X990 w/ Li-ions good or bad?

[Lunal_Tic]

So it seems everybody loves Li-ion batteries. Has anyone converted their X990 batteries to Li-ion? Is there any non-monetary reason not to?

TIA,
LT

 

[BatteryCharger]

Well, 4 fully charged batteries would be 16.8v...that might be a little too much for the X990.

 

[pyro]

70 minute runtime is quite good for a light that bright.
HID lights draw very high startup currents, so you can´t build
a very small pack, i guess 6Ah is the minimum, otherwise the
LiIon cells will get damaged.

I don´t know how much current the McCulloch´s ballast draws,
and if it can handle 16,8V - but i doubt that.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

BC, is there only one type of Li-ion out there? Surely there are others that might yield the proper voltage.

Pyro, the X990 batteries are labeled 4.5Ah but 70 minutes of output I have yet to see. One battery one time was close, 66 minutes if I recall, but most of the time they average in the 40s.

Thanks,
LT

 

[BatteryCharger]

All lithium ions are 4.2v per cell when they're fully charged. You could use 3 cells, but the light would probably cut off before they're dead. Last night I tested mine and got 68 minutes of run time on a brand new battery. This should increase slightly once the battery has broken in. I would guess that your battery is bad, you might want to try rebuilding it. I believe it uses sub C cells, you may be able to find them in higher capacity than 4.5AH.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

BC, what is the open/unloaded voltage of your charger?

 

[BatteryCharger]

Unloaded voltage is 19.43v.

 

[pyro]

The McCulloch "charger" isa only a power supply,
the charging circuit is included in the battery pack.
both batteries give me a little over 71 minutes, temperature less than 20°C, maybe you use it in colder conditions.
The cells used are 4500mAh C cells.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

Thanks BC.

Pyro, I use the lights in warmer not colder conditions and also use them straight through most times.

Actually had 2 batteries go bad within a couple of months of purchase. One of 2 replacements is quirky at best, gives a pretty consistant 43 minutes but the charge light never changes to green on it. I changed powersupplies for the second set of batteries because it was suggested that the 18V+ was what killed the first set. The new supply is a computer brick, regulated it's 14.95V.

Hence my interest in alternative batteries.
-LT

 

[BatteryCharger]

I think you should find some good quality NiMh replacement batteries. The X990 is very good quality overall, but considering it's made in Taiwan, they probably use cheap chinese batteries. These don't have a very good reputation.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

BC, actually I was also hoping for better charge holding since the batteries I have had usually won't hold a charge more than a week. That's why I thought Li-ions would make the light a better tool for me; it would actually be ready when needed rather than having to schedule its use because I'm uncertain about the charge.


Pretty sad a light of that price doesn't have good batteries. Also the replacements I received weren't from the people that sold it to me. They wouldn't honor the warranty. I was going to put the whole sordid story on C&J but just thinking about it irritates me in a big way.

 

[PeLu]

A 3 cell in series config should be no problem. Is the light really shutting off at a specific voltage (did I read 9V somewhere?).
A 3s4p 18650 pack could give a quite long runtime, may´be more than 2 hours.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

PeLu, 2 hours??? You're kidding me. That beats the 40+ minutes I get plus I won't have to schedule use. I don't know about the 9V requirement though.

 

[PeLu]

[ QUOTE ]
Lunal_Tic said:
PeLu, 2 hours.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just an rough estimation: one good 18650 cell has a little more than 8Wh, 12 of them have about 100Wh, the light should not take more than 45W.
Assuming it behaves well and takes constant power.

 

[BatteryCharger]

[ QUOTE ]
PeLu said:
[ QUOTE ]
Lunal_Tic said:
PeLu, 2 hours.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just an rough estimation: one good 18650 cell has a little more than 8Wh, 12 of them have about 100Wh, the light should not take more than 45W.
Assuming it behaves well and takes constant power.

[/ QUOTE ]

That would be a nice battery pack, but 12 of them won't fit into the stock battery case. An 18650 is quite a bit longer than the original C batteries, plus there's only 10 of them.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

If you could find the right size and a close voltage battery would Li-ions handle the load?

If voltage is a problem could you put in a buck/boost regulator since it's going to need electronics for recharge protection anyway?

-LT

 

[PeLu]

[ QUOTE ]
BatteryCharger said:That would be a nice battery pack, but 12 of them won't fit into the stock battery case. An 18650 is quite a bit longer than the original C batteries, plus there's only 10 of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

They use C cells? Interesting. All the similar power packs I know use SubC cells.
Anyway, why should it use the same housing? Just use another housing which fits. The weight should be in a similar range.

A switching converter will not make sense, it is easier do use a power source within the given voltage (was it 9-15V?).
Anybody here could hook the light to a good power supply and check voltage/current over these range?

 

[BatteryCharger]

[ QUOTE ]
PeLu said:
[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, why should it use the same housing? Just use another housing which fits. The weight should be in a similar range.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where would you find something like that? Not questioning you abilities, but I certainly wouldn't want a homemade hack job of a battery pack hanging off the back of my $500 flashlight.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

I heard that there were supposedly other battery packs available for "military" applications; bigger I'm told.

Oh, and BC, if I recall your "$500 flashlight" only cost $300 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Hack jobs usually look much better on lights in that range. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

 

[BatteryCharger]

[ QUOTE ]
Lunal_Tic said:
I heard that there were supposedly other battery packs available for "military" applications; bigger I'm told.


[/ QUOTE ]

Not from Jenn Feng Industrial co., there aren't. (the company that makes the X990)