Who own's the PT Shockwave LED light? Questions

[rottielover]

Hello all,

I'm looking to replace my pelican Nemo 8C lights (they will NOT work with rechargable batteries, only alky's, rechargables are 1.2V per bat, and alky's are 1.5 V, add it up and you get 12v for Alky and not 12 for recharges, causing the bulb in the light not too fire up).

I want something that I can EITHER A) recharge a single pack, or B) use rechargable C cell batteries in. I'd much rather carry my batt charger and rotate 2 set's around, then too have all that trash to lug back.

I'm looking favorably at: http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=PrincetonLedPack

But I want to be sure I can use my hi-cap rechargable batteries with these lights or not.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Charlie99]

I'm looking to replace my pelican Nemo 8C lights (they will NOT work with rechargable batteries, only alky's, rechargables are 1.2V per bat, and alky's are 1.5 V, add it up and you get 12v for Alky and not 12 for recharges, causing the bulb in the light not too fire up).

Have you actually tried using NiMH rechargeable batteries in the Pelican Nemo 8C?

Very strange that NiMH would "not fire up" the xenon bulb since the voltage on the NiMH batteries is around what you will see with half-used alkaline batteries. Actually, since the battery life with alkaline is only 3-4 hours, power is being drained from them fast enough that there is a good chance that the NiMH cells will deliver MORE voltage rather than less -- the higher internal resistance of alkaline cells means there is more internal voltage drop under heavy loads.

Some light manufacturers are nervous about hydrogen gas generation by rechargeables and because of this say "alkaline only", but for xenon/halogon/incadescent lamps there shouldn't be any problem about "firing up the lamp".

 

[rottielover]

Yes, I am sitting here with 2x set's of 8 C batt's, one set is Energizer's and the other is my NiMH rechargeable's.

If I put the energizer's in, the lamp fires and the light works fine, if I put in the NiMH's the lamp does not fire and the light does not work.

 

[Fabulous]

I use both NiMH and Alkaline in the PT Shockwave LED with no discernible difference. On the light itself it does everything I need although the switch takes a bit of getting used to.

 

[rottielover]

Thanks for the responses.

I went ahead and ordered one of the Shockwave LED's to try it out.

I'm not sure that it makes a big difference, but I'm using the Tengery batteries from all-battery.com. They C cell 5000 mAh ( http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=18 )

 

[Charlie99]

Yes, I am sitting here with 2x set's of 8 C batt's, one set is Energizer's and the other is my NiMH rechargeable's.

If I put the energizer's in, the lamp fires and the light works fine, if I put in the NiMH's the lamp does not fire and the light does not work.

I suspect that the problem is some sort of minor difference in physical dimensions such that the NiMH batteries aren't making contact. The Pelican Nemo 8C light is a xenon bulb, correct? If so, the slightly lower voltage of the NiMH would just mean the bulb might be a tad bit less bright. It wouldn't keep it from lighting at all.

 

[rottielover]

They seem to make contact... The way it was explained to me (by pelican rep on phone) was that NiMH batteries are 1.2V each, Alky's are 1.5V, if you take 8x1.5 you get 12V if you take 8x1.2 you get 9.6V

Something about the Xeon bulb needing 12v's to fire, my eye's pretty much glazed over durring the conversation...

 

[Charlie99]

Something about the Xeon bulb needing 12v's to fire, my eye's pretty much glazed over durring the conversation...

There are a couple different types of xenon bulbs. Some HID bulbs are xenon filled. Some incandescent halogen bulbs are xenon filled. Normally, when someone says "xenon bulb", they really mean a xenon filled halogen incandescent bulb. If it's a xenon filled HID light, they normally just say "HID". Just looking at the sales literature on the Nemo 8C, it looked like it used the dumb incandescent sort of bulb. Just like regular old household incandescent bulbs, a xenon incandescent bulb running an a lower than normal voltage just gets a bit more red and dim.


Very strange. Is the Nemo 8C an HID light? Then the sales rep explanation would make sense.

 

[rottielover]

it comes with two bulbs (1 is just a replacement, they are both not connected at the same time)

The bulb that is the "backup" is marked "4303 LOW", this bulb looks like a standard flashlight bulb to me, and will work with either set of batteries, but it is not nearly as bright.

The primary bulb has no markings on it, but it's def. not a "standard" looking flashlight bulb.

Here is a link that has a picture of both of the bulbs:

http://ebestsourc.zoovy.com/product/PEL4303

 

[rottielover]

Can you tell from the photo if the bulb is HID or not?