We are adding new blood to Cadex. My sons Paul, Tommy, and Robert are joining as Executive Directors with focus on Strategic Growth. The three boys are part of my family of five children who I raised as a single dad. All have successful careers and now also support my company that is turning 40 years old in 2025. Here is a brief history. I developed the first Cadex battery analyzer in 1980 while working with GE. It’s there working as service technician when I learned that half of failures in two-way radios were caused by the battery. I discovered that the “memory effect” of NiCd batteries can be reversed. This occurred when accidentally over-charging a client’s battery. Fearing I had destroyed the battery, I charged it up again and instead of getting the former capacity of 55%, the battery recovered to 100%.

My sons Paul, Tommy, and Robert giving me a hand with Cadex

I took the discovery home and developed the Cadex battery analyzer that applied a controlled secondary discharge when needed. The invention worked and in 1981 I sold the first Cadex battery analyzer to a police department while still working with GE. This police department had just purchased new batteries from GE for their two-way radios. Checking these new packs on the Cadex 450 delivered only a capacity of 80% instead of the 100% as advertised.

The police department called GE and my boss answering the phone. The boss then asked: “How do you check the batteries?” The policeman replied: “We have a Cadex analyzer made by Buchmann Enterprise.”

My boss called me into his office and gave me an ultimatum: “Either you stop building these battery analyzers, or leave GE.” I gave my resignation and soon after changed my company name to Cadex Electronics Inc.

GE took note and also added a discharge cycle into their chargers with aim to prolong NiCd batteries. What’s unique with all Cadex battery analyzers is showing the battery capacity in percent on a digital display. A new battery should give 100% capacity; replacement is usually at 80%.

In 1983, I released the multi-station Cadex C550. Competition arose by offering battery analyzers with printers and barcode readers. To compete, we developed the C6000 with the Z80 microprocessor that also offered a printer and a barcode reader. We went a step further and added the Target Selector with the Auto program that automatically applies a recondition cycle if the set capacity was not reached. All Cadex battery analyzers since 1988 feature the Auto Program governed by the Target Selector.

One of the Cadex C6000 systems was sold to the Sultan of Brunei to maintain his Flip phone batteries among others. This phone by Motorola was so popular that only the sultan was allowed to carry one.

In 1988 we also released the Cadex C2000, a lower cost battery analyzer with Charge, Auto, and Recondition programs, running on the latest NCR microprocessor. This compact unit became popular with the Oil Patch in Alberta, railway companies, and public service.

In 1991 we introduced the C4000, the first digitally programmable battery analyzer featuring battery adapters that configured the analyzer to the correct battery algorithm. The big changes came in 1994 when we moved to a 16,000 square foot plant and developed the C7000 with easy-to-replace SnapLock™ battery adapters that set a new standard in battery analyzers.

In 1999 we released PC-BatteryShop™ that enables to service of up to 128 batteries simultaneously from a PC that acted as command center. That same year we also moved to our custom-built Headquarters on the Fraser River in Richmond, BC, a suburb of Vancouver.

As we renew our line products, the classic Target Selector remains as highpoint in our Universal Supervisor Chargers (USC). But instead of rejuvenating NiCd batteries affected by memory, the USC calls for a calibration of smart batteries to align the digital capacity with the measured capacity.