>*OCCASIONAL* deep discharge of
>NiCd cells will break up these crystaline deposits somewhat, restoring some
>of the capacity of the cell.
This is correct. However, this kind of deep discharge needs to be done the
right way. You have to monitor the voltage, and, even more important, the
current to stop deep discharge before the cell changes polarity. You have
to do this veeeery slowly (like 3 or more hours to get from 1.0 to 0.6
volts).
No affordable charger I know can do this, and unless you can do so under
laboratory conditions I'd recommend not to try.
Easier and cheaper is correct charging (pulse and reverse charging). These
chargers are around $100 in Germany and can even recondition cells to a
certain extent. They beat the Newton's charge technology hands down (which
isn't
exactly difficult) and are about the best price-performance ratio you can
get
these days when using rechargeables. My experience with 30+ rechargeables I
use on a regular basis is that when you use this kind of chargers, you won't
have to worry much about all this as the batteries hardly lose capacity.
Just my $0.02
Frank
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