I have an old Isotip 60 (minute charge)soldering iron. The original batteries are a 2 cell pack of 4/5AA's. Full charge detection is an old fashioned thermal trip on the end of the pack. I only use the iron occasionally and leaving it plugged into the stand on trickle charge is a waste and bad for the battery. With low discharge cells available I am looking for alternatives. An 18650 is out because I would need a buck converter to go from 3.6 to 2.4. There is definitely not enough room for that and a charge control board. There are 2.4 volt LTO lithiums but no off the shelf control boards. That leaves low self discharge NiMh Eneleloops The Eneloop Pro AA is 2250mah, though less at high discharge rate, and my old 4/5 C's wre only 1300mah. They hold most of rheir charge for two years.It comes down to max charge and discharge currents. The iron draws 4A at 2.4 volts per tests on a power supply. I can only find limited info on these cells, mostly consumer stuff on how long it will run your camera or flashlight. I found one third party data sheet that tested it at 5 amps but nothing official. For charging I have a Tenergy NiCd/NiMH smart charger that uses the Delta method to detect full charge and offers me 0.9 or 1.8 amps charge rate. Normally I would be under 1C with 1.8 but I know nothing about these cells and they expect you to use their charger. Since the cells will be buttoned up in the iron and I already have a charger I want to avoid any problems before I buy them. Any thoughts. Thanks
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