Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpl-opus!hpnmdla!darrylo
From: darrylo@hpnmdla.hp.com (Darryl Okahata)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: rechargeables in palmtops?
Message-ID: <1570030@hpnmdla.hp.com>
Date: 1 May 91 17:42:04 GMT
References: <1991Apr27.161015.19757@cmcl2.nyu.edu>
Organization: HP Network Measurements Div, Santa Rosa, CA
Lines: 26

In comp.sys.handhelds, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:

> I don't immediately see any problem they would cause, however.  They do
> have somewhat lower output voltage than *fresh* ordinary batteries, but
> battery-powered hardware has to be able to run on nearly-dead batteries,
> and that means being able to cope with lower voltages.

     Nicads could cause serious problems for those people who have been
risking calculator damage by using a RAM card not designed for the HP
48SX (such as the Smith-Corona RAM cards, etc.).  As the nicad battery
voltages are lower, there's probably a bigger chance of the RAM card
shorting out the calculator (when the RAM card detects a low battery
condition, the RAM card clamps the address lines to *ground* -- which
will do nasty things to the calculator if the calculator has not already
detected a low battery condition and shut itself down before the RAM
card does).

     BTW, I'd like to second your welcome here, Harry.

     -- Darryl ("We know who you are." ;-) Okahata
	UUCP: {hplabs!, hpcea!, hpfcla!} hpnmd!darrylo
	Internet: darrylo%hpnmd@relay.hp.com

DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion or policy of Hewlett-Packard or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.