Sailor Single-handing to Hawaii with Zebra H501s

A friend of mine is single-handing his sailboat from SF to La Paz to Hawaii [EDIT, changed course to take in the French Polynesian islands, as well...] and back. He purchased two Zebralight H501s for the crossing. Will be interesting to see how they handle the wet, the salt, and the abuse. I'll post updates.

He reports his favorite feature is the sub-lumen moonmode. Says he's had trouble finding lights that go low enough. I guess sublumen's what you need when it's really dark.

My girlfriend and I recently stayed in a hotel, and in the middle of the night we both woke up and were moving about, so I thought I'd light up one of my lights instead of the bright, eye killing lamp. I found out that not a single one of my lights had a low enough low, and my girlfriend was ready to kill me. Even 3 lumens is bright when it's dark!

Bolster said:

A friend of mine is single-handing his sailboat from SF to La Paz to Hawaii and back, 7000 miles. He purchased two Zebralight H501s for the crossing.

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Ok, I'm officially jealous... what a life! - must be nice to have two H501s...

- Jas.

He tells me that singlehanders abide by the rule that "Two is one, and one is none." I think he has lots of redundancies on his boat, assuming that one will break.

Yes, I understand redundancy - my comment was a tongue-in-cheek attempt at CPF humor...(downplaying the exotic to highlight the mundane) obviously, I don't write for SNL.
Keeping my day job. - Jas.

JA(me)S said:

Yes, I understand redundancy - my comment was a tongue-in-cheek attempt at CPF humor...(downplaying the exotic to highlight the mundane) obviously, I don't write for SNL.
Keeping my day job. - Jas.

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I thought it was funny Jas...

Bolster said:

Will be interesting to see how they handle the wet, the salt, and the abuse. I'll post updates.

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Does he have the ability to send you pics? Would be kind of fun to see a world traveling ZebraLight. This would be a fun idea for a separate thread (ZL in unique environs) - and provide great marketing collateral for ZL.

- Jas.

I will pass along this request from the official forum comedian!

Bolster said:

He tells me that singlehanders abide by the rule that "Two is one, and one is none." I think he has lots of redundancies on his boat, assuming that one will break.

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hmmm...then shouldn't he be "double-handing" it?



...sorry, couldn't resist...

That does sound like a real adventure. I don't think I'd be able to handle being out there all alone. How long will it take?

Rich

If you ask me? ....Yes! By the one-is-none rule, with just him alone, there's nobody on his boat!

The crossing from Baja Calif to HI will take about 3 weeks I'm told, and he'll start middle of this month. If the trip to HI takes 3 weeks, the trip back to SF must take a month. That's a long time to be alone on a boat, IMO. He tells me the Zebras solve lots of problems for him, and that he'll in all likelihood sleep with them on at times. (!) I guess that you have to get up several times a night to check on stuff. He recharges Eneloops via his extensive solar cell system to keep much of his battery operated gear running. Tells me his solar cells give him around 70 amp hours a day, much of which is spent on a small fridge.

Here's the boat...

And here's his log, if you're interested...he's a good writer, and his log entries read like novel chapters.

your friend is living my dream!
sounds like a great adventure! best of luck to him!

but if that was me, id probably have about 10 lights on my boat. LOL
but thats just me, I wouldnt know which to bring, and would probably just bring them all.

dont forget to mention the advantages of attaching magnets to the H501s. its come in handy for me, many of times.
how about a dive light? just in case maybe?

Trying to remember what he told me...I know his sailboat is fitted with lots of hardwired LEDs that run from the solar/battery system. So I guess he has plenty of wired-in light. He has handheld flashlights, don't know about a dive light. Recollect he has various emergency strobes as well. But he was having the same problem we've discussed here many times...he needed both hands when working on the engine or whatever else needed doing. And he told me most his lights were too bright for night use.

Sailor friend has access to internet when he's in port and I gave him this URL so he'll probably be reading your advice at some point.

Help!

Sailor sent me this email, and I sent the following reply...am I correct? I don't know batteries very well, is my advice correct?


sitting in cockpit tonight; writing on laptop with zebra on my head and at second level so I can see the keyboard, which on my laptop is unlit, and compare to notes from handwritten journal. quite pleasant to do this in cockpit with warm light of zebra on level two.

after about an hour the zebra goes out and will not relight.

i remove eneloop and reinsert (i.e. i reboot). it will not light.

i go below and remove kodak rechargeable from incandescent flashlight and insert into zebra, which then lights up.

i insert a different, unused eneloop and the zebra lights up.

i then tested a number of batteries for charge levels with my digital marine voltmeter with following results:

-original eneloop (about one hour of usage in zebra at various light levels, but mostly level two): 1.154v
-partually used kodak: 1.274v
-fresh, unused eneloop (dark blue casing): 1.334v

I then got a bit happy and tested a selection of my new, unused AA eneloops. Just got them in the mail (via amazon but in --- suitcase) three days ago in several packages. I list below voltages by battery casing color in order tested, all AA:

white--1.310v
white--1.308v
white--1.309v
light blue--1.333v
dark blue--1.335v
light blue--1.334v
white--1.309v
dark blue--1.115v (this batt was tried for first time two days ago and would not light the zebra--a bad batt, i assume--blue casing is a bit crinkled; paint can be scraped off with fingernail--innards going off?)

Clearly the batteries with colored casings carry a stronger charge. Intentional? Important?

Disappointed in staying power of "precharged" eneloops, though it's early to tell. Am I missing something?

What are charge levels of small batts? I know how to read deep cell batts, but is 1.15v in a AA empty? is 1.334 strongly full?

Being in La Paz where packages to and from the US often take months if they arrive at all, I'm not in a position to return for exchange or complain to anyone but you.

--

also, i notice that the switch actions for the two zebras are not uniform. where as i can operate one of the zebras between the three light levels with ease, the other switch is "sticky", will not light or change levels with the same kind of touch sensitivity as the other...takes me some time to realize it's not broken, just different.

My reply:

Ahoy there! Sounds like a battery issue indeed. Some initial thoughts:

"Precharged" means the cells were charged before leaving the factory, but doesn't account for time sitting in a warehouse or store. What's unique about the Eneloop is that it has a slower self-discharge rate than the usual fast-self-discharge-rate NiMH cells. (For example, the batts that power my Makita drill....pretty much gotta charge the battery BEFORE work, as charging it a week before you need it and the battery will be depleted.) The new LSD (low self discharge) batteries are a good, but not perfect, improvement on this problem. I would not take the "precharge" branding too seriously as you don't know how long it's been sitting in a warehouse. I would deplete the first charge, as you are doing, expecting it to be short, then recharge.

An AA is normally 1.5v in full charge state (I read somewhere Eneloops are 1.45v fully charged, and they rapidly fall to 1.4v?). So it looks like yours were sitting in a warehouse for awhile to fall to 1.3 (also read somewhere that Sanyo sends them less than full charge, around 1.3 so maybe that's normal). Don't quote me on this, I'll check, but I think you may not get full capacity until you do a couple of deplete-recharge cycles. So fresh off the charger for the first couple of times may not get you 1.5 or 1.45v...again, I'll check with the forum.

Regarding the different colors: from memory, but here goes. There are two version of eneloops, old and new. Old version is white, has letters MODEL HR-3UTG. New version is white or many other different colors, usually blue. What distinguishes "new" Eneloops is a CROWN symbol, and letters MODEL HR-3UTGA, and the ability to be recharged 50% more (from 1000x to 1500x). I bet all yours are crowned models, which means all the new eneloop version regardless of color. (Color was a marketing variation.)

Measuring voltage is an imperfect measure of what the battery's doing, because it's not under load as you do this. That's why I tried to 'sell' you a battery tester in one of my previous emails, which tests under load. However, you VOM will give you some indication of what's going on, some indication of depletion.

Regarding the "bad" blue Eneloop, don't toss it till you give it a recharge or two. Remember to recharge according to the instructions that came with the Eneloops. I think they want to be recharged in pairs.

At this point I suspect your problems will go away with a couple of discharge/recharge cycles, but I'll put a call into the CPF forum and get the input of people much more educated about cells than I am.

Regarding the difference between your two Zebras, mine are different also. Mine have somewhat different tints.

Hi there,

Some info about the voltage of NiMH rechargeable batteries and Eneloops in particular. This is quite different from alkaline batteries.

An Eneloop may be considered fully charged when the resting voltage is greater than about 1.33 V. You may find them at 1.45 V fresh off the charger and 1.38 V after a few days. After a few weeks of sitting on a shelf you will see them nearer 1.33 V.

An Eneloop is completely drained when the resting voltage is 1.20 V or less. Therefore 1.115 V is completely empty and in need of recharging.

As to why the Eneloop seemed to run out so quickly, it is hard to say. Certainly they don't come fully charged when fresh out of the package, this is more like a 3/4 charge.

ZebraLight says the H501 should last about 19 hours on medium. They don't say which battery, so that might be the "best" case. With an Eneloop, let's say it should be at least 10 hours, maybe 15. I don't own the light and have no experience of how it actually performs.

What charger does your friend have? Owning Eneloops is only helpful when you can recharge them, and it is always worth fully charging them before a long period of use. When no charger is available, keeping a stock of Energizer L91 (Ultimate or Advanced) lithium disposable batteries would be a very good plan. These are lightweight and long lasting.

So he hasn't even recharge them yet? Is there really a problem here? Yea, battery could have been sitting awhile and maybe he lost track of time.

If he recharges a few times and still doesn't see the run time compared to others then yes there is a problem with that battery and is not economical to replace a single battery worth < $3.

BTW, H501 "Light output and runtimes are measured using a Sanyo 2700 mAh NiMH battery", per ZL.

I love my zebralights, but having had two of them replaced under warranty, I'd say that in the case of zebralights. . . . . Three is one and two is none! Tell your buddy to buy another! LOL

Thanks for the replies. Shagging some questions here:

Charger used? Would be the one sold with the Eneloops in the Costco or Amazon multipack. It's a 4-bay charger. He can use it, powered by his extensive solar array.

Is there really a problem here? Well if he got 1 hour of usage on medium, then yes, that's a problem. Medium should give him half a day's light.

Three is one? I dunno, for me Four is Four, and some are going on 3.5 years...Remember these are the NEW H501s, not the original batch with the seal problem. But...we'll see. Time will tell. This is a harsh test environment for the H501 to be sure. But this sounds like a battery issue at this point.

I think he should put the four white Eneloops in the charger until they are fully charged and then do another test using one of those cells.

I think we're getting the mariner back on track. He put in a session with his H501 on high for 1.5 hours, that's about right for a 1900 mAh batt. Thanks for the advice.

Here's our lone sailor, currently anchored in La Paz, using two zebra 501w's concurrently to overhaul his wind vane. (It's a flash photo.) There's lots of maintenance to be done before hitting the open sea to Hawaii. He took this photo for CPF and says thanks for the help and advice.