[SML] ZTS battery tester

[Duncan Mahoney]

There's been a lot of entire digests quoted back to the list lately, and I
missed the beinging of the thread for some reason, but someone asked about
ZTS pulse load testers.  We've got a couple MBT-1s, one for me, one for the
theater manager.  They are great for checking through the big bucket of
"used" batteries from the cordless mics to see which ones will still work in
less critical applications like Maglites.  They are good at testing Li-ion
and NiMH/NiCad rechargeable cells, bulk "imported" button cells (half of
which seem to arrive already depleted), etc.  The Mini works fine if you
don't have button or other "odd" cells to test.

For testing the rechargeable power tool batteries, we have a CBA III from
West Mountain Radio, well worth the investment if you have a large inventory
of batteries to manage.  We test all the batteries at least once a year and
purge/rebuild any that are well below capacity.  This helps avoid the
frustrating experience of pulling a freshly charged "dead" battery out of
the charger

Duncan Mahoney
Director of Technical Direction
Associate Professor of Theatre Practice
University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts