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#1
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Rechargeable batteries with LED lights
Hi.
Has anyone experienced any problems with rechargeable batteries in LED lights, other than reduced brightness? I have a Cateye HL-EL200 front light and around the same time I switched from non-rechareables to NiMH batteries, the lights now frequently refuse to switch on or off. Disconnecting and reconnecting a single battery sorts the problem. The problem is independent of how much charge the batteries have. Thanks. David. |
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#2
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It sounds like a dirty contact problem.
Deoxit is almost always necessary pretty quickly on rechargeables to keep them charging in the charger in any case; for some reason the contacts oxidize or something. http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....7&WebPage_ID=3 I find the brush-on vial most handy for batteries but if you wanted to get into a switch or something then perhaps the spray would work better. The vial lasts forever. Also solves the intermittent audio cable connection problem. So if that's not your problem you can probably find some other use for the vial, is what I'm saying. -- Ron Hardin On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk. |
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Ron Hardin wrote:
It sounds like a dirty contact problem. Deoxit is almost always necessary pretty quickly on rechargeables to keep them charging in the charger in any case; for some reason the contacts oxidize or something. http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....7&WebPage_ID=3 I find the brush-on vial most handy for batteries but if you wanted to get into a switch or something then perhaps the spray would work better. The vial lasts forever. Also solves the intermittent audio cable connection problem. So if that's not your problem you can probably find some other use for the vial, is what I'm saying. Lights refusing to switch *off* doesn't sound like dirty contacts to me. Also cateye lights usually have pretty dependable, well-sealed switches IME. More likely, the light doesn't like the lower voltage of the NiMH cells (1.2V vs 1.5V). Try switching back to alkalines and seeing if the problem disappears? |
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i read:
"In fact alkaline batteries only supply 1.5V during the early stages of their discharge and this drops to below 1.2V for most of their life. NiMH batteries actually sustain a higher voltage than alkalines during the bulk of their discharge." So im surprised if its voltage. Maybe something to do with different capacitnce / impedence of the batteries. My electronics is a bit rusty. David. |
#5
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Definitely not a dirty contact problem. Its very predictable - happens
every time the lights have been left off for several hours. Disconnecting *any* battery (without disturbing others) fixes the problem instantly - no 2nd try needed. Also the lights stay on sometimes. Seems much more like an electrical problem. |
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On 14 Mar 2005 10:32:56 -0800 (David Ward)
wrote: I have a Cateye HL-EL200 front light and around the same time I switched from non-rechareables to NiMH batteries, the lights now frequently refuse to switch on or off. Disconnecting and reconnecting a single battery sorts the problem. Since you have problems both with turning the light on and off, that can't be a poor contact problem. It seems more likely that you have some kind of switch problem that just manages to get jostled any time you install/remove batteries. You might want to look at the + noses on your batteries. Some of them have different diameter noses, something to separate rechargables from non-rechargables. I can't imagine how that might affect you, but I'm not familiar with your light. You should also check the plastic sleeves over the battery bodies. If some of them are torn, that might create a problem, depending on how your light is made. - ----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney Madison, WI 53711 USA ----------------------------------------------- |
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