I have an old Isotip 60 minute soldering iron. It uses 2 NiCd sub C's and an old fashioned thermal trip to end charge. It is bypassed with a resistor to continue trickle charging the sub C's are something like 1300 mah. The 2 cell pack is long dead. Replacements are acailable, as are much higher capacity NiCd and NiMH cells. I do not use the iron very often so I am looking at LTO (2.4 volt lithium) or Low self discharge NiMH. that hold a charge for a long time. The problem is more logistic than technical. I found one Chinese company that makes an ic that does what those little ebay boards do for the 3.6 volt lithium cells and I doubt if I could get just one. The LTO batteries are available They can be charged at 5C. But the Chinese chip only is good for an amp. As for the low self discharge NiMh, the only maker in sub C seems to be some German company. Farnell has them but I am in the US and Newark lists them but has a $30 sur charge to import them from Europe. Without the thermal trip I might be able to squeeze a couple of C cells in there. My smart charger uses the Delta method to detirmine full charge. I considered an 18650 but I see no reasonable way to get rid of 1.2 volts. A couple of diodes will put a lot of heat inside the case. Any thoughts appreciated.
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