Physical Appearance
The charger seems well constructed, although I was surprised by the relatively small size of it. It has numerous adjustments to accommodate a wide range of battery packs. The charger looks nothing like the original MH-C777 charger, and in fact it seems to have no relationship.

There is a LCD display on the top of the charger, along with a slide switch to change polarity and a button marked "Discharge" which is used for battery conditioning. There is a differently shaped slide switch on the left end of the charger for selecting NiCD/NiMH or Lithium-Ion batteries.

The charger also has contacts which are mounted on moveable plastic pieces that can be adjusted to accommodate many different types of battery packs. There are two plastic guides that are also adjustable to allow for a variety of shapes. Also included are a set of leads with alligator clips. This plugs into a connector on the back of the charger and is used to charge packs that won't fit on the regular contacts.

What is not included are holders for individual batteries (more on this later). Finally, there is a magnetic temperature sensor that attaches to the pack being charged.

The Manual
The charger comes with a manual and several sheets of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The manual is simple and straight forward and gives most of the information that a user should require. The FAQ sheets cover common questions about the charger, but mostly restate what's in the manual.

Even if you are impatient, as I am, you should take a few minutes to review the manual and the FAQ sheets. The information is also available at the MAHA website.

Setting It Up
It really couldn't be much simpler. Just plug in the power supply, set the switch for the battery type and adjust the contacts. Don't forget to attach the temperature sensor.

Operation and Impressions
I bought this charger because I was given a couple of NiMH battery packs for a Motorola radio that I own, but didn't have a charger that was designed for them. After looking around, I decided on the MAHA because it would charge and condition a wide variety of battery packs.

Since the packs that I were given were of unknown condition, I decided to try one of them first. I ran into a slight problem, because the charging contacts on these batteries are diode protected, and therefore the batteries can't be discharged through them. The manual and FAQ sheet address this very problem.

The solution is to use the contacts that connect the battery to the radio, not the charging contacts. On this particular battery pack, this required using the charging leads and a little ingenuity.

After I got the contacts to stay where I wanted them, I attached the temperature sensor and plugged the leads into the charger. A nice feature of the charger is that it will beep and display "Err 1" on the display if you connect the polarity incorrectly. You can then slide the polarity switch over and the charger will start working.

Once everything is connected correctly, the charger will start to display battery mode, voltage, amperage and time of charge. The words "Quick Charge" will start to flash at the bottom of the display.

If you want to condition the battery, press the "Discharge" button within thirty seconds of the start of the charge cycle. That charger will then deep discharge the battery and recharge it. I found that, depending on the condition of the battery, it might take two conditioning cycles to get the battery to accept a reasonable charge.

I did this with the first Motorola NiMH battery and at the end of the second cycle the battery displayed a pretty impressive 2500 mAh capacity. Encouraged by the success of this first trial, I took a battery pack from a BC245XLT that wouldn't hold a charge of more than five minutes and cycled it.

To make proper contact, it was necessary to use a couple of wire leads that I clipped off of a resister. I stuck these into the battery contacts on the pack, and then connected the clip leads to them. At the end of the discharge cycle, the capacity was listed as only about 100 mAh.

Again, the battery required two conditioning cycles, but at the end of the second, the capacity was slightly over the rated 800 mAh capacity. The pack lasted about eight hours the next time I used it.

Finally, I took three AA NiCds that were in my RE2000Alpha scanner. These were relatively new, but since the scanner sits more than it runs, I decided to condition them as well. The results were less impressive, but mainly because the batteries were in better condition. Still they did charge up nicely.

To charge these batteries I had to put them in a four cell battery holder. I think that MAHA offers a variety of these, but any battery holder should work. I bought the one that I used for the AA batteries at a Ham radio flea market for $1.

Conclusions
Well worth the money if you have a lot of different types of batteries to charge. Given how many consumer devices of all types use rechargeable batteries, most of us can justify the cost of this device. You can buy the charger from a variety of outlets, either in person or via the Internet. I purchased mine from Thomas Distributing. Their price was a few dollars less than the other vendors and their service was excellent.

Gary Saffer
garys2@mediaone.net

Related link: MAHA
Related link: MH-C777Plus