N30 Trickle charge

Hey all,

I was thinking aboutpicking up an N30, but was wondering about a few things.
1) Is it safe (and not bad for the light) to leave it plugged in until needed? WIll it go intop "trickle mode"?
2) ALong the same lines, if I then use if for just a few minutes, would it be OK to plug it back in?
3) How fast does it get up to full stregth?

And finally,
4)If I turn it off, how long do I have to wait to re-strike?

I have read about 1,000 posts on the light, and couldn't find these answers....though admittedly, I have not taken the time to read everything that has been written on it.

Many thanks to whoever takesthe time to answer thee 4 questions.

SL1

smokelaw1 said:

Hey all,

I was thinking aboutpicking up an N30, but was wondering about a few things.
1) Is it safe (and not bad for the light) to leave it plugged in until needed? WIll it go intop "trickle mode"?
2) ALong the same lines, if I then use if for just a few minutes, would it be OK to plug it back in?
3) How fast does it get up to full stregth?

And finally,
4)If I turn it off, how long do I have to wait to re-strike?

I have read about 1,000 posts on the light, and couldn't find these answers....though admittedly, I have not taken the time to read everything that has been written on it.

Many thanks to whoever takesthe time to answer thee 4 questions.

SL1

Click to expand...

Hi smokelaw1,

1. Yes you can leave it plugged in. I generally don't because I have too many spolights to do that with . The battery pack holds it's charge pretty well so I just top them off once in a while. Plus once you have one I will bet it will never sit very long between uses between the LED handle and the HID.

2. The N30 has NiMH batteries so you could plug it back in if you want to after a few minutes of use.

3. A few factors effect this but it is safe to say 20 to 30 seconds.
However it is instantly bright enough to use if you are not illuminating things hundreds of yards away.

4. The N30 will hot restrike. Just do not do this repeatedly.
In theory any HID should be left on for a few minutes once it is turned on and should be left alone for a few minutes when you are done.
In practice I try to follow this, but $148.75 for a whole new light is less costly then a replacement bulb for my Polarion X1 so the N30 gets all of the thankless utilitarian use around the house.

The other night I could not sleep, due to an injury I am recovering from,
so I turned one of my N30's on and used it to light my living room while I read for over and hour. When the HID went out I switched over to the LED and lit the pages instead of the room for another 40 minutes or so before I was tired enough to go to sleep. I am not lazy, it is just a pain to get around on crutches when you are sleep deprived in the wee morning hours. Plus the N30 actually lights the iving room better for reading then the main light in the room.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

Thank you very much for the fully informative answers. I think I will go ahead and order one. It sounds like just the kind of light I am looking for next. That it comes at such a ludicrously reasonable price just makes the decision easier.
I read about your injury...best of luck with the healing process.

SL1

The N30 is a nice light, you should like it very much.

How long should it take to fully charge the first time? I just received mine this morning and I've had it charging for almost 10 hrs and the red light is still on. I'm going to leave it overnight, but I'm wondering if there is a problem with the battery. Thanks for any help

stix217 said:

How long should it take to fully charge the first time? I just received mine this morning and I've had it charging for almost 10 hrs and the red light is still on. I'm going to leave it overnight, but I'm wondering if there is a problem with the battery. Thanks for any help

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Leave it plugged in, unfortunately when Wayne owned Amondotech he ran into family & other problems shortly after they were delivered to Sunnyvale. He did next to nothing to promote them.
These lights have not been charged in months. I would not be surprised if the first charge takes around 12 hours.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

I'm just wondering how long the runtime of the LEDs will be without the 'real' light
does anyone know this?

Helmut.G said:

I'm just wondering how long the runtime of the LEDs will be without the 'real' light
does anyone know this?

Click to expand...

The LED module in mine draws 50ma - with a three ampere hour battery, run
time should be in the range of 60 hours.


George

I just plugged one of my 2 new N30's in at 9:30 PST last night and it was charged by 4:30 AM the next morning.

OK so I started mine charging at about 12:30 PM Tuesday, continuously until 5:30 am Wed., and no green light. I unplugged it, pressed the button, and it showed that it was fully charged, but no green light when I plugged it back in. Do you think it's not fully charged yet or a defective LED?

I want to try this with the other one I bought, but it is a Christmas gift and I don't want to open it.

Thanks for any help.

-Chris

stix217 said:

OK so I started mine charging at about 12:30 PM Tuesday, continuously until 5:30 am Wed., and no green light. I unplugged it, pressed the button, and it showed that it was fully charged, but no green light when I plugged it back in. Do you think it's not fully charged yet or a defective LED?

I want to try this with the other one I bought, but it is a Christmas gift and I don't want to open it.

Thanks for any help.

-Chris

Click to expand...

Chris,

Try running the N30 until it goes out. it should get around 70 minutes of run time. Then try charging it again.
There are three protections built into the charging circuit-
Over temp, over voltage, and a timer cutoff if full charge is not reached by I believe 12 hours.

Since the batteries were very low, it would be possible for all LEDs to be green but the pack still may not quite be at the target "switch to trickle voltage".

I am guessing, since I do not have the pack in front of me, that the pack probably charged to around 13.2 - 14 volts before the timer shutoff was activated.
You could also check the voltage of the pack. The 13.2V battery pack has 11 cells and can top of around 15-15.4V.

Definitely try running the light until it goes out and recharging it.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

OK I'll give it a shot this weekend. Hopefully it will work. Thank you so much for the help and I'll report back on Monday/Tuesday.

Isn't it recommended to fully charge and discharge a nimh battery before you get full capacity?

fire-stick said:

Isn't it recommended to fully charge and discharge a nimh battery before you get full capacity?

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This is correct. It may take several cycles before the batteries are working at full capacity. I told Matt that I was concerned about how long the N30's had been sitting in storage before they started being sold again and he said there should be no problem with the batteries other then the first couple charges may not yield optimal results.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave: