How to fix a lithium-ion battery
Lithium-ion batteries are now widely used. I'd like to share my experience on how to save costs and extend the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries.
The apparent death of lithium-ion batteries is generally classified into three categories.
First, the battery holder cannot charge, and neither the charger nor any other electrical appliance can be recognized; there is no voltage on the electrodes.
Secondly, it can be charged and the appliance can be recognized, but only for a few minutes before the battery is quickly depleted.
Third, it can be charged and has sufficient capacity, but the voltage drops significantly with high current discharge (for example, it can only last for a few minutes when shooting with a camera, but can last for a long time when looking back).
1. The battery looks dead, but it may actually be saved. My solution is to charge it with DC current equal to the battery's planned voltage.
2. This type of dead battery, instead of being charged with electrical energy by the original charger (the basic current is not), but the planned DC current equal to the battery voltage will be found to be larger. The charging current will gradually decrease and approach zero after a few minutes. This is good news: the battery voltage has recovered to the planned level.
Stop charging at this point, and then use a multimeter to measure the north and south sides of the battery to check if it has a normal voltage.
3. Then, you can charge it using the original charger.
4. In this way, I have fixed a considerable number of batteries, and many have been restored to about half of their planned capacity.
5. To fully activate the battery, it needs to be fully charged and discharged several times. The discharge circuit consists of a resistor and a light-emitting diode (LED), which can be used to estimate the state of discharge.
6. Based on my experience, this method is very effective for the first type of battery. However, it's difficult to correct the latter two types of batteries, and the materials found online rarely show significant results. Especially for the third type of battery, which has sufficient capacity but experiences a significant voltage drop under high current discharge (for example, a camera shot might only last a few minutes, but a review shot could last a long time), discarding it would be a real shame.
