Conditioning/Forming Nimh packs

[sikeston34m]

I have read that alot of Brand New Nimh Battery Packs won't live up to their mah ratings until they have been conditioned or formed.

On how to do this, I found this on another forum: "The charge should be C/10- for 14 to 16 hours. The discharge should be C/5 to .9 volt per cell."

They suggest cycling using this method for at least 3 cycles and one person said sometimes even more cycles are needed before the pack will deliver it's rated mah capacity.

They also suggest that this type of cycling will "bring back to life" older packs that are losing their capacity from age or sitting and especially works well with packs that have been fast charged alot.

Can anyone add to this?

I would also like to find more information on matching/zapping Nimh cells.

Any help would be appreciated.