan 2008 at 00:22

I have the same problem with batteries in our wiimotes. We use them once a month for a couple of hours, then the next time we go to play, they are almost dead.

We now take batteries out after we finish and the problem is fine.

I think even with a sprint charger to get fully charged takes longer than they state. It's on their website exactly how long depending on battery and how many you are trying to charge at once.

Vonhelmet · 5 Jan 2008 at 00:37

I've not tried rechargeables in ours yet, but I'll bet you'd be better off with the new low discharge rechargeables. The Uniross ones are called Hybrio. Samsung do them under the name Eneloop.

They're very good for my digital camera - they'd probably be a good bet for the wiimotes too.

valve90210 · 5 Jan 2008 at 07:50

I know rechargeables discharge when not being used, so if you charge them and leave them for a few weeks they discharge but this was over the course of 3 days, no where near enough time for this surely!!

The charger is a so called smart one so it keep charging till the batteries are fully charged....apparently...

I am now doing a few cycles of charge and discharge as I have read that they can take a few cycles to get up to stated capacity.

Will check out the lowdischarge batteries, though now doubt they'll be really expensive.

Valve

Geffen · 5 Jan 2008 at 07:55

The problem with rechargable batteries is they lose the stored charge over time, i read on WIKI it's about 3% a day. So if you are only going to game once a week or so then you either need to be constantly topping up the batteries with something like the Will Remote charging stand or use non rechargable batteries that don't lose their charge. If however you are a heavy gamer then the 3% loss a day won't be an issue as you use up all the power playing games.

Vonhelmet · 5 Jan 2008 at 10:02

Low discharge ones aren't too expensive - just a couple of quid more on a pack of 4.

FrankJH · 5 Jan 2008 at 10:05

As stated it can take different types of rechargable a few cycles before you get the full usage out of them

Its also a case that some rechargables if after these few cycles routinely get used only about 20-30% or whatever before being recharged again then they start to get a "memroy effect" where the battery starts to think that the 20-30% is the full amount, so 70% of the battery is never usable

Battery technology has moved on since this, but it could still be a potential problem with cheaper batteries (not suggesting the OP did buy cheap ones however)

dannyjo22 · 5 Jan 2008 at 11:45

valve90210 said:
I know rechargeables discharge when not being used, so if you charge them and leave them for a few weeks they discharge but this was over the course of 3 days, no where near enough time for this surely!!

My wii motes sap the charge out of standard batteries as well. I've never known a AA device go through so many for so little use.

Thats why I've started popping the batteries out.