I have a JVC GR-DV800. I love the camera. Quality and everything is there. I recently picked up an additional battery with extended shoot time.

I wanted to know, can Lithium Ion batterys such be overcharged?

Also, if I have a battery that has 5 hours of life, and I only use 2 hours, can I recharge the battery without discharging it first without any risk of damage to the battery?

Thanks - Jason

Normally Lithium Ion batteries will not be overcharged if you use the correct charger and follow the manufacturers recommendation.

I don't have any experience with the JVC batteries but most systems have monitoring circuits to prevent overcharging and overheating. The Sony "InfoLithium" batteries and some of the Canon batteries have the circuitry necessary to monitor the battery as part of the battery.

It it not normally NOT a good idea to discharge Lithium Ion batteries. Just charge them as the manufacturer recommends.

Rich

Ok, Thanks.

Would I need to drain the battery down first before recharging it again? Such if I only used 2 hours of a 5 hour battery, and wanted a full charge. Could I charge it without having to worry about overcharging, or would I have to use the battery until it's dead?

Thanks - Jason

You can partially discharge a Lithium ion battery without worrying about memory set like a NiCAD. Leaving it on the charger will not diminish its capacity either.

I understand that I can leave it on the charger, but what about partially charging it?

Like if I were to charge a battery that still has power in it ex. 5 hour battery capacity, only 2 hours used, will the battery or camera know when to shut off charging to prevent *possible overcharging?

Yes, the battery/charger will know when to stop the charging. The Power/Charge lamp will blink when charging starts and when it has has completed the charge the Power/Charge lamp will go out. The charging time will depend on the current state of charge.

Rich

How is this harmfull? In the past it was always ideal to fully discharge a battery before recharging, so I assumed with Lithium Ion you have the option to charge without fully discharging but I din't think that was preferable.

It has never been ideal "to fully discharge a battery" before recharging. If you are thinking of Ni-Cads, that is not true. The discharged state of a Ni-Cad is normally about 1.0 volts per cell. At that voltage level, most of the energy is spent. Discharging the battery further could damage it through cell reversal. That is why Ni-Cad cells are always connect in series and not in parallel (If engineered properly)

The same basically applies to Li-ion, Li-polymer, NiMH and Sealed Lead Acid batteries except that the minimum cell voltages may be different.

If your equipment properly monitors cell voltage and possibly cell temperature and disconnects at the appropriate level like many Li-ion, Li-polymer do, then there is no problem. They may say the battery pack is fully discharged, but it still contains energy and that energy can be easily measured.

Normally there is no benefit to discharge a Li-ion battery unless you are testing it to determine actually capacity, to predict death date when comparing to previous tests of the cell, or possibly discharging to approximately 50% capacity for long term storage. I don't think the average consumer wants to buy the appropriate test equipment and maintain battery performance logs on their batteries.

Thus my recommendation, buy one spare battery, charge as outlined in your manual, and go have fun with your batteries.


Rich

Interesting. I need to learn a lot more about batteries, it looks like.

am I doing something wrong or is my new battery bad? I bought a larger impact li-ion battery from bh. It came charged and I used it then, when done I put it on my charger that came with my camera gs500. this li-ion battery has been on charger for 24 hours and light is still on. the charger worked great for my standard battery that came with the camera. do the li-ion battery require a special charger? the impact battery says it replaces the panasonic cga-du21 and my panasonic battery is a cga-du14.

I ordered this impact battery from bh on a link for the gs500 accesories. it fit my camera and worked great , just doesnt seem to charge cause light is not going out.
thx

Take it off charge and put it on the camcorder. See if the battery indicator shows a full charge.

thx for response guy, the battery icon is showing all white with little stripes on it. the same as my other battery that is fully charged. my battery charger did work right with my original camcorder battery, shuts off when charged. it does appear that both batteries are fully charged on my camcorder lcd. what would that mean then?
john

I would just use it to see if it has full life. It may take a charge or two to get it to settle in. If it doesn't hold power long enough, return it for a refund/replacement.

thx guy for the info. seems to operate as normal. i guess each battery reacts differently to the charger indicator light circutry