Adapters too short!

Had an interesting experience tonight. Many moons ago I bought an eveready 3D lantern, because where I was living at the time was experiencing a lot of power outages. Didn't use it much, so cost of D cells didn't bother me that much. Then I started using NiMH and Li-Ion cells in my other lights. Suddenly the cost of primary D cells wasn't as acceptable any more. What's worse, the cost of NiMH D cells is just about as bad. So I decided to try some AA to D adapters. I searched around for a good set, and finally bought a set made by Eneloop. Gotta be good, right?

Well, tonight I tested them. Nothing, nada, nil. No light whatsoever. Put the primary D cells back in - works great. So I whipped out the trusty calipers, and lo and behold, with one of my trusty Amazon Basics LSD AA cells in, the adapter is only 61.2 mm long. Now the AA cell is an exact 14500 in size, so it is not the fault of the AA cell. Hard to believe that 4 mm can make such a difference.

Any ideas on how to make the adapter longer?

Timothybil said:

Had an interesting experience tonight. Many moons ago I bought an eveready 3D lantern, because where I was living at the time was experiencing a lot of power outages. Didn't use it much, so cost of D cells didn't bother me that much. Then I started using NiMH and Li-Ion cells in my other lights. Suddenly the cost of primary D cells wasn't as acceptable any more. What's worse, the cost of NiMH D cells is just about as bad. So I decided to try some AA to D adapters. I searched around for a good set, and finally bought a set made by Eneloop. Gotta be good, right?

Well, tonight I tested them. Nothing, nada, nil. No light whatsoever. Put the primary D cells back in - works great. So I whipped out the trusty calipers, and lo and behold, with one of my trusty Amazon Basics LSD AA cells in, the adapter is only 61.2 mm long. Now the AA cell is an exact 14500 in size, so it is not the fault of the AA cell. Hard to believe that 4 mm can make such a difference.

Any ideas on how to make the adapter longer?

Click to expand...

I bet you have the Panasonic version with the screw on bottom. I had a problem with those also. I believe it's due to the short length of the positive terminal. The older Sanyo / Eneloop adaptors are longer and work fine.

I would return what you have and get the Sanyo version. Look for an open bottom. EBay seems to have plenty. The part number on my Sanyo adaptor is: NCS-TG-D

HTH

Timothybil said:

... the adapter is only 61.2 mm long.

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It's probably not the overall length; IEC specification for D cells is overall length 59.5 to 61.5 mm. As Madcow07 suggests, it may be the positive terminal; IEC spec is minimum 1.5 mm.

Bought a couple of 3xC cell aluminum flashlights, with 5w cree and an zoom-able head, It came with 3 x C Alkaline that fitted and worked fine, but i tried some C size nimh cells i had, but they must have been slightly longer than the alkaline so that they pressed too hard on the end power switch and stopped it from working, I fixed it by fitting some fat o-rings only 2mm made all the difference.

On AA to D convertors, I bought 8 3xAA to D cell convertors myself, i got them yesterday only £6 from eBay a hong-kong/china special but the quality is not bad, High capacity D cells are expensive, AA are so much cheaper i can get 4xAA 2300mah LSD for £2.99 i just bough 5 packs of 4 to fill my new adapters, so that`s equivalent to an 6900mah D cells, but i dont need to fit all 3 AA cells 1 seems to work OK.

I have 3 or 4 led lanterns that take the D cells and for use in my Maglite`s so i might buy some more 3AA to D adapter`s

Also just bought 2 of those Energizer 3 in 1 torch/lantern that take 4xAA they are great, and not to bad at £9.99 each

As you can see i like my lantern`s, but don't get me started on the flashlights, CPF is the perfect place for me

John.

A lot of those Eneloop D adapters are fakes and some are really bad. I've been looking at them on Ebay for a year, or two and unless you get them from Panasonic/Sanyo, or in those Eneloop blister packs, I'm not surprised.

Chris

What kind of adapters do you have: the ones with a bottom contact plate that screws on to the bottom or the ones with open bottoms that allow the AA cells to make direct negative contact?

It could be that the the negative spring/contact is too big for the AA's and needs something like a coin to make contact. A coin would also make up the difference if the adapter is too short.

Another thing to check is that the AA cells are snapped in firmly to the adapter to make positive contact.

xxo said:

What kind of adapters do you have: the ones with a bottom contact plate that screws on to the bottom or the ones with open bottoms that allow the AA cells to make direct negative contact?
It could be that the the negative spring/contact is too big for the AA's and needs something like a coin to make contact. A coin would also make up the difference if the adapter is too short.
Another thing to check is that the AA cells are snapped in firmly to the adapter to make positive contact.

Click to expand...

I had both the Panasonic & Sanyo versions. I tested them in a Maglite, the short projection of the Panasonic positive terminal was definitely the problem.

ChrisGarrett said:

A lot of those Eneloop D adapters are fakes and some are really bad. I've been looking at them on Ebay for a year, or two and unless you get them from Panasonic/Sanyo, or in those Eneloop blister packs, I'm not surprised.

Chris

Click to expand...

I had the genuine Panasonic version from Costco, and they were a problem.

Madcow07 said:

I had the genuine Pasonic version from Costco, and they were a problem.

Click to expand...

Here is the 'newly' designed version.

If they don't work, I don't know what to tell you? I'd think that Panasonic could figure this one out?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Newest-Pana...816120?hash=item33aa704378:g:tfAAAOSw9r1WC0v2

I'd settle for the older bottomless version.

Chris

That link is to an adapter for a single AA. I would want to have 3 AAs to make it sufficiently useful.

I bought 8 of these parallel 3xAA to D Adaptor, they are cheap and work fine for low current applications, I have them in my maglites and lanterns, the link below is just an example they are for sale at many place on ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201431109...l?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=201431109825&_rdc=1

John.

alternety said:

That link is to an adapter for a single AA. I would want to have 3 AAs to make it sufficiently useful.

Click to expand...

alternety said:

That link is to an adapter for a single AA. I would want to have 3 AAs to make it sufficiently useful.

Click to expand...

This thread is about the Eneloop single AA>D adapters. Panasonic doesn't make any other configurations to the best of my knowledge?

Those 3AA>D adapters can be outright dangerous, since they're cheaply made.

While not having the capacity of a real alkaline/NiMH D cell, they're better than nothing in some situations.

Chris

Mine are solid and work great, buy a pack 4 and see for yourself, if they are crap bin them.

John.

ChrisGarrett said:

This thread is about the Eneloop single AA>D adapters. Panasonic doesn't make any other configurations to the best of my knowledge?

Those 3AA>D adapters can be outright dangerous, since they're cheaply made.

While not having the capacity of a real alkaline/NiMH D cell, they're better than nothing in some situations.

Chris

Click to expand...

TinderBox (UK) said:

Mine are solid and work great, buy a pack 4 and see for yourself, if they are crap bin them.

John.

Click to expand...

You sir, are obviously a guy who lives on the edge, who dances on the head of a pin. Trying cheap, crappy stuff is encoded into your DNA and you embrace it.

Others, maybe not so much so?

Chris

alternety said:

That link is to an adapter for a single AA. I would want to have 3 AAs to make it sufficiently useful.

Click to expand...

I was identifying with post 4 in this thread. If you are going to replace a D cell in a device that is designed for D cells, a single AA does not seem a real solution. 3 however....

First, these are real Eneloop adapters, made by Sanyo. Second, I realize that a single AA does not have the capacity of a D cell. But since I have a lot of AA NiMH cells available, and want to spend as little as possible to keep this lantern working since I now have a better one anyway, it really doesn't bother me.
Third, it is the lantern's fault. I forget who said it, but yes, the contact area on the positive end of the adapter is too small to make contact with the weird contact in the lantern. A little experimentation with a penny and some foil got things to work for a little bit. I think I am going to look for a brass screw with a large head the will scree into the rivet at that end and make a larger contact area. Oh, the things we do to make our lights work for us.

Rare-earth magnets also work great.

Timothybil said:

First, these are real Eneloop adapters, made by Sanyo. Second, I realize that a single AA does not have the capacity of a D cell. But since I have a lot of AA NiMH cells available, and want to spend as little as possible to keep this lantern working since I now have a better one anyway, it really doesn't bother me.
Third, it is the lantern's fault. I forget who said it, but yes, the contact area on the positive end of the adapter is too small to make contact with the weird contact in the lantern. A little experimentation with a penny and some foil got things to work for a little bit. I think I am going to look for a brass screw with a large head the will scree into the rivet at that end and make a larger contact area. Oh, the things we do to make our lights work for us.

Click to expand...

alternety said:

I was identifying with post 4 in this thread. If you are going to replace a D cell in a device that is designed for D cells, a single AA does not seem a real solution. 3 however....

Click to expand...

It depends on the current draw of the device.

I have a 12v 10" fan that runs on 8xD batteries. It only pulls 500mA on High vs. Low. I'm not getting a lot of runtime out of 8xD>AA adapters, but if I have a bunch of Eneloops here, it can work, albeit for shorter runtimes.

Chris

ChrisGarrett said:

This thread is about the Eneloop single AA>D adapters. Panasonic doesn't make any other configurations to the best of my knowledge?

Those 3AA>D adapters can be outright dangerous, since they're cheaply made.

While not having the capacity of a real alkaline/NiMH D cell, they're better than nothing in some situations.

Chris

Click to expand...

Glad I read this. I was going to buy those 3 x AA to D converters but as you know I am safety conscious so I will go with 1 x AA to D instead. I was a little concerned that I couldn't get 12 AA batteries that were perfectly balanced to avoid reverse charging. I always thought of NiMH as being harmless.

Where can I buy genuine Eneloop AA to D converters? I'm guessing the cheap ones sold from China on Ebay are knock offs?