My Mag85 loses output within 2 minutes of startup on freshly charged and rested eneloops. The batts have only been charged for three or four cycles. The charger is the Powerizer pack charger. FM bipin, reflector, and battery holder, lens. No other mods. Any suggestions? It's still bright even after a few minutes but nothing like the first 45 seconds. Many thanks.
Fast dimming Mag85
- Thread starter rdunk77
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nzgunnie
Enlightened
Sounds like you've got one dead cell that's not handling being under load.
How many cells are you running, and what kind of holder/configuration? You should check the voltages of each to see if they are all getting fully charged. There may be a bad connection/contact point, or a somewhat defective cell. There is no substitute for having a good conditioning charge (slow charge at 200mA for 15 hours). One of the cells may be terminating the charge cycle before the rest are done. There is also a peak output when the cells are fresh, so not sure how much of a drop in output, but you may be seeing a normal "direct drive" drop off.
Thanks to both for your replies. The config is 9 eneloops in a FM 9AA to 3D holder. The powerizer smart charger charges them in 2 to 2.5 hours. The batteries are always warm upon completion. I leave them on the charger for a few more hours. Even though the fast charge is terminated, I can see regular current spikes that are very short. Does this provide the finishing charge? Even after a few minutes of run time, the loss in output is again apparent on the next use (maybe 24 hours later). This light always starts out really bright and tapers off somewhat after a minute or too. When the pack starts to die the drop off is much greater and I immediately turn it off, let the batts cool and then charge them again. I never 'run them into the ground'. No resistance mods have been done. Thanks again for any suggestions.
I'm no battery expert, but I suspect that fresh from the trickle charge, they're well over their typical voltage. If you had done resistance mods, I'll bet you'd have blown the bulb.
Follow your charge procedure, let them sit overnight (after you take them off the charger), then try them. See what happens.
If it's then consistent, do the resistance mods. Tail spring bypass and tower spring assembly bypass being the easiest and most important. Or get a Kiu socket if you haven't already.
Follow your charge procedure, let them sit overnight (after you take them off the charger), then try them. See what happens.
If it's then consistent, do the resistance mods. Tail spring bypass and tower spring assembly bypass being the easiest and most important. Or get a Kiu socket if you haven't already.
Give us a better idea of how much run time and drop offs. because I'm still not sure if you have a badly charged (possibly defective) cell. If you can get a DMM to check voltages after charger, and again check each when you see big drop, then let us know about how long it keeps running at a lower level. It's hard to know what someone means about drop in lumens when you have a direct drive setup, without times, and rough degree of dropoff. If you look at the lumens/lux readings I did at various voltages, you can see a normal output scale. This comes from my destructive test thread here.
