La Crosse BC-900 Battery Charger

[johndec]

A week or two ago I noticed a post on another forum talking about the BC-900 battery charger. Everyone was raving about it, so being a techno-geek, I just had to have one. It arrived a couple of days ago and I got it from here . Well, in a nutshell, if this isn't the Rolls Royce of chargers, I don't know what is.

As well as the usual charge and discharge functions (user selectable from 200mAh to 1800mAh) it has a Refresh setting that will repeatably charge and discharge batteries, all the time monitoring them until they reach their peak state. But the best bit is the Test function will actually charge-discharge-recharge your battery and inform you of it's capacity (once again at a user selectable rate). Each charging bay is independant so I can mix and match batteries and charge modes as well as charge rates at will.. Geek Heaven

So for I've only had a chance to test one set of "rated" 2500mAh batteries. The results are disappointing in that they tested at an average of only 1934mAh. They hadn't had the Refresh applied to them, so I'll do that before I point the finger at any particular brand. Mind you they are less than 12 months old and have only been recharged perhaps 10 times. I'll refresh and test all my AA batteries and post a "Battery Shootout" in a couple of weeks.

Verdict: A do-all charger. Want a slow charger that looks after your batteries? This does it. In a hurry and want rapid recharge? It can do that too. Want to know if the big numbers manufacturers put on the side bare any resemblance to reality? This baby will tell you the truth!

[losfp]

It's a shame it can only do 4 batteries at a time (I think? just by quickly scanning that linked page)... I have 2 4-bay quick chargers, and they are a real pain when I have 2x5 AAs for my SB800

[johndec]

It's a shame it can only do 4 batteries at a time (I think? just by quickly scanning that linked page)... I have 2 4-bay quick chargers, and they are a real pain when I have 2x5 AAs for my SB800

Yeah, that 5th battery can be a real PITA!! But the beauty of knowing the individual capacities of your batteries mean that you can put your best 5 in the SB-800 and have the other 5 as your backup set.

[Michael]

I should get one of these!

[wendellt]

this one is good as well
and you can charge 1 battery at a time or all 4 in 30mins up to 2500mah

charger


Fixed by Glen, Wendell

[johndec]

It sure does Wendell, but if you had posted:

This one looks good too.

It wouldn't have reformatted the page and made it hard to read.

[birddog114]

I have the Powertech, Jaycar cat# MB-3512
For 1-10 Pcs AA & AAA
Why should I use charger with 4 batteries, my SB800s, each requires 5 batteries at once.

[beetleboy]

Me too birddog..

It's slow and makes a weird ticking noise but damn it's good!!

I'm gonna buy a set of 6 rechargeables when my D200 arrives so i can use them as backup for either the camera OR a second backup for the SB800!

[Glen]

John, looks very impressive and well priced too. I have to ask, can it do a D200 battery? Or don't you know yet?

[birddog114]

Me too birddog..

It's slow and makes a weird ticking noise but damn it's good!!

I'm gonna buy a set of 6 rechargeables when my D200 arrives so i can use them as backup for either the camera OR a second backup for the SB800!

It's slow and help batteries last, don't you worry too much!

weird ticking noise? I like it, it reminds me the batteries are on the charger and forget them not

[beetleboy]

I like that birddog! Never thought of it that way!!

[johndec]

John, looks very impressive and well priced too. I have to ask, can it do a D200 battery? Or don't you know yet?

It can if you buy an MB200 vertical grip..

[beetleboy]

Oh yeh..sorry I forgot to mention that! I have an MBD200! And no, it doesn't fit in the D70 no matter how hard you try.....trust me!!!!

[birddog114]

Oh yeh..sorry I forgot to mention that! I have an MBD200! And no, it doesn't fit in the D70 no matter how hard you try.....trust me!!!!

Get some tools as grinder, cutter and DIY, it'll fit

[DaveB]

I've had the LaCrosse charger for a couple of months now, and love it also! The fact that the AC adapter for it is multi-voltage is nice when travelling, although sorting out a good 12V -> 3V(3A) adapter would also be convenient for my car/boat work.

I don't see what the problem with charging "only" a maximum of 4 batteries is, except for having to swap batteries every now and then. As an individual battery finishes you can replace it with another one and set its charge level independently from the others still charging...
Travelling in Africa recently I had 24 AAs to keep charged and it was no problem. As it turned out I rarely charged all of them at once, although 16 in one night was not unusual (e.g. every 4 nights or so: 8 in the flash power pack partly charged, and 8 fairly flat).

[greencardigan]

Verdict: A do-all charger.

For AA's and AAA's.

I might be wanting too much but I'd like a charger that could charge any size/combination of NiMH/NiCad, Li-Ion, Li-Poly, SLA.

I'm over having a big box full of different chargers.

[johndec]

Well then if you want it all you need the Rezap 883 charger . Charges AAAA,AAA,AA,C,D,N,9V,Lantern 6V, etc. Will charge Ni-CD, Ni-MH, primary alkaline and rechargable alkaline and will probably make you a cup of coffee in the morning..

Yes, I've got one of them as well, I'm a charger geek.

[whiz]

Maybe you should try out one of these chargers then..
http://www.modelflight.com.au/rc_model_ ... harger.htm

[moz]

Any idea where to buy one? Thomas Distributing is out of stock and the Amazon spammers have polluted the search results to the point where I don't think anyone sells it except that one place on Amazon I'm reluctant to buy from spammers, especially with a 3-5 week delivery time.

Thomas-Distributing link

[servaasproducts]

LaCrosse will have another 10,000 of these BC-900 coming into stock this month., so you should be able to get them from Thomas again soon. Everyone has been out of stock for several months.

We are working with LaCrosse to bring these into Australia but they do not yet meet the Australian C-Tick approvals.