I bought a KLIC-5001 battery for my digital camera off ebay. It's rated at 3.8v, 1800 mAh. It charges up just fine. The charger says it's full. The voltage across its terminals is just over 4v (so is the original battery that came with the camera). When I put the ebay battery in, I can take a few pictures (maybe 20 or 30), and then the camera will either say the battery is low and shut down, or it will just shut down on its own (completely lose power). So then I put the battery on the charger, it charges up for a few minutes, and the charger says the battery is full. The voltage is still above 4, but for some reason, the camera doesn't like the battery. What could be the problem here?
I just connected a 2.2 ohm resistor across each battery, and the original one drops to 3.4v, while the ebay one drops to 3.2v. It doesn't seem to be much of a difference. Is there any way to revive the battery? In the camera instructions, it said that if the battery doesn't hold charge, to discharge it completely and recharge it. But for some reason, I can't get the charger to do that. So what voltage would I need to discharge it to and at what rate (current)?
Though I'm skeptical, what you've described is exactly the behavior that was written up in a technical mag recently. The camera recognizes whether you're using an OEM or 3rd party battery. Even though the 3rd party battery should run it, the camera is designed to deliver minimum shots, or no shots at all, discouraging the use of 3rd party batteries. As I said, I'm skeptical that the camera maker is really doing that, but you never know. Also, peak camera current draw can be very high, so your test may not be tough enough, though you'd want any higher draw to be very brief. My experience with 3rd party batteries, with the exception of good name brands like Maxell, has been very bad.
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