Problem with the N30

LEDBE
iced_theater

iced_theater

Enlightened
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
Messages
819
Location
Green River, Wyoming
Somethings not right with my N30 battery. I've charged and discharged the light about 4 times now and my runtime is pretty low at about 30 minutes. Also seems to take forever to charge. I'd say about 12-15 hours for a full charge. Would you think this is a warranty deal since the light is about a week old?
 
I had this problem with my battery as well. A specific area of the battery pack always got hot when charging and discharging. Eventually my pack stopped charging to the second green light altogether rendering the HID part of the light useless. I suspect it was imbalanced cells in the pack. I'd contact BatteryJunction sooner than later.
 
Definitely something they will take care of. There must be a bad batch of cells in their mix; my first battery ran about 10 minutes max. They sent me a replacement, which I am testing now, and so far it appears to be fine. Contact the folks at BJ right away.
 
Probably just a simple replacement pack. Sorry to hear that it croaked out on you though. Matt with take good care of you. :)
 
Yes, I am truly dissapointed in my new N30, soely because of the runtime. I ordered the light about a month or so ago, got it, unpacked it, and charged it. I Discharged and charged several times. Only got around 38-39 minutes of run time (sounds like mine did better than some of yours). I shipped it back to Battery Junction, and they tested the light, put in another battery and tested that one. They said the light with new battery was running just over 50 minutes. They shipped the n30 back to me, and I discharged and charged several times. I am only getting 47 minutes PERIOD. They advertise the N30 to run "approximately" one hour. 47 minutes is "approximately" 45 minutes - very disceptive advertising, :thumbsdowIMO. The light is extremely lightweight and bright - I really like these aspects of the light. But for about $166 bucks, (shipping included), I think the N30 should run for very close to an hour, as advertised... $166 is a lot of money to me.
Had I known the light would only have a run time of about 45 minutes, I would have found something else to spend my hard earned money on.:oops:
Maybe I expect too much???:ironic:

'Gdday, Chris
 
Do you by chance have a battery charger/cycler like the Triton or Triton2? You could try the automated charge/discharge program to go thru 5-10 cycles and I'd bet your run time would increase. The lights ballast requires a certain amount of voltage to fire and run the light. This is typically higher than you can normally discharge the batteries down to. If you can pull out more ah's out of the battery in some other way, you could achieve the same result. I know it's not something you want to do with a new light, but it might solve your problem. Find the number of cells in the pack, multiply by 1.2 and run the battery down to that voltage with a small light bulb or other light load.
 
litemup, it just sounds like your battery needs some conditioning cycles on it.


BVH, it may take longer, but can he use the led on the handle to run it down after the HID bulb shuts off? Will that do the same thing?
 
Pat36, absolutely not! It defies the laws of physics! Well....actually, I was just trying to find the hardest way to accomplish this. So you caught me! I guess this is one of those "Duh" moments for me. Overlooking the obvious!
 
:crackup: :laughing: :grin2: I really was asking 'cause I wasn't sure if the HID bulb would run the battery low enough for the LED's to accomplish this without it taking.....days and days. haha :p.

And just out of curiosity, if the HID bulb ran the battery down to 10%, I wonder how long the LEDs would run on that 10%. It might take a long time right?
 
I'll wager that Mtbkndad has already done this and knows how long the leds will run after HID flicker-out.

Maybe I'll give it a try.
 
Maybe he will see this question and chime in. I think I'm too lazy today to test it myself. I'd have to keep looking over at the LEDs to see if they were still running and all. :rolleyes:
 
My Kai order just shipped with the R2 drop-ins. It will be nice to mod them into the N30 and then probably into the L35 when it arrives. I've done a couple searches but can't seem to find which thread showed the mod?
 
Just ran two of my N30's non-stop till flicker-out after just having been charged. Light #1 ran 70 minutes exactly. Light #2 ran 71 minutes exactly. I ran a stream of air across the front of the lights to keep them cool while doing the test. I now have them on LEDs. I bought these when they first came out so is that a year old or so? I use them somewhat frequently and for short bursts only. Serials end with 406208 & 406246.

Thanks, Paul
 
Last edited:
Well, I discharged it last night before I went to bed, I even let the led's run for a few hours after the HID discharge, then plugged it in and let it charge over 12 hours. Just checked the run time, and now I only got just over 44 minutes??? :thinking::mecry::crazy::shakehead Something just isn't right with these batteries...

In my opinion, Battery Junction needs to find out the problem with these batteries, or, get a batch of "good" batteries, and replace the batch that we customers have gotten with poor run times. I think this needs to be taken into consideration. This just isn't right.

Chris
 
My serial is W070406353. I wonder why some are getting well over an hour, and others are getting such awful run times. These batteries need to be replaced with GOOD batteries by BJ. Sounds like a number of customers have gotten batteries that are defective. I would be happy with 60 minutes run time.
Chris
 
Wasn't there some info put out by Mtbkndad that in some cases, the integral charge timer would time-out on these if the batts were really low? Might try unplugging the charge lead and re-plugging to see if it continues to charge.
 
You mean just unplug the charger cord from the N30, then plug back in?
 
yes. Give it 30 or 40 seconds to power down in case there are capacitors that are charged.
 
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