Alternative battery for lumicycles?

elyob said:

I'm looking at getting a lighter battery to strap to my
frame for the summer.

The internet says that Lumicycle batteries use 13.2V - so
you would need 11 AA batteries at least. Would they be any
lighter than what you have already? You may be able to find
a small sealed deep-discharge lead-acid battery or baby battery-
pack, but in this case you would need to fix a charger
separately and you'd need to check they were powerful enough
for your lights.

Quoted message said:

I did speak to Lumi, but no real response. I have read
about people building their own light sets, so am
wondering if anyone on here has enough expert knowledge to
help me build my own.

The fuzzy photo of the connector from the lights to the
battery pack _looks_ like it is one that Maplins sell - if
so then there's no reason why you couldn't make one, but it
might not be as straightforward as it looks.

Miserable experience tells me that if you used a battery
holder, one of your 11 AA-batteries would jiggle loose / get
corroded terminals sooner or later and the lights would go
out, so the batteries in the Lumicycle battery-pack will
probably be soldered together then shrink-wrapped to stop
this happening.

You might not be able to use the Lumicycle charger to charge
your battery pack, because it would provide too much current
for your smaller batteries
- so you'd have to take them all out individually and charge
them in a charger which would be annoying if you used 11.
I don't know for sure, but this is a possibility.

Quoted message said:

Just realise that I can't even wire a plug without
instructions.

You would probably need to do at least a little soldering...

Quoted message said:

It'd be really useful for those .. "I stayed in the pub
for an extra beer than normal" moments.

A Lumicycle is waay more than you should need for road
cycling - unless you have a mountain between the pub and
home, or point them backwards to get thrust from the
photons 😉

You could get a Petzl LED head-torch (not street-legal but
bright, cute and directional) and spend the time and money
you'd save _in_ the pub.

AC

In message <[email hidden]>, anonymous
coward <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

elyob said:

I'm looking at getting a lighter battery to strap to my
frame for the summer.

The internet says that Lumicycle batteries use 13.2V - so
you would need 11 AA batteries at least.

Well yes, but the bulbs they use are 12V bulbs (they
overvolt them to get a brighter light output) so you could
use 10 cells for a 12V pack. That would cut the weight by
say 8% :-)

Quoted message said:

Would they be any lighter than what you have already? You
may be able to find a small sealed deep-discharge lead-
acid battery

SLA isn't light, even a small capacity 12V one could well be
heavier I should think. Of course it partly depends on what
size cells that Lumi use - they quote a 4a/h battery, this
is more than the normal 1.5-2 (or so) of AA NiMh, it sounds
more like a 'C' size or another larger size cell (those used
in packs aren't always the same as standard size cells)

So yes, using AA cells may well save a fair bit of weight.
(I weighed some NiMh cells a while back, ISTR that 4 were
about 100g - so 10 would be about 250g

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I did speak to Lumi, but no real response. I have read
about people building their own light sets, so am
wondering if anyone on here has enough expert knowledge
to help me build my own.

The fuzzy photo of the connector from the lights to the
battery pack _looks_ like it is one that Maplins sell - if
so then there's no reason why you couldn't make one, but it
might not be as straightforward as it looks.

I should imagine it's a standard size - Lumi aren't big
enough to be making their own.

Quoted message said:

Miserable experience tells me that if you used a battery
holder, one of your 11 AA-batteries would jiggle loose /
get corroded terminals sooner or later

Indeed, tagged and soldered would be better.

Quoted message said:

You could get a Petzl LED head-torch (not street-legal but
bright, cute and directional) and spend the time and money
you'd save _in_ the pub.

I don't think I'd use that, but since i never trusts a
single cycle light, I would normally have a backup anyway.
one of the Cateye front LED lamps is what I use.
--
Chris French, Leeds

"chris French" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You could get a Petzl LED head-torch (not street-legal
but bright, cute

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

directional) and spend the time and money you'd save _in_
the pub.

Puts out enough light for walking but not enough for seeing
your way to cycle at any reasonable speed. (Not for my eyes
anyway). Probably not the best thing to be seen with either
since it needs to be viewed straight on for optimum
visibility and it'd be difficult to maintain this angle on
your head. I still take one as a back up though because it's
so small and light and I already had it for walking anyway.

In article <[email hidden]>,

anonymous coward said:

The internet says that Lumicycle batteries use 13.2V - so
you would need 11 AA batteries at least. Would they be any
lighter than what you have

There are far lighter ways to get 13.2V. The question is how
much current you need, and how long you want it to last. You
could even use lithium camera batteries to provide a few
minutes' emergency power. It would be expensive, though.

ian

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It'd be really useful for those .. "I stayed in the pub
for an extra beer than normal" moments.

Should you be cycling after that extra beer?

ah, this is genius. You go in the pub for a swift pint, get
talking and find you've had two. You don't want to cycle
over the limit out of principle so you decide to wait a bit
more in the pub. You then decide that you're not going to
pay more for coke than you do for beer (mmm, ale) so you
have a slow half while you're waiting. This means you have
to wait even longer in the pub which means more beer and a
longer wait and more beer...

Then it gets to evening and a big group of your friends
stagger in. All thoughts of home are banished and lots of
beer is consumed. The bike is left locked up and you go home
by bus. In the morning you realise too late that the bike is
locked up at the pub and it's too late to catch the bus to
work/uni. You phone in sick and go to the fridge for a nice
cold beer or two...

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Quoted message said:

ah, this is genius.

Sheer genius? Or should that be "Sheer Guinness"? (A day too
late, but still worth it!)

Jon

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anonymous coward said:

elyob said:

I'm looking at getting a lighter battery to strap to my
frame for the summer.

Well, it's just 11 NiMH cells. Any old 11 cells, so long
as they can put out the oomph needed for whatever bulbs
you're planning on, will be OK. If you make the cells too
small, however, and then put too high power bulb in, they
might not manage to hold the voltage high enough to get
the light you want.

You could save 9% of teh weight by using 10 cells, and lose
the over-volting benefits.

Quoted message said:

The fuzzy photo of the connector from the lights to the
battery pack _looks_ like it is one that Maplins sell -
if so then there's no reason why you couldn't make one,
but it might not be as straightforward as it looks.

It's the larger of the standard 2.x mm power jacks, but I
forget what taht is exactly - 2.5mm? Take teh battery along
to pretty much an ewlectronic component shop and they'll
probably be able to sell you the connector that matches
(though it'll probably be in a chunkier housing than teh all-
moulded lumi one).

Quoted message said:

You might not be able to use the Lumicycle charger to
charge your battery pack, because it would provide too
much current for your smaller batteries
- so you'd have to take them all out individually and
charge them in a charger which would be annoying if you
used 11. I don't know for sure, but this is a
possibility.

The lumi charger (even the smart one) is relatively sedate
- fast charge rate is 1.1A. Most cells can accomodate a
charge rate at least equal to their capacity (so if it's a
1500 mA-hr cell, it will probably manage a 1.5 A charge
(ie, more than the lumi charger provides)). If it's a 12W
bulb that's in use, the cells need to be able to cope with
at least 1A discharge current anyway, so they'll probably
manage a 1.1A charge.

Quoted message said:

You would probably need to do at least a little
soldering...

But don't solder direct to cells, buy tagged cells if you
must solder up your pack.

Rather than build your own pack, I'd suggest looking at
www.overlander.co.uk. They sell packs for electric radio
control things, and model planes have packs of numerous
cells, so they probably have some 10 cell packs. Then, cut
off the connector the pack comes with and solder or crimp or
whatever on an extension wire with a connector matching teh
lumi one. If you must build your own, they also do
individual cells. Overlander are also pretty reliable on teh
technical advice side, so if you tell them you want to be
able to charge at 1.1A and discharge at whatever current
your bulb requires (bulb wattage divided by 12, if you're
using 10 cell packs), they'll tell you whether the cells or
pack you have in mind will cope.

Quoted message said:

A Lumicycle is waay more than you should need for road
cycling

Indeed, unfortunately it's apparently still insufficient for
most motorists to be able to see.

Despite all that, I personally doubt the weight saving
you'll achieve will be worth the aggro.

regards, Ian SMith
--
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"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at getting a lighter battery to strap to my
frame for the summer. I did speak to Lumi, but no real
response. I have read about

people

Quoted message said:

building their own light sets, so am wondering if anyone
on here has

enough

Quoted message said:

expert knowledge to help me build my own. Just realise
that I can't even wire a plug without instructions.

It'd be really useful for those .. "I stayed in the pub
for an extra beer than normal" moments.

Cheers,

Nick

Here you go

singletrackworld.comread.phpOpen ↗
8&t=928929

"elyob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at getting a lighter battery to strap to my
frame for the summer. I did speak to Lumi, but no real
response. I have read about

people

Quoted message said:

building their own light sets, so am wondering if anyone
on here has

enough

Quoted message said:

expert knowledge to help me build my own. Just realise
that I can't even wire a plug without instructions.

It'd be really useful for those .. "I stayed in the pub
for an extra beer than normal" moments.

Many thanks for all the replies. It seems that my idea of
getting a smaller battery for a shorter lighting time seems
to be not easy (or possible). It did get me thinking about
my laptop battery which has been dead for a while. So, I
popped it open. Yup, 9 individual batteries. Big ones though
- 65 mm long.

So, I'm trying to figure out which ones are dead (or
reversed?), and which ones are okay. Can anyone advise?

I have put photos up on the web ....

local-serve.combattery1.gifOpen ↗

local-serve.combattery2.gifOpen ↗

I guess that I may be able to improve the battery life on
this with more modern batteries, but it's an old laptop so,
I'm not overly concerned if it means changing all the
batteries.

Thanks again.