Is there any good non-rechargeable headlights anymore?

On 5/11/2017 4:31 PM, DougC wrote:
On 5/11/2017 8:43 AM, wrote:

amazing how riders....and drivers but not truckers ..... can nickel n
dime to see or not to see .....

It's not the nickels and dimes, it's the lack of things to spend them
on. The kind I want, only one company (B&M) still seems to make.

Also a lot of these lights now tend to emphasize how BLINDINGLY HIGH
they can run for 1 hour, instead of running at a reasonable level for
15-20+ hours.
That's showroom silliness.
It's good for dazzling customers in the store, but it's not real useful
overall.

It's great for dazzling others on the road, as well. When leading night
rides, I've had to ask others behind me to point their headlights
downward. Even looking in my mirror was an irritation.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 9:17:42 AM UTC-7, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 04:03:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

If the OP uses 4 1.5V Lion in a parallel batt carrier wired
in series to a second same carrier the V is 3.0
3 in series is 4.5V

Correct ?

No. Most (not all) LiIon cells are a nominal 3.7V. Plug one of these
into something made for a 1.5v akaline battery and you will have a
smoking ruin. This is a very real problem. I have several
flashlights that use 14500 LiIon cells which are exactly the same size
as a AA battery. If I accidentally plug one of these into a AA
battery holder, it will probably destroy the device.

So in potential possibility repairing a failed proprietary
integral batt device is possible.

Nope. Plugging in the wrong battery does not make things go better or
fix them.

I have 2 devices, a Pioneer 2DIN receiver and a new Amprobe
510 multimeter asking connect to ground first. I had operated
under the auto batt standard of grounD last.

Is this a current sea change ?

No. It is also wrong. In a car, I'm told that you connect the ground
(negative) battery terminal last. That's because when you tighten the
positive battery terminal with an un-insulated wrench, and you
accidentally hit the grounded chassis or grounded battery frame, if
the ground (negative) terminal is disconnected, there will be no
spark, arc, smoke, or exploding battery. Of course, grounding the
ground lead with a wrench will not do anything dangerous.

With a voltmeter, you connect ground (negative) first, and then apply
voltage. Pretend you're measuring that output of a solar panel or
battery powered vehicle, where the voltages are rather high. If you
connect the positive lead first, the leakage inside the voltmeter will
deliver most of that voltage to the ground (negative) lead, which is
currently just dangling. Grab the dangling lead while trying to
connect it to ground, and you can get zapped by the high voltage.

AA multimeter ground first is a PITA with insulation penetration.
The 2DIN is deadly. Why is there not a safety relay turning off
power if no ground ?

If there were no ground, you would not have a place to stand.

Perhaps there's a possibility to put an in-line resister in the LED lights that use 1.5V so that you can use the Lithium Ion rechargeable. Though in order to figure the size of the resister out I'd have to have some measured information and the LED number.

On 5/11/2017 1:31 PM, DougC wrote:
On 5/11/2017 8:43 AM, wrote:

amazing how riders....and drivers but not truckers ..... can nickel n
dime to see or not to see .....

It's not the nickels and dimes, it's the lack of things to spend them
on. The kind I want, only one company (B&M) still seems to make.

Also a lot of these lights now tend to emphasize how BLINDINGLY HIGH
they can run for 1 hour, instead of running at a reasonable level for
15-20+ hours.

Most of the lights I see have ratings for different run times at
different levels. Sometimes you need the higher level (unlit multi-use
trails, unlit tunnels, etc., but most of the time the lower levels are
just fine.

This one AA light I found from Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06X6FXCLN or
https://www.nebotools.com/prod_details.php?id=458 is interesting
because it has both spot and flood beams at many different intensities.
Most bicycle specific lights have a compromise of a beam pattern. A few
have been made with two lamps in one housing, with separate spot and
flood beams, and one pre-production model I saw had an adjustable beam.

2 LIGHT MODES - SPOT LIGHT
• High (250 lumens) - 9 hours / 133 meters
• Low (120 lumens) - 15 hours / 86 meters

4 LIGHT MODES - C•O•B FLOOD LIGHT
• High (115 lumens) - 14 hours / 15 meters
• Low (60 lumens) - 23 hours / 11 meters
• Day Flash (15 lumens) - 24 hours / 15 meters
• Night Flash (15 lumens) - 15 hours / 15 meters

Not sure why day flash and night flash are the same lumens but the run
times are so different.

"Joerg" wrote in message
...
On 2017-05-10 19:53, sms wrote:
On 5/10/2017 9:44 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

Quote "4 rechargeable Ni-MH batteries, each 2100 mAh, no memory
effect. Charging time approx. 5 hours using provided charging unit.
Power supply by 4 non-rechargeable AA batteries possible".

For a lot of lights, the output is significantly less on primary cells.
Alkaline batteries have high internal resistance and can't provide the
current that NiMH AA batteries provide.


For a light as expensive as the Ixon I sure hope the engineers have
figured out how to design a proper switch-mode converter for constant LED
current. Else they should be moved to the dog house for a while.

However, alkaline don't last long for high light output. Just like with
digital cameras where NiMH provides for more shots despite having lower
capacity.

You might have some of that back to front.

Ni-Nh isn't far off the Ah capacity of alkaline - but its **** poor at
instantaneous peak current draw.

Ni-Cd is size for size; comparable to lead acid for instantaneous current
capability - but the Ah capacity is around 1/3 - 1/4 that of Ni-Mh.

Ni-Cd have fairly rapid self discharge - Ni-Mh sold as; "ready to use" stay
charged a fair bit longer in storage.

Never use nickel chemistry batteries for rear lights - they have a "sudden
death" discharge curve. They can look OK when you set off and dim out to a
faint glow within minutes.

There are rechargeable lithium units starting to appear - you can unclip the
light and hook it to a USB charger, or take the cell out and charge that.

Gee I dunno jef n I look forward to your extensive n rematkable authority.

A 1.5 li tube yields 1.5V+

thus the question goes unanswered...is their hidden V meaning in Li ?

from the auto ground last I have always grounded last n never corrected neither receiver or multimeter

The Pioneer, which is exquisite, sez failed ground will cause fire. This is a loaded digital computer device not the Zenith tuber nor last year's Kenwood.

The 510 line possible also as above.

the battery nonsense makes me cry.

Chow. I'll stop by if 101ing.

On 2017-05-11 14:26, Ian Field wrote:


"Joerg" wrote in message
...
On 2017-05-10 19:53, sms wrote:
On 5/10/2017 9:44 AM, Joerg wrote:

snip

Quote "4 rechargeable Ni-MH batteries, each 2100 mAh, no memory
effect. Charging time approx. 5 hours using provided charging unit.
Power supply by 4 non-rechargeable AA batteries possible".

For a lot of lights, the output is significantly less on primary cells.
Alkaline batteries have high internal resistance and can't provide the
current that NiMH AA batteries provide.


For a light as expensive as the Ixon I sure hope the engineers have
figured out how to design a proper switch-mode converter for constant
LED current. Else they should be moved to the dog house for a while.

However, alkaline don't last long for high light output. Just like
with digital cameras where NiMH provides for more shots despite having
lower capacity.

You might have some of that back to front.

Ni-Nh isn't far off the Ah capacity of alkaline - but its **** poor at
instantaneous peak current draw.


NiMH can deliver a lot more peak current. My Nikon Coolpix can take
100-150 photos per charge in rapid succession on two AA NiMH cells,
depending on how often I use the flash. With alkaline AA cells it conks
out at around 20-30. I believe they warn about that in the manual
somewhere. At purchase a Lithium primary battery was delivered for that
purpose and they stated that if you must use non-rechargeables to use
Li-cells.

This is despite the fact that I am using low self-discharge Eneloop
cells which aren't as staunch in terms of peak current as regular NiMH.


Ni-Cd is size for size; comparable to lead acid for instantaneous
current capability - but the Ah capacity is around 1/3 - 1/4 that of Ni-Mh.

Ni-Cd have fairly rapid self discharge - Ni-Mh sold as; "ready to use"
stay charged a fair bit longer in storage.


IME NiMH is only better if it's Eneloop.


Never use nickel chemistry batteries for rear lights - they have a
"sudden death" discharge curve. They can look OK when you set off and
dim out to a faint glow within minutes.

There are rechargeable lithium units starting to appear - you can unclip
the light and hook it to a USB charger, or take the cell out and charge
that.


In rear lights I either use alkalines or hook them to the central
battery via a 3.3V converter. Got to re-do that on the MTB because it's
rear end had to be gussied up. I just finished installing the battery,
in a water-proof ABS enclosure bolted to a new diagonal bracing piece.
Bicycles are so incomplete when bought new.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2017-05-11 09:18, sms wrote:
On 5/11/2017 7:57 AM, wrote:
On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 5:44:56 PM UTC-7, Doug Cimperman wrote:
On 5/10/2017 7:12 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
...
I've done custom mounts for several different headlights, mostly
because
I almost always have handlebar bags mounted. Those interfere with most
handlebar mounted lights . But I'm pretty content when fabricating a
mechanical solution to such a problem.

Welp, I ordered a couple of tactikewl flashlights and some mounts off
Amazon for about $50 (for two of each). The flashlights are 18650 or
3xAA and come with the rechargeable stuff, but also have the 3xAA insert
too. They are claimed as waterproof and have no USB charging ports, so
they /should/ (might?) keep working in the rain.

There is not a great amount of choice it seems.

Apparently roughly 95% of all the flashlights listed on Amazon is one of
maybe 6 different China models, just sold under different names and
prices. And if you disregard the "all-rubber-band-mounts" and the
"fake-Two-Fish-mounts" that don't hold, then there's only about four
different kinds of handlebar-flashlight mounts--a couple of which were
only big enough for the 3xAAA lights, and so were clearly too small for
the flashlights I got.

I can make mounts too but don't really wanna.

I used these and there is a problem with them - the beam is too
narrow. But they are so bright that God can see them in heaven. So I
have a second light that is much less bright and has a wide beam. This
one has a rather large battery that hangs off of the top tube. Now
that I'm driving again I don't need a grocery bike so it is all
sitting around.


Find a flashlight with a spot to flood adjustable beam. These have an
almost ideal beam pattern for illuminating mostly straight ahead, but
with sufficient spill for side and upwards illumination, but without
blinding oncoming traffic. Not a lot of choices with AA batteries
though. 3C is more common, but that's a little big for handlebars.


Those shake loose real soon on a bike unless you restrict your riding to
pristine asphalt. The one I had also shook in the battery area and I had
to make neoprene rings to muffle that. Eventually the focus adjuster
thread had shaken itself so loose that I needed a piece of road bike
tube and a rubber band to keep it from playing "autofocus".

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On Thu, 11 May 2017 09:17:40 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Thu, 11 May 2017 04:03:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

If the OP uses 4 1.5V Lion in a parallel batt carrier wired
in series to a second same carrier the V is 3.0
3 in series is 4.5V

Correct ?

No. Most (not all) LiIon cells are a nominal 3.7V. Plug one of these
into something made for a 1.5v akaline battery and you will have a
smoking ruin. This is a very real problem. I have several
flashlights that use 14500 LiIon cells which are exactly the same size
as a AA battery. If I accidentally plug one of these into a AA
battery holder, it will probably destroy the device.

So in potential possibility repairing a failed proprietary
integral batt device is possible.

Nope. Plugging in the wrong battery does not make things go better or
fix them.

I have 2 devices, a Pioneer 2DIN receiver and a new Amprobe
510 multimeter asking connect to ground first. I had operated
under the auto batt standard of grounD last.

Is this a current sea change ?

No. It is also wrong. In a car, I'm told that you connect the ground
(negative) battery terminal last. That's because when you tighten the
positive battery terminal with an un-insulated wrench, and you
accidentally hit the grounded chassis or grounded battery frame, if
the ground (negative) terminal is disconnected, there will be no
spark, arc, smoke, or exploding battery. Of course, grounding the
ground lead with a wrench will not do anything dangerous.


Unless you have a classic car, such as a pre '60's Volkswagen, many
British cars prior to the '60's, or even a Ford, from the Model A
through about 1948, all of which had positive grounds :-)

--
Cheers,

John B.

On Thu, 11 May 2017 13:39:35 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Perhaps there's a possibility to put an in-line resister in the
LED lights that use 1.5V so that you can use the Lithium Ion
rechargeable. Though in order to figure the size of the resister
out I'd have to have some measured information and the LED number.

As long as the battery voltage is higher than the LED voltage, it will
light up. Whether it will stay at a constant brightness over the life
of the battery is the big question. Just a resistor won't do that.

What you really want is a current regulator instead of the resistor.
This is more commonly known as an LED driver:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=led+driver
Lots of different types designed to run from various power sources and
drive various size LED's.

The big difference between a series resistor and a switching power
type LED driver is efficiency and power dissipation. The resistor
will simply convert the voltage drop across it into heat. For
example, if you have a 2 watt LED and are driving it from a battery
that has twice the voltage that the LED needs, the power dissipated in
the resistor will be 2 watts. The battery driving this affair will
need to deliver twice the energy (watt-hours) to light the LED as it
would with a switcher.

What the switcher does is chop up the input DC voltage. For example,
if you need 1/2 the voltage at the output, the duty cycle will be 50%.
Note that the output of the LED driver is DC, not a chopped AC square
wave, so your light won't be acting like a strobe. Since the LED
driver only dissipates power during transitions, the power dissipation
is zilch and the efficiency is quite high, which is much better than a
hot resistor.

However, that doesn't mean you won't find resistors INSIDE LED arrays.
The purpose of these small value series resistors is to equalize the
current through LED series strings that are run in parallel. For
example, a typical 10 watt LED uses three LED's in series (so that it
runs on 9-12V) with three of these three LED strings running in
parallel. Without series resistors, the series string with the lowest
diode voltage will hog all the current. At best, this causes uneven
lighting among the strings. At worst, overheating of one string. So,
a small value resistor is added in series with each string to help
equalize the current through the strings.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

https://goo.gl/AwioAN

Ford 2008 Econoline wit 130 pages of elec trical shop manual switches hot to ground.

If possible comment on a safety relay shutting off power if ground fails