Recent iPower Pro 520 tests

To the Group:
We only had two of the Pro 520 mAh iPower batteries to test. We ran
the batteries down several times and recharged them. Then we left them
inside turned on units overnight and recharged them. Then we took
discharged units and applied a direct short (copper wire wrapped
around the terminals) both over night and over the weekend. And
recharged them. No failures in any of these cases.

We checked the current capacity at a 50 mA (10 hours) rate and
measured 518 mAh and 532 mAh in our constant current discharger. At a
100 mA (5 hour) rate they averaged 504 mAh. At a 200 mAh rate (2.5
hours) they measured 500 mAh average. This says that the 520 mAh
rating is darned honest. An Eveready alkaline at 50 mA discharge rate
totaled 560 mAh but had fallen to 5.5 Volts whereas the iPower were
staying above 7 Volts.

The iPowers will actually run longer than the alkaline batteries in
our gear since the switching power supplies pull constant power out of
the battery, i.e., less current at the higher average voltages of the
iPower. This is particularly true for the UM450 because of its very
high current draw.

We have had two recent reports of users with UH400a's having problems
with the 520 iPowers not starting up with the 48 Volt phantom power
switched on. We were not able to duplicate that problem here using a
Schoeps mic on different UH400a's and using the two new iPowers and
two older 500 mAh iPowers. We also tried the UM450 on the batteries
because of its heavy current load and again had no startup problems.
At the moment we aren't sure what is causing the customer's problems.

It may be that we just didn't have a large enough sample of batteries.
Since we are shipping the standard 500 mAh iPowers with the UM450, we
will simply try each battery in the UM450 before it goes out the door.
This may give us the larger sample that we need.

Best Regards,
Larry Fisher
Lectrosonics