Which charger gives that capacity info for D-size NiMH?
I’ve been meaning to add wires to my Maha MH-C9000 or find an adapter to check the ones I have.
It is a LiitoKala Engineer LII-300. D cells don’t fit and the positive contact is not iron, so I use a cork to hold a plate against the positive contact and clip wires to the plate and to the negative slide contact. I then use magnets to contact the cells. It discharges at half an amp. and only does two at a time, so it has taken days. For some reason that I don’t understand, mine leaves the cell in an uncharged state and I have to charge it in an extra step. It is nothing like an ideal setup, but I think the capacities it measures are accurate.
After cycling the stronger two cells once and the weaker one twice, I read 1.38 A at the tail, visibly increasing when I short the leads together. With the tail spring braided, the actual on current is clearly slightly more than this, and there is still no sign of regulation.
So, now its output is within a factor of two of the rated output on an XM-L, with a run time something like five or ten hours before it drops to half that output or a bit less.
Dang Fritz, that sucker is loud! I wasn’t expecting that. I guess they have one of those haptic motors in there. Its a great idea, not sure about the execution.
Can it be overridden manually?? Doesn’t seem that way.
It isn’t really very loud, maybe like a digital camera. No, I don’t see any way of operating it manually.
All-Battery.com now lists the grey Tenergy D cells as available: Tenergy D 10,000mAh NiMH Rechargeable Battery - Tenergy (Item Number: 10103-0), for $9.84.
The Tenergy site says “Capable of high continuous drain of 30A.”
I complained about the worst blue/blue cell being too far below the 10 Ah advertized capacity, and Battery Junction agreed to send a new cell. I think they are all putting out way less current than they should, but I don’t have a good way to test that.
Got my Tmart refund once they received the nonworking light, and they supplied the mailing label/postage. Can’t complain.
(Well, except that if they’d bothered to put padding over the ends of the box instead of only wrapping some around the middle, it might not have been broken by the time it arrived, sigh)
Yes, if it had been mailed from China, it would have been protected by flat blister wrap, lol. Why don’t you try again?
Not going to order another one just yet — though if anyone gets the thing apart successfully and finds it can be modded, I might — yeah, I will — be tempted.
I suspect I’d want to put in a better (quieter) motor, and expect to find cheap plastic gears too.
But I am now provoked to start looking for 3C- and 3D-cell flashlights more generally.
The plastic cover in the back of the head unscrews, and the driver lifts out.
It doesn’t look like it can be taken apart without separating the head into two pieces. We see wires, the motor, the driver, the mechanical switch, a wire to the electronic switch and another plastic separator. Clearly this thing would be challenging to mod.
The driver has a sort of mezzanine floor on it. It is also the motor controller.
Some more auto-zooms:
And the 3 x D auto-zoom with an adapter/charger:
Here is a 4 x D cell light. That should be good with NiMHs, an XM-L, etc. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hugsby-E4-4-x-LR20-D-Size-Alkaline-Battery-CREE-XR-E-Q3-Max-230-Lumens/362629722.html?tracelog=back_to_detail_a
With the cells topped up and reading 1.40, 1.43 and 1.45 V, I measure 1.57 A. It gets brighter when I short the meter leads together, showing that the current with the braided tail in place may be near to 2 V and that regulation is only by resistance.
It is not as bright as my modified 18650 lights, but brighter than a stock 26650 zoomy I have.
Once you start collecting D-cells, you start looking for uses.
Here’s a 3xD camping lantern just offered recently: Closed!!!
The replacement cell measured 1.27 V out of the package and 5.3 Ah on it first cycle. I an not very confident that my measurements correspond to the advertized (10 Ah) capacity. But it does appear that these cells have suffered from long storage.
I don’t think that makes a lot of difference in the brightness of this 3 x D cell light. The alkalines and NiMHs give similar current readings when fully charged.
I ordered a second example to replace the one I gave away. The zoom does not work. Tmart live service asked me to send videos. They have not responded in a few days after I sent them.
I wonder if they sold you the one I returned!
Or more likely it’s a common failure.
I think I told the story above, it took a few days and a little incomprehension followed by an internal referral within Tmart before the emailed me the postage paid return label.
I was thinking maybe the sensors, but now I see there is a flat spot in the outer head and a dimple in the red layer, at the upper left.
Tmart has promised to send a mailing label.
It looks like it might be fixable, if the head would come apart.
Huh. That’s not the one I returned, but it looks very much liket the same kind of damage.
Did they send it in thin white paper box in a plastic bag, with a bit of padding wrapped around the middle but no padding at the head or tail end?
The one I got had been dinged so hard the plastic bag and the thin box both had holes in them that lined up with the damage on the light.
I guess the message is, these are danged fragile at best.
Yes, it is not just Tmart’s packaging. A Convoy or an SK-68 might have shown a dent, but it would have worked fine. Something so fragile should be easier to take apart.
A three year old dropping my first one only made a small scratch, but that is not far to fall.
Another X2 came today. There was still no outer bubble wrap on the ends, but I guess they didn’t drop it, cause it works. They were out of grey ones, so I got a black one. It is just as impressive and even a bit cheaper. Tmart sent me a payed mailing label and gave me a full refund for the second one, when I insisted I didn’t want 70% capability for 70% of the price.
I measure 1.1 A with three alkalines at 1.51 V