Help save an old light...

[ggg300]

I have a 8 year old Nite Rider single beam 10 watt light with a 6 volt nickel cadmium battery.

The charger is lost. The battery has a cord that runs to the light (male end of battery goes into female terminal of the light)

Can I set this thing up to run on AAs?

 

[Dr Jekell]

Have you tried contacting the manufacturer?

They may have a replacement charger available & if not they may give you the details needed to source/make a replacement.

Or you could post a WTB message on a MTB forum.

If I remember my teachings from CPF university correctly I believe that AA alkaline batteries will not supply enough constant current to the light unless you use a very large amount.

You could use rechargeable AA's but then you would have to find out how much Volts & amps the light needs to run correctly.

Your best bet would be to try & get a replacement charger.

If the battery pack is shot I know of a company (In NZ unfortunately) who will do battery pack repacking for a reasonable price. I have sent items (2 way radio battery packs) to them in the past & am more than satisfied with the end product as they not only repacked them they increased the run time from 8 hours to 11+ hours which made me happy.

 

[rideatnight]

Sounds like a NiteOwl. The battery pack is 5 AA NiCd cells, so you just need to buy a holder for 5 AA cells (go with NiMh instead), connected in series, and splice the plug onto that battery pack.

For recharging, you could make the batteries removable and use a home charger, or find a transformer (wall wart) with an output of 7.25VDC @ 400 ma. That's the stock charger for those units from niterider.

Of course, you might be better off dropping another 40 bucks and building yourself an LED light to run off that battery pack. The NiteOwl only puts out about 100 lumens, and you can get much better runtime (at least double) with more light by using LEDs.

 

[tonycollinet]

I use this charger (link to cpc) for charging a bank of 10 NIMH cells. It will charge any number up to 10 of Nicd or NIMH cells.
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/module.jsp?moduleId=cpc/258316.xml

You may need to replace the connector on the charger to match your battery pack.

It would also give you freedom to make up a new battery pack from standard NIMH cells in an appropriate holder.
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/module.jsp?moduleId=cpc/258488.xml

Battery clips for holders here
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/module.jsp?moduleId=cpc/257528.xml

 

[ggg300]

ok...here is the pick of it...

Do I have the battery right?

(Nightrider...I'd like to know why they make it so hard to ID the battery)

 

[FrontRanger]

I have a 8 year old Nite Rider single beam 10 watt light with a 6 volt nickel cadmium battery.

The charger is lost. The battery has a cord that runs to the light (male end of battery goes into female terminal of the light)

Can I set this thing up to run on AAs?

Hi ggg300,

Here's a thought: Are you positive it's a NiCd battery? You're right that there isn't much information marked on NiteRider's battery packs, at least not the ones from that era. I am the owner of a ~7.5 year old NiteRider 10W Halogen single beam light that runs on a 6V battery, but it's a NiMH. (I still have the box and the manual, so I am sure of this.) There's a good chance both our lights are from the same "generation" of NiteRider products, and if so, I'd be surprised that they'd use both NiCd and NiMH at the same time. Mine's not the digitally-controlled one you have, and it's black, not grey.

For what it's worth, the charger that came with my light delivers 400 mA at 7.25 VDC. The connectors on mine are Size M. They're available at Radio Shack.

If it turns out that they're NiMH, I would just find an equivalent charger and solder on the mating connector. If they're NiCd, I'd just build up a NiMH pack. I don't see a reason to stay with NiCd, battling the "memory" they have.

Good luck,
Stephen

 

[ggg300]

As you can tell, I don't really know about its volts...the original charger was lost, ans the date of it was from the owners memory...I have a feeling its 13v...dunno for sure...

 

[maniaque]

Hi ggg300,

Here's a thought: Are you positive it's a NiCd battery? You're right that there isn't much information marked on NiteRider's battery packs, at least not the ones from that era. I am the owner of a ~7.5 year old NiteRider 10W Halogen single beam light that runs on a 6V battery, but it's a NiMH. (I still have the box and the manual, so I am sure of this.) There's a good chance both our lights are from the same "generation" of NiteRider products, and if so, I'd be surprised that they'd use both NiCd and NiMH at the same time. Mine's not the digitally-controlled one you have, and it's black, not grey.

Coincidentally I have the same light except it's not the digital version and am in a similar situation. I just found the original box for this and it's the non-digital NiteOwl that is a "10 watt single beam system with ultra-compact NiMH battery stick and charger" so it is NiHM, not NiCd.
I too would like to replace the dying battery pack. I opened up the battery pack skin and here's what I found:
http://cyclemaniaque.com/img/NiteRider/batteries.jpg
so I'm guessing these are 5 1.2v batteries in series (= 6v)? Is this a pretty standard setup and a knowledgeable battery shop will know how to replace? Any estimates as to the costs of such a replacement?
Can I opt for a different kind of battery that could hold a charge longer or am I stuck with NiMH with the halogen system?

 

[FrontRanger]

Coincidentally I have the same light except it's not the digital version and am in a similar situation. I just found the original box for this and it's the non-digital NiteOwl that is a "10 watt single beam system with ultra-compact NiMH battery stick and charger" so it is NiHM, not NiCd.
I too would like to replace the dying battery pack. I opened up the battery pack skin and here's what I found:
http://cyclemaniaque.com/img/NiteRider/batteries.jpg
so I'm guessing these are 5 1.2v batteries in series (= 6v)? Is this a pretty standard setup and a knowledgeable battery shop will know how to replace? Any estimates as to the costs of such a replacement?

Hi Maniaque,

First of all, :welcome:. And now about replacing your battery pack: If you can solder, you can do the job yourself. I looked into doing this once myself (but ended up fitting a dynamo hub to the new bike I was building at the time). I believe the cells are size 18650, also called "4/3 AF". The name means 18mm in diameter, and 65mm in length. One place you can buy them is here. About $23 if you get a 4-pack and a 1-pack, even with tabs. Not bad, compared to the prices bike light companies charge for their "branded" batteries.

Can I opt for a different kind of battery that could hold a charge longer or am I stuck with NiMH with the halogen system?

I would stick with NiMH. Li-Ion has somewhat higher energy density, but they've got a different voltage than NiMH, they're more expensive, and you already have the right charger. I have seen 4500 mAh 18650's, by the way, which is a bit better than the 4000 mAh cells that come with the original pack.

Bonne chance,
Stephen

 

[ShelaghDB]

I realize that this is an old thread but am hoping that someone here will still be on the forum or someone else might be able to help?

I have one of these older Nite Rider 10W lights, just like the photo shown. But I dont have a charger for it and would like to get this working. I havent any idea what type of battery it takes, such as has been brought up in this thread but am assuming, it will be of the same age/era as maniaque I think it would be?

Would I as well, just eed to buy a charger at Radio Shack ( now called the SOURCE here in Canada) as mentioned above?

or find a transformer (wall wart) with an output of 7.25VDC @ 400 ma. That's the stock charger for those units from niterider.

the charger that came with my light delivers 400 mA at 7.25 VDC. The connectors on mine are Size M. They're available at Radio Shack.


TIA

 

[Dr Jekell]

I have one of these older Nite Rider 10W lights, just like the photo shown. But I don't have a charger for it and would like to get this working. I haven't any idea what type of battery it takes, such as has been brought up in this thread but am assuming, it will be of the same age/era as maniaque I think it would be?

Or you could just call up Nite Rider & ask about purchasing a replacement charger. They will more than likely have a suitable one available or be able to point you in the right direction.

http://www.niterider.com/company/contact/

 

[ShelaghDB]

Or you could just call up Nite Rider & ask about purchasing a replacement charger. They will more than likely have a suitable one available or be able to point you in the right direction.

http://www.niterider.com/company/contact/

I have sent several e mails to them as well as have contacted them on FB to no avail. Thats why I posted here

 

[steveo_mcg]

What about getting a hobby charger then you only really need to worry about the chemistry (probably nimh), set the max charge rate nice and low and it should "just work".

 

[Dr Jekell]

I have sent several e mails to them as well as have contacted them on FB to no avail. Thats why I posted here

Did you try phoning them?

 

[ShelaghDB]

I had hoped to avoid so as I am in Canada and they are in the US. I also suspected had i done t hat, they would not be able to ship to me but since I found this forum first and a few who seem to know what they were talking about, I thought I would try here.

But apparently you dont seem to want people asking questions here so I will now delete this book mark and not bother trouble any of you.

FYI due to your post, I did phone them long distance a few minutes ago and no, they do not ship to Canada as I expected. It would not have been any different had i phoned you in New Zealand. Therefore there seemed little point to have done so, hence, why I took a chance and asked in this thread.

In any event, I will find another related forum to ask questions in that i need answers to so feel free to delete this thread as I wont be posting in it again..