Item Brochure

6
Intelligent batteries
All batteries have an integrated intelligent battery
monitoring chip. This chip calculates the charge state
of the battery and the most favorable charging cycle
from the data it collects, such as temperature and
current. This ensures that the battery can achieve its
maximum service life and that the customer always
knows the actual available remaining capacity of the
instrument in use.
Li-Ion
Li-Ion cells have a high energy density. This minimizes
battery size and weight.
Li-Ion batteries are low maintenance and exhibit no
memory effect. They do not require regular
charge/discharge cycles to prolong battery life.
Li-Ion batteries supplied by Leica Geosystems have a
protection circuit to maintain safe operation, limit the
peak voltage of each cell during charge and prevent
the battery voltage from dropping too low on
discharge. In addition, the cell temperature is
monitored to prevent temperature extremes.
NiMH cells
NiMH cells have a higher internal resistance than NiCd
cells and are therefore not suitable for as high
charging and discharging currents, or low
temperatures as NiCd cells. This higher internal
resistance causes the voltage of NiMH batteries to
collapse rapidly at minus temperatures and under
high current loading. This can result in the activation
of the deep discharge protection fitted in all Leica
Geosystems batteries. This means that the full
capacity of these NiMH batteries cannot be drawn at
low temperatures. Leica Geosystems uses only NiMH
cells that provide problem-free operation when
supplying the current drawn by all Leica equipment,
even at –20 °C (–4 °F).
Condition when delivered
Li-Ion
For safety, storage and shipment reasons, when the
batteries leave the factory they contain an optimally
low quantity of charge.
NiMH
For safety, storage and shipment reasons, when the
batteries leave the factory they contain the lowest
possible quantity of charge. NiMH batteries must not
be stored in a discharged state. The batteries should
therefore be fully charged as soon as possible
following receipt.
Charging the batteries
New and stored batteries
New NiCd and NiMH batteries reach their maximum
capacity only after a number of charging and
discharging cycles.
The batteries should be fully discharged and charged
three to five times. NiMH batteries that have been
stored and not used for an extended period (more
than a month) should be refreshed similarly. For Li-
Ion batteries that have been stored for longer than
one year, a single discharging and charging cycle is
sufficient.
The easiest way to perform this cycling is by using
the GKL221 charging station, which has a discharge
function.
For this conditioning to work reliably, only almost
empty batteries should be discharged in the GKL221.
Therefore before cycling, the batteries should be