Problems with newer light canons

[illumiGeek]

Yes, it is the shape of the battery contacts. The LC is not the only light that has trouble with Energizer brand for this reason.

 

[partridge]

Got my light cannon wet last night. I'm really impressed.

I have a question regarding batteries.

Here in the bottom of the Philippines, we do not get Duracell C cell alkalines so I am looking into rechargeables. The only ones I can find are like 1000 mah. While reading about it, I figure these are too low so I will have to purchase in the US.

I looked on a website and am even more confused now. They have 2200, 2400, 3500 and even 4500 mah. Which one is right for the light cannon? What about those adaptors so you can use a lot of AA size instead of a C cell?

Which is the right way to go for a light cannon?

Thanks

 

[RichLockyer]

I looked on a website and am even more confused now. They have 2200, 2400, 3500 and even 4500 mah. Which one is right for the light cannon? What about those adaptors so you can use a lot of AA size instead of a C cell?

More MAH equals longer life. Normally, I would expect a set of 4500's to give you about 4 hours out of a 10w HID, but the LC was designed for 8 alkaline cells, which are nominal 1.5v, and rechargeables are nominal 1.25v. We generally run packs of 10 or 20 NiMH cells for HID systems, but it looks like the UK rechargeable packs are still 8 cells.
The light is rated for 3-4 hours on Duracells, only 2 hours on the UK rechargeable pack. At 8-cells, I would suspect that they are using 3500's.

 

[partridge]

Thanks for the reply. Let me see if I got this right. All C-cells have the same power(volts) but some last longer than others(MAH).

If this is right then bigger MAH is not necessarily better because if I dive one night dive a week, I might just lose the charge while waiting for the next dive. Or I might spend more time draining the batteries than actual diving.

A nice battery MAH would give me 2 hours burn time so I could do my one night dive and let it drain then recharge for the next dive. Right?

 

[RichLockyer]

Thanks for the reply. Let me see if I got this right. All C-cells have the same power(volts) but some last longer than others(MAH).

For a given type, yes. All alkaline and carbon batteries are 1.5v, NiCD are 1.25, NiMH are 1.25, Lead/Acid are 2.0, Li/Poly are, IIRC, 3.0, Lithium are 3.0, etc...

If this is right then bigger MAH is not necessarily better because if I dive one night dive a week, I might just lose the charge while waiting for the next dive. Or I might spend more time draining the batteries than actual diving.

The only drawback to having "too much" would be recharge time and weight.
"Memory" has become a non-issue with NiMH packs, so the light can be used for 10 minutes and then thrown back on the charger with no ill effects.

 

[partridge]

Thanks. I guess batteries follow the same creed as most everything else. Buy the best you can afford. And I will.

 

[illumiGeek]

The UK pack is 8 C sized NiCad batteries rated at 2200mA. This is about the same rating as AA size NiMH. C size NiMh rechargeables are typically 4000-4500mA; but there are some as low as 2200 (repackaged AA cells), and as high as 5000.

The ballast used in the LC is a 10.2V part (not 12V). They are counting on the voltage drop in alkalines to keep the voltage within spec (the 10W ballast is not regulated).

8xNiMh batteries are a little over 10.6V fresh (+/- .2) and typically deliver between 10 and 10.4V throughout most of their discharge cycle. Nice match for the Solarc Ballast. Much better than Alkalines which have a very large variation in voltage over their run time, and are very poor at delivering high current (which the LC needs to strike the lamp).

Get the highest mA rating you can find at a reasonable price (www.amondotech.com) and a good "Smart" charger (one with delta -V at least, and preferably with temperature monitoring as well).

I actually run mine off of AA NiMh cells using some Duct Tape and PVC adapters I made. I was getting around 2 hours a charge on 2000mA AA cells, and a bit more on 2300mA cells.

 

[partridge]

Thanks. I'm buying the Vanson Universal charger and the titanium 4500's. That should do it.

Haven't been able to use my LC after the original batteries burned out. There just aren't any available here. Wanted to try it with our ordinary batteries, I think they are Carbon-Zinc???? But decided it wasn't worth it.

 

[tangfish]

Thanks. I'm buying the Vanson Universal charger and the titanium 4500's. That should do it.

Haven't been able to use my LC after the original batteries burned out. There just aren't any available here. Wanted to try it with our ordinary batteries, I think they are Carbon-Zinc???? But decided it wasn't worth it.

I have this exact setup, and my module fried after a coupla uses, there was condensation in the lamp (the LDS says from changing the batteries in humid air of the philippines). Anyway, this LC is crap, way too fragile and expensive to fix, now I'm waiting for it to go back to UK and see what happens. Since I bought it from leisurepro it supposedly has no warranty, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't slap me with an 80 dollar bill. Even if they don't it was a b*tch having this thing go out on me on dive 10 of a 60 dive trip and then having to still carry around the dead weight of the LC, the 8 C cells and the vanson charger for the next month! get an eLED!

 

[tangfish]

I just got my module back, UK fixed it for free and I paid the shipping (13 bucks), now I might sell it and buy and eLed