Charging Tigerlight ?

[TonyBPD]

I just bought a used Tigerlight with only the DC charger. How long are these supposed to charge? Any info would be appreciated. I also have an AC charger on the way.

 

[TonyBPD]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

 

[Jakpro]

10 hrs.

Daniel

 

[bald1]

Tony,

The manual says 10 hours although it really needs 11-12. And it makes no distinction between AC and DC /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

--Bob

 

[js]

TONYBPD,

This may be more information than you want, but below I have excerpted part of my instructions that will be going out with my TL mods.

First, however, I want to make sure I understand you. You have the black plastic charging cradle that grabs the light and the DC car adaptor which plugs into the harness connector. And you have the AC-DC wallwart adaptor on the way. Is this correct?

The charging circuit supplies a constant current of 185mA to the battery pack. The LED lights up to indicate that current is flowing. It does not indicate the state of charge, and will light up with a full pack or a partially discharged pack. If the LED does not light up when you insert the light into the harness, something is wrong. Post here if that happens. The stock TL BP has a capacity of around 2000 mAH, which means that the pack will fully charge in just under 11 hours. My custom KAN packs will charge in 10 hours, due to their lower 1800 mAH capacity, so don't be confused by this in the excerpt below. Here it is:

BATTERY PACKS

Do not totally discharge your NiMH battery pack! Turn off your TigerLight when you notice a definite dimming of the light compared to full brightness. If you have a voltmeter, the 6 cell pack end-of-cycle voltage should be no lower than 4.8 volts, and 5.4 volts is better. The 9 cell pack end-of-cycle voltage should be no lower than 7.2 volts, and 8.1 volts is better. These values correspond to .8 and .9 volts/cell respectively. However, there is absolutely no need to get worried about when to turn off your light. If you haven’t noticed a definite dimming, don’t worry. The real danger is draining the pack down to the point where there is no light whatsoever coming from the lamp. This almost always happens when someone is cycling a battery pack. There is no need to cycle a NiMH battery pack! These are no memory batteries. Don’t take the risk. If you are doing a runtime test, or some other experiment, do not leave the light unattended. It is easy to get distracted and return to find that you have ruined your battery pack. (Don’t ask me how I know this).

Do not drop your battery pack. Take care to prevent this, but again, don’t worry too much about knocking the light over, or about normal bumps and wear.

Take great care not to short out the battery terminals! These are RC community, high-current batteries, and will deliver 15 amps without even thinking twice. I have blown the 10 amp fuse in my Fluke Multi-Meter, fried 11 amp copper braid, and burned myself—all by shorting out something or other on one or more battery stacks. These packs are particularly susceptible to this, as both + and – connectors are at the same end of the pack.

Do not overcharge your battery pack. The TigerLight charger, stock or modified, is a trickle charger and will provide a C/10 charging current to the battery packs. This rate is low enough not to harm the batteries if they stay on the charger for a short while after reaching a full charge. Leaving the light on the charger for days at time, however, WILL harm the batteries, slowly but surely. I suggest charging the TigerLight for no more than 10-16 hours, and then removing the light from the charger. Even a pack that has hit end-of-cycle will reach a full charge in 10 hours. Also, while it is true that NiMH batteries do have a high self-discharge rate when compared to other battery chemistries, even after a month of sitting idle, a NiMH battery pack will still have almost 2/3 of a charge left. You do not need to obsessively re-charge a fully charged pack every other day. If you must do this, do it every 10-14 days. On the other hand, do make sure to charge your battery packs at least once every 6 months.

If you have a stand alone battery charger, such as the Hitec CG-340, or Triton, do not use the alligator clips to grab the + and – battery pack connectors directly. Attach a mating snap harness to the pack, and clip onto the harness leads instead. I have found that alligator clips do not attach well to the + and – pack connections, and can actually cause the – delta V circuitry to fail to peak detect. I will send one of these mating snap-harnesses to you free of charge. Just ask! But do not charge your battery pack by directly attaching alligator clips to the connectors.

When removing and installing the battery pack, follow the directions provided with the TigerLight.