I have a three year old Cygo Light with a NiCD battery. It has been lightly used but not particularly well cared for. Its probably been left on trickle charge for more than 24 hours a few times and its probably been allowed to run pretty low a few times.
I charged it up for about 17 hours on Wednesday as recommended for the battery and charger I have. I used it on Friday and the little red LED on the light showed low power within twenty minutes of usage of both the lights. I was able to use the low wattage light for another half hour without the red LED coming on.
This seems like pretty poor performance. Is the little red LED an accurate gauge of the battery ? Is three years old for a battery ? Has the battery been damged ? What light and battery would others recommend ?
I've read a few threads about lights and chargers, but I haven't seen any clear cut recommendations for a good commercial system.
I have a three year old Cygo Light with a NiCD battery. It has been lightly used but not particularly well cared for. Its probably been left on trickle charge for more than 24 hours a few times and its probably been allowed to run pretty low a few times.
I charged it up for about 17 hours on Wednesday as recommended for the battery and charger I have. I used it on Friday and the little red LED on the light showed low power within twenty minutes of usage of both the lights. I was able to use the low wattage light for another half hour without the red LED coming on.
This seems like pretty poor performance. Is the little red LED an accurate gauge of the battery ? Is three years old for a battery ? Has the battery been damged ? What light and battery would others recommend ?
I've read a few threads about lights and chargers, but I haven't seen any clear cut recommendations for a good commercial system.
If your battery has been sitting unused for awhile, a few cycles will probably bring it back. Try charging/discharging it a few times (but don't ever run it completely flat).
I have an old Nightsun Sunsport system that sits for months sometimes. The first few times it lasts only a few minutes, but after a few cycles it's always as good as new.
I have a three year old Cygo Light with a NiCD battery. It has been lightly used but not particularly well cared for. Its probably been left on trickle charge for more than 24 hours a few times and its probably been allowed to run pretty low a few times.
NiCD batteries survive about 500 - 1000 charge / discharge cycles on average. If you are a frequently users of your light, then you probably wore out your NiCD cells.
The good news, though, is that just about everybody uses standard cells, although the jerkey bike companies try to hide this fact and they try to force you to buy new product by providing "custom cells" which are really just packs of standard cells, glued together. If you are willing to make the effort, you can probably open your battery up and replace the standard cells with fresh AA or AAA NiCD's and it will be good for another 3 years.
I have a three year old Cygo Light with a NiCD battery. It has been lightly used but not particularly well cared for. Its probably been left on trickle charge for more than 24 hours a few times and its probably been allowed to run pretty low a few times. I charged it up for about 17 hours on Wednesday as recommended for the battery and charger I have. I used it on Friday and the little red LED on the light showed low power within twenty minutes of usage of both the lights. I was able to use the low wattage light for another half hour without the red LED coming on. This seems like pretty poor performance. Is the little red LED an accurate gauge of the battery ? Is three years old for a battery ? Has the battery been damged ? What light and battery would others recommend ? I've read a few threads about lights and chargers, but I haven't seen any clear cut recommendations for a good commercial system.
NiCads have some of the problems you describe. Sometimes they form some internal "discharge wiskers" that can be minimized by charging and dischaging. If this fails, you can try zapping it with an overvoltage to "blow away the wiskers". Be very careful as this may make the batteries explode or at the very least make them useless. I would only try it as a last ditch effort. I have tried it with some sucess.. another 50 - 80 rides worth before the batteries gave up. There are many new lights out there that use NiMH; some with non-propritary batteries... like the new on from Performance that uses AA batteries and a 5 Watt LED that produces 120 lumens. You might want to see if that is sufficient illumination and proper pattern for your eyes and the type of riding you do. A couple of advantages for the LED are: 1. They last for a long time 2. They can put the emitted light wavelength(s) into the visible spectrum, and therfore minimize energy emission in infrared (that mostly is heat) and ultraviolet (which your eye can't see without special lenses). The Non-proprietary batteries have many advantages, one of which you can get a feel for right now.... as your proprietary battery pack may be at or near end of life. Off the shelf Alkalines can get you going if you light dies and charging isn't an option. NiMH technologies are improving for more power density and better charging... and they are widely available in AA as well as other sizes.
I have a three year old Cygo Light with a NiCD battery. It has been lightly used but not particularly well cared for. Its probably been left on trickle charge for more than 24 hours a few times and its probably been allowed to run pretty low a few times.
I charged it up for about 17 hours on Wednesday as recommended for the battery and charger I have. I used it on Friday and the little red LED on the light showed low power within twenty minutes of usage of both the lights. I was able to use the low wattage light for another half hour without the red LED coming on.
This seems like pretty poor performance. Is the little red LED an accurate gauge of the battery ? Is three years old for a battery ? Has the battery been damged ? What light and battery would others recommend ?
I've read a few threads about lights and chargers, but I haven't seen any clear cut recommendations for a good commercial system.
Try discharging it completely (by leaving the lights on) then leaving it on charge for 18 hours or so. Repeat a few times and it should be better. NiCd batteries should really be discharged completely before recharging, although this is inconvenient if you want to make sure they won't expire in the middle of a ride. The more expensive Li-ion batteries are more resistant to "memory effects" and weigh less.
I have a three year old Cygo Light with a NiCD battery. It has been lightly used but not particularly well cared for. Its probably been left on trickle charge for more than 24 hours a few times and its probably been allowed to run pretty low a few times.
Trickle charging for 24+ hours isn't too bad, but deep discharging can cause problems. It can reverse charge weak cells.
Give it a full charge, and measure voltage if you can borrow a volt meter. I suspect you may have one or more shorted cells.
