Hi
I have a cheap'n nasty cordless drill with a correspondingly cheap'n nasty charger (ie it's not intelligent enough to discharge my NiCad batteries before recharging them). There's aften quite a bit of juice left in the powerpack after the useful power has gone, and I'd like to be able to empty the remaining charge before plonking them in the charger, in order to prolong battery life.
I thought of knocking up a little gizmo with a 12V car bulb attached, into which I could insert the batteries on the way to the charger. Does that make sense? Or could that damage the batteries in some way? Or would there be enough charge to blow a 12V bulb? How long would it take for the charge to reduce effectively to minimum - presumably some time after the filament stops glowing? Is there a more effective resistive load I could use instead?
The power packs are 14.4V, and are the usual sort; ie a roughly cubic block with a sticky-out bit with contacts on which slots into the base of the drill handle.
Thanks David