Trickster Posted October 24, 2009 Report Share Posted October 24, 2009 Hi all looking for some advice if I can, just getting one of the deben mini tracer lights but I need a new battery. Money is tight at the moment so can't really justify the lithium polymer battery at £85 quidish, so the choice is down to a replacement deben 3mah battery at approx £20 or I was looking at one of these http://www.flyonthewall.uk.com/12v-lithium...4683977a1fb912.. . looks like a a middle cost version £50 for 6600 mah battery but pretty large weight savings. The deben lithium runs at 10000 mah and they quote roughly 2 hrs runtime so I assume the 6600 would give at least an hr runtime. I may well have to wire up a bullet connector to fit the deben lamp but I wouldn't have thought that was too hard. Any battery gurus out there that can say yeah or nay as to this working, can't say I'm up on my amps/volts and so on but thought the size and weight of the lithium looked good...any ideas guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeignGadger Posted October 24, 2009 Report Share Posted October 24, 2009 Li-Po batteries are the latest type and can be rather tricky to recharge, so if you have a "dumb" charger and you over-do it, can burst into flames. They do have a very high charge-to-weight ratio though, so are great for portable devices and particularly as power scources for electric model planes. NiMH cells are quite robust and keep their voltage better than Nicads, and are not "toxic" (Cadmium). You are right to say that a 6600 mAh battery will give you about half the life of a 10000 mAh one. What sort of charger are you using? note that NiMH basic cells are 1.4V fully charged rather than 1.2 for Nicads, so if you use a Nicad charger you will have to give it a longer charge for similar capacity to Nicad. It is unwise to charge Li-Po batteries with chargers not specifically made for that type of battery, unless you have good fire insurance. (The correct type of charger for Li-Po cells measure the current and tail off the charge-rate to switch off when fully charged). HTH FG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickster Posted October 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2009 Thanks FG, the link I posted didn't seem to take me to the battery but if you need to check the info its just under 12v lithium. The charger I would use is the charger that comes with it, but isn't this one lithium ion not lithium polymer...Do you reckon it would work tho, as suppsoedly it only weighs in at 200 grammes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeignGadger Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 Sorry, I missed the Lithium ion bit. Basically the main thing is NOT to charge Li-POLYMER batteries with anything other than the correct Li-Po charger. Even if it doesn't burst into flames, the wrong charge rate can wreck them in short time, Which is what I suspect has happened to your original battery. Deben don't mind, they sell more batteries. What you propose seems OK. L-ion batteries are less fussy, but if the charger comes with it, then the solution is obvious. Most rechargable batteries don't achieve full capacity until they have been cycled a few times, so don't be disappointed on the first few cycles. But as with all of them RTFM (Read The ******* Manual) on charge-times and discharge levels. FG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickster Posted October 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 Many thanks mate , much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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