Play n charge - why are they so poor?

[kernow]

I'm not, it's Mass Effect 3. ..

Why play arcana heart 3?

[speedlolita]

I do not.

[Daragon]

Must agree on the ****ness of the P+C, got myself a brand new one with my silver pad and it didn't work properly out the box - wouldn't charge the pad at all so of course it eventually went flat, after which time I could only use it again with the charge kit connected, effectively turning it into a wired pad which would switch off as soon as the kit was removed.

Took me about a week of "trickery" before it started to play ball!

[kernow]

You and batteries though.. .I dunno man..

[Link83]

Daragon will never live that down!

[Psyduck]

I've been using the same play & charge since launch, it's not great but hasn't got any worse.

for my other pads I use hybrio batteries though and they're miles better.

[moonwhistle]

Another vote for standard recharable AAs. Play and charge kits are just garbage upselling.

[egparadigm]

I found standard rechargeables really unreliable for 360 pads. Works fine on Wii, though.

[smouty]

I found standard rechargeables really unreliable for 360 pads. Works fine on Wii, though.

I suppose it depends on which ones you get. I use the highest capacity NMh ones I could get from 7dayshop which were 2500mah to 2800mah and they have been great.
I've had cameras that would power on with lower capacity batteries.

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/default.php?cat=3&type=3060&man=96&filterwords=&go=SEARCH&comp=

[egparadigm]

It was a 2500mah battery I used. They just switched off whilst using them and things like that. Quite happy with P&C, though.

[smouty]

It was a 2500mah battery I used. They just switched off whilst using them and things like that. Quite happy with P&C, though.

They are not all the same. I have some 2600mah ones from ebay which are awful only suitable for remotes and other low powered items.
I looked into the requirements of these high capacity cells and with my trickle charger (600ma) it takes 20+ hours to fully charge 4 of these.
USB has a max. current of 500ma so would take approx. 14hrs to charge two of these in a controller at the max. current.
Without going into it too much, trickle charging NiMH cells is not ideal long term.

[Corranga]

Without going into it too much, trickle charging NiMH cells is not ideal long term.

Which is probably the real issue with the official play and charge kit (presuming it's a NiMH cell).
I remember reading somewhere that using a quick charge kit can/will revive batteries that no longer work, but that might just be crap.
Shame I seem to have lost my sealed and unused quick charge kit then

Chris

[EvilBoris]

Yeah, the quick charge kit will revive batteries that appear to refuse to charge (permanent green light)

[Digfox]

On my third MS P&C kit since buying my first Xbox in Jan-2007. The first two met their maker after three years of reasonable use being charged via the quick charge kit. I personally like the convenience and relatively quick charge cycles of them.

However I'm likely to buying some Sanyo Eneloops soon, simply because I can get a load for use in other devices as well as the performance increase.