I’m not sure this is the right forum; will move it if there’s a better place.
I got one of these from a place (out of stock now) for around $5
and like it well enough to think of buying more
It’s just a simple multiple-AA-cell container for powering low end bike lights with USB connectors.
It just arrived; it’s a purely simple container without any electronics, just passing the power through.
Looks like a quick way to carry four spare batteries in a more or less watertight box, to swap for the bike light on the fly.
With a charger doctor connected,
— using four alkaline AAs it shows 6v unloaded, dropping to 4v with a bike light attached set bright, 5vvvv with the light at medium.
— using Eneloops, it shows 5.7v unloaded, 4.2v on bright, 5.4v on medium.
— using NiZn cells (old ones, fully charged), 5.4v unloaded, 3.4v on high, and 4.3v on medium. I guess these sag really badly under load.
It shows a standard magicshine type connector in the first picture, but in the oters a usb one… I like the idea and cheap price. It’s a good idea for giving away to friends together with cheap magic shine clones (those kind of friends who can’t handle LiIons)
sounds like it has high resistance.
i built similar pack for our shop help kid a few years back.
it was a battery case for a 2400 baud laptop modem.
a usb jack and fuse later it was done.
it was to run a usb external speakers he uses with a tablet.4 nimh are close enough over most of their usable capacity to also charge phones.
> sounds like it has high resistance.
What makes you say that? (where would you take the measurement, and how?)
Seeing both “Magicshine” and “USB” electrical connections for bike lights has me looking for adapter plugs to convert between the two types of connector on both directions, to to adapt lights to battery boxes (just on the DC power lines, not connecting the USB data lines to anything of course).
> not meant for high current
Yeah, I think that’s right. I wasn’t particularly thinking of using it for a bike light, it was just handy.
Mostly it’s going to be a travel backup for recharging my Palm Pilot (yes, I am a dinosaur)
Note the light I plugged in to test is a generic bikelight, extremely bright, probably meant for a li-ion pack. One of those $8 clones of clones of MagicShine, probably pulling direct drive on high. Haven’t opened it up yet.
How’s the sag look at medium-bright? That was — using Eneloops, 5.7v unloaded, … 5.4v on medium.
Easy enough to put on thicker wires.
The springs are what you’d expect, thin chromed steel.