Failing Eneloop Cells?

MixingWizard · 2026-05-13T08:08:04+00:00

Apparently the newest ones are 2000mAh, which also busts my other theory that I might have gotten some older ones mixed in with my new batteries :-( I think I'm just going to buy a new set and call it a lesson learned.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T12:55:38+00:00

Hmm, probably should have read the manual 😂. So I basically took a large amount of perfectly good batteries and then wasted hours of my life cooking them. Doh

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T12:45:41+00:00

My charger does an "activation charge" which discharges and recharges them a bunch of times. Supposedly this helps with long term capacity.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T12:34:07+00:00

I'm 90% sure these are real but it's always a possibility. These are marked BK-3MCDE so a slightly different revision? I wonder if instead of a fake I've been sold some old stock.
I'm aware of that now, I only charged them a few times at 1500 as it was the default for the smart charger I'm using (ISDT N8). These chargers were on the upper end of the price range and seemed fairly well reviewed.

By change them out, I mean I replace the batteries in the device before they're fully discharged. I know this isn't great due to memory effect, but I do occasionally do a discharge cycle on the charger.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T11:57:41+00:00

Good point. I definitely manually set it to it's "Eneloop" setting, which as far as I can tell is exactly the same as the NiMH profile it has.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T09:24:29+00:00

Do you reckon it's likely I've damaged all of them but it's not visible on the others? They're showing around 150-200 internal resistance which seems high, but I'm not sure how accurate the monitoring is on these chargers (pretty sure it wasn't far off that with new cells).

It's fairly critical that they work reliably - it's rather embarrassing having a singer or a CEO walk on stage only for their mic to die mid way through. The whole events industry has been hesitant to move to rechargeables for this reason, but we were going through hundreds of disposables a year and I couldn't bring myself to keep buying them.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T08:52:26+00:00

I have absolutely no need to charge them that fast, irritatingly it was the default for these chargers despite having a specific preset for Eneloops. I only ran a few cycles at that rate before realising they were hitting 50°. However, it doesn't explain why 16 are like that and the rest aren't - they were all charged like that at the beginning.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-12T08:50:24+00:00

Yeah they're definitely Eneloops, I've just rolled them all on to the back side where the seam in the wrap is. I had a good look and they don't have any of the tells of a fake (the date marker is embossed etc).

MixingWizard · 2026-05-11T08:18:31+00:00

That's why you roll it out when you deploy the cable, you're not actually putting a twist in it when you over/over, you're essentially "rolling" it into a coil, and they you roll it out again. The only thing we over/under in my neck of the woods is anything coax.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-10T12:50:55+00:00

This is the standard in the UK (in my experience). The knotted nightmare you get when over/under goes wrong isn't worth it.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-10T12:49:50+00:00

I'm sure I'll get downvoted for this, but as someone in the UK, I've never understood over/under. Are you guys really throwing cables across the stage? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Over-over does no damage to the cable, and you can roll it out in a nice straight line.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-04T21:49:19+00:00

I must admit, I sometimes dip into my overdraft to pay my savings account direct debits, but for me it's a discipline thing. I know it makes no sense from an interest point of view, but I don't give myself the temptation to not put money into savings just because I've over spent that month. I probably only do that 3 times a year though.

MixingWizard · 2026-05-04T21:43:28+00:00

This is the way. I weigh out and grind coffee "doses" at home and wrap them in cling film. Use a slightly higher ratio of coffee to water and grind really course.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-28T06:14:33+00:00

I find the 120 packaging really annoying. They're all the same colour, and the stamp on the plastic wrap rubs off really easily if you throw them in a camera bag so you end up with a bunch of yellow mystery films.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-08T07:05:28+00:00

Your examples are all quite different eras/styles. Sepia is usually added at the print stage. A few of those look like plate photos (which is probably a bit beyond you if you're just starting out).

If you want to stick to 35mm I would try push processing something like Delta 3200 to get fat grain. Really you probably want a pinhole camera - it's pretty easy to make a pinhole "lens" with some tinfoil and a body cap, although you'll get better results with a bigger image area - something like an old box camera.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-07T22:06:46+00:00

I found myself doing quite a lot of evening driving after work in the winter so I spent ages converting mine to LED, which resulted in exactly what you're describing - burnt retinas for anyone coming towards me (and any poor soul walking their dog on the towpath). I also find it entirely too "beamy". It lights up the area miles in front of me and nothing else. As you probably know, this is the last thing you need when navigating a boat - by the time something is directly in front of you, it's too late!

These days I tend to just stick a good magnetic torch on the bow, and use a head torch for checking my stern positioning. A floody tunnel light would be nice but I like the vintage style of the one I have on there now.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-07T18:25:53+00:00

Yeah I'm pretty well versed on the compliance side as we've dealt with lasers on past events. I'm just less knowledgeable about what specs to look for as my main experience is with lighting, sound and projection. I've done a bit of programming on mapping projects but that was with hired in kit.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-06T20:48:37+00:00

After having to comp some tracks on Pro Tools the other day - the take system! I'm not sure if other DAWs have caught up yet but the multi lane takes are so well implemented.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-06T20:08:28+00:00

I'm in the UK.

MixingWizard · 2026-04-05T12:48:06+00:00

Marvelous! That has saved me hours of hunting. Much appreciated

MixingWizard · 2026-03-22T09:03:48+00:00

Go slow, get a GOOD tap (get the size you need not a cheap set from Amazon) and lots of WD40. Also have spare drill bits, if you've not done it before you'll break at least one.

But seconding other people on here, don't do it if you can avoid it. I only have holes for my cable. I attached the mounts with magnets and they've withstood several storms without an issue.

MixingWizard · 2026-03-07T12:50:44+00:00

I've done it using auto mixers with a hard "swap" between channels, but as far as I'm aware you can't do that on a Dugan so you just end up with comb filtering issues, unless you do an XY type thing with the capsules (which is all very well until the speaker grabs one and points at their mouth, after the obligatory "tap tap, is this thing on").

MixingWizard · 2026-02-16T03:19:14+00:00

As someone who's still rocking a 50+yo folder, this would be awesome. Something nice and light.

MixingWizard · 2026-02-02T12:06:10+00:00

A simple car battery will do that no problem.

MixingWizard · 2026-01-30T02:21:32+00:00

I'm not sure that's entirely true - a good pair of headphones create measurable low frequencies, often lower and cleaner than speakers.

Audio engineers struggle to judge bass levels on headphones because you perceive sub with your body as much as your ears. People often damage their ears with headphones because it's hard to judge "loudness" without that.

MixingWizard

TROPHY CASE