The power source chosen was 2 series connected LiFePO4 18650 cells from A123 Systems with a
cutoff voltage from 2 V till 3.6 V and nominal voltage 3.3 V.
Obviously, doing this over and over takes a toll and ultimately as the cycles continued, some of the batteries started to fail the capacity test by reaching the
cutoff voltage before they were supposed to--in other words, the capacity dropped below the 80-percent level--at which point we stopped testing that battery.
15 and 16 demonstrate a narrowing of the conical top envelope associated with increased
cutoff voltage, which has its experimental counterpart in experimental behavior under increased pressure.
The dedicated tester is a push-button, walkaway design with the capacity percentage displayed after the tester automatically shuts down at the proper cutoff voltage.
The Black and Decker j multi-stage charger has a cutoff voltage that's too high (15.2 volts) and a float that's also too high, at 13,5 volts.
With the VDC Battery Minder, on the other hand, we would like to see a higher charge
cutoff voltage for optimal charging and a lower voltage trickle mode for long battery life.