Sony CycleEnergy (AutoCUT!) Ni-MH Battery Charger AA OR AAA Size - Where Goes the Blue

Firstly to confirm Sony CycleEnergy does not have AUTOCUT feature!

            Here is how the entire episode started.

We are about to move for Manali tour this Sunday, i.e., on 18^th October, 2015. Among my must-have purchase items I have listed a Re-chargeable Battery Charger along with a pair of re-chargeable batteries.  In my last New Delhi tour, I had struggled a lot while capturing pictures for want of Camera Batteries. I had two pairs in stock. But none of them could keep my Canon Camera on! So, before our tour to Manali, I had to settle this battery issue.

Conversation of Yesterday Evening

Well after departure from my day job, I want on a shop-hopping at Esplanade area. It was overly-crowded. Durga-Puja-shoppers have conquered the entire Esplanade area. Even, a flycatcher should have trouble penetrating through them. Anyway, I managed to reach a shop – an old shop still reflecting British traces in Bengal. Three old men were sitting inside. 

This is my dialog with them:

Me:        Do you have auto-cut charger for a re-chargeable battery?

Salesperson:      Yes. It is SONY make

(A silent wow! popped in my mind! SONY!)

Me:        Please show me.

Salesperson:      Here is the one for charging a pair of batteries. And here is the one for charging two pairs of batteries. These chargers come up pair of batteries as well.

(He explained me the price as well.)

Colour Changing SONY Charger

From my Internet knowledge acquire this morning I had developed some idea about the price of such chargers. I found one on Amazon, was ENVIE Speedstar ECR11 LCD High Speed Autocut Charger Battery. I compared the price. And the price of this SONY charger sounded okay.

That shop did not have Smart Card Reader Machine. So, again, I had to jostle through the crowd to withdraw money from ATM for making payment.

Now I ordered the SONY Ni-MH Battery Charger along with TWO pairs of SONY CycleEnergy 2500 mAH Battery.

This time, when I reached the shop, I investigated further for before making payment. This is what the salesman told me while explaining the function of our AutoCUT charger!

Salesperson:      Initially insert the batteries inside the sockets. You will see a yellow indicator (actually Orange Indicator!) will glow. Charge it for 6 hours. The charger will autocut and the indicator will turn BLUE (I checked later, this is written nowhere in the manual supplied with the charger!).  

The salesperson continued, keep charging for 10 (ten) hours minimum. The battery will turn pretty hot. Then remove the battery.

Being quite impressed I packed my goodies and paved back for home.

What Happened This Morning at 5.30 am

            I set the battery on charger and plugged in at 9.30 pm last night. The charger was supposed to Autocut at 3.30 am (6 hours from 9.30 pm).  And I had to continue the charging process till 7.30 in the morning (for 10 hours) and the batter was supposed to be VERY HOT!

         But to my utter surprise, I could watch the charger INDICATOR still glaring ORANAGE radiation! No change to colour was seen! I touched the batter. It was little warm not that TOO hot. I suspected something was wrong in the preaching of that salesman.

          

          I was worried for TWO reasons

          No. 1 – I suspected I have been duped. This charger does not have auto-cut feature.

          No. 2 – My journey will commence the day after tomorrow. This is the period of puja vacation. And this vacation period will continue for nearly 10 days.  So, there is NO TIME LEFT to pursue with the salesperson to settle the issue! 

         No. 3 – I badly need good charger as I do want to miss capturing MANALI Photos like my New Delhi tour.  And my budget has been exhausted.

                Reality of Autocut

             In a hurry I, I opened the box and re-read the manual. Okay here it goes! It says the indicator will continue to glow for 15 hours for AA battery and for 6 hours AAA battery. Below this line, a small table was printed. That says the charging time for different AA / AAA batteries based upon their capacity ( 2100 mAH / 2500 mAH / 2700 maH) etc. Now it is clearly printed in the manual I have to turn off the charger after charging for the specified duration as mentioned in the manual.

      

          Is it what you expect from an Autocat charger?

      

          Things that I have learned in between

      

           In my hunt for a brand new autocut chargers I learned the following things.

           

          Difference between Ni-Cd / Ni-MH Battery

                Mi-MH (Nickel – Metal Hydride) is the newer technology. This offers higher energy density that Ni-Cd (Nickel – Cadmium) battery. The capacity of Ni-MH is twice than that of Ni-Cd.

         How to improve life of re-chargeable battery?

1.       Remove the battery from the Camera whenever NOT in USE for a couple of days.

2.       Do not keep the battery inside the CHARGER.

3.       Use the battery at the least once / twice in a month.

4.       Check the battery periodically and Re-Charge it when fully exhausted.

5.       Always re-charge in pairs.

6.       Consult Battery Manual to know the exact charging time of the battery.

And this afternoon, when there was no Colour Change in the SONY Charger I decided to write to the company.

This is my mail to SONY India.

I visited a shop and requested for an AUTOCUT charger. The salesperson sold me the aforesaid SONY charger. He told me that during charging the indicator's yellow light will glow and after completion of charging after 10 hours, it will turn blue. I have charged my two batteries with this charger for more than 10 hours. However, the indicator did not turn blue. Rather, it continued to show orange colour. Kindly let me know, what is going wrong.

If it is not auto-cut, Kindly instruct the seller to hand me on over an autocut charger as I suspect I have been duped. Otherwise, kindly do something so that my charger’s indicator will turn blue after completion of charging.

I’ll present all the bills / vouchers to any authority if required.

My mobile no. Xxxxx - xxxxx

I bought it from:

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

xxx, Chowringhee Road, Kolkata - 7010- 013

Phone - xxx xxx xxxx

I hope someone from Sony will notice my email and help me getting my much coveted AUTOCUT charger.

Was there nothing positive in this deal?

In a recent matter, one of my seniors asked me this question when a disputed order was issued by the higher authority. Now this was the question I had in my mind after this entire episode. And I found one thing positive.

This incident triggered my SECOND POST in this blog!

Happy Mahalaya 2015

Happy Mahalaya!

We can smell the aroma of festivity in the air here in Kolkata as mesmerizing Bengal drummers are rehearsing hard to make the BIG days even bigger, while organizers of PUJA-OF-ALL-SCALE are working tirelessly to give their PANDELS that special effect for the expected millions of night long pandel hoppers during the Puja, and while everyone with tad traces of Bengali SENTIMENT is gearing up to get flooded in the festive mood.

It comes only once in a year. It comes every year. And its charms have never been fading off. Rather, we have seen even more enthusiasm, more planning, more efforts, more perfection, more management, more security, and more involvement from every corner. It is DURGA PUJA.

Well! I was out from all online acts during the past one year. Previously, I was on facebook.  I was on forums. I was on myriads of other social sites, a SOCIAL-ANIMAL desperately  consuming every bit of social tastes.

Strange things happen in universe, in world, in India, in Bengal in Kolkata as well as in my personal life, I tasted the flavour of social activities a lot, did my best to develop CakePHP based Applications, and finally, everything came to a standstill.

I just had a BLOCK.

A block that ate up my unputdownable CHARACTER to persist.

 Oflate I read a CHETAN BHAGAT book, Half-Girlfried. The story of Madhav played a trick on me. The last few lines I can recall. When Shyam failed to put the ball inside the basket, Madhav insisted his son to keep on trying as "It will happen someday!".

So, this probably explains this resumption or calling back of old habits. However, I'll, anyway, probably not be on facebook any more. I would rather share my stories peacefully in this blog - my travel stories, stories of my passion for music and literature, and something different at times.

There is no appeal for anyone right now. Thanks for reading this trivia peacefully.

Happy Mahalaya!