I'm hoping there are several members here who can bless me with their knowledge. I just completed a 100 Watt HID conversion and installed a 8000 Mah 4S1P 30C LiPo and am getting next to nothing when it comes to run time. This is a brand new battery and when I kick the light on it runs for less than 15 minutes before the HID starts to flicker. If anyone can chime in and let me know what they think it would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
Problem With HID Conversion Run Time
- Thread starter bluegrod
- Start date
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VidPro
Flashlight Enthusiast
I would say more battery.
While a 30C battery might handle a 30C discharge max (for short Spurts), if it is anything like an RC type battery there still will be voltage droop, resistance on the wiring and connections and 15minutes is a good runtime
when using things that hard.
According to my calculations you got about 100Wh total of battery, so it is only about 1C for a 100W load. then you have to include the "ballast" losses, whatever converts for the HID voltages, is going to have 10-20% loss (more power still). It might be a 100W arc bulb but what is the total power consumption when including the ballast?
the Voltage Under Load:
Check your voltages on the battery while under that kind of load. Mabey check for any voltage drops along all pathways, including things like switches. To check along the paths with DMM, just move the other meter "probe" down to different areas of the wires and connection points, while under the large load.
loosly i would say you need about 10+Lbs of battery of any kind to be doing a 100+W for any ammount of time. at the least i would want about 250wh worth of any battery just generally speaking. Ya wouldnt try to run a 18650 flashlight off a 10400 battery and that could be parts of the problem.
Parellel more actual capacity in. If your trying to portablise what is run with a car battery, then get going with 1/3 of a car battery not 1/10th.
check any of the losses on the wiring. Check out big fat li-Fe batteries, they can more easily be designed to replace a car battery, and handle loads without drooping better than li-poly RC even. Do a check on your li-poly for total actual capacity, and drain stats.
Other than that, need more specs, and i dont know enough about how the ballast would load the battery, as in be hitting it in spikes? Much more battery would not notice any load spikes as much.
At the least provide:
1) some voltages under load,
2) provide the actual capacity of the battery as tested,
3)tell of the methods used to charge, the inital unloaded voltages and if it is balanced.
4) any kinds of protection that it has,
5) any Pictures of what you got going on. Pictures being the only fun part
6) spec sheet on the Hid ballast, or the actual power consumption specs.
While a 30C battery might handle a 30C discharge max (for short Spurts), if it is anything like an RC type battery there still will be voltage droop, resistance on the wiring and connections and 15minutes is a good runtime
when using things that hard.According to my calculations you got about 100Wh total of battery, so it is only about 1C for a 100W load. then you have to include the "ballast" losses, whatever converts for the HID voltages, is going to have 10-20% loss (more power still). It might be a 100W arc bulb but what is the total power consumption when including the ballast?
the Voltage Under Load:
Check your voltages on the battery while under that kind of load. Mabey check for any voltage drops along all pathways, including things like switches. To check along the paths with DMM, just move the other meter "probe" down to different areas of the wires and connection points, while under the large load.
loosly i would say you need about 10+Lbs of battery
of any kind to be doing a 100+W for any ammount of time. at the least i would want about 250wh worth of any battery just generally speaking. Ya wouldnt try to run a 18650 flashlight off a 10400 battery and that could be parts of the problem. Parellel more actual capacity in. If your trying to portablise what is run with a car battery, then get going with 1/3 of a car battery not 1/10th.
check any of the losses on the wiring. Check out big fat li-Fe batteries, they can more easily be designed to replace a car battery, and handle loads without drooping better than li-poly RC even. Do a check on your li-poly for total actual capacity, and drain stats.
Other than that, need more specs, and i dont know enough about how the ballast would load the battery, as in be hitting it in spikes? Much more battery would not notice any load spikes as much.
At the least provide:
1) some voltages under load,
2) provide the actual capacity of the battery as tested,
3)tell of the methods used to charge, the inital unloaded voltages and if it is balanced.
4) any kinds of protection that it has,
5) any Pictures of what you got going on. Pictures being the only fun part
6) spec sheet on the Hid ballast, or the actual power consumption specs.
Last edited:
If the Lipo is really 8 Amps and you're pulling about 8 Amps based on 120 Watt total power consumption, then you should get more than 15 minutes. I'd say no more than 30-40 minutes however. Is it a good quality Lipo? What brand? How old and how has it been kept with not used? Most of the large, black finned 100 Watt (labeled) ballasts I have tested do not produce 100 Watts output. More like the mid 80's.
Also, best to post HID questions in the Spotlight/HID section.
Also, best to post HID questions in the Spotlight/HID section.
Last edited:
petrev
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hi
What BVH said
Most (all) Chinese 100W ballasts are indeed 100W input power and tend to deliver about 75-80W at the bulb. Your pack should be lasting longer than it is.
Your best bet would probably be more packs in parallel as a solution. If your current pack is so far from expected spec. then you should try a better more respected brand and see if that helps.
More packs with simple paralleling cables (Y-Combiners) in a belt pack arrangement would probably be the simplest arrangement. Use your existing connectors/system so that you can simply add more packs as needed and charge using your existing system. You can have a belt pouch for each pack and add a Y-Cable for each pack. Simple soldering, plus good cable and connectors from your Hobby/RC Shop would be all that is required.
Make a Y-Cable >>> One longer Arm for the next pack + Short Arm and the Output Leg. Be aware that the second Arm is live as soon as you attach the Y-Cable - Each Y-Cable normally will have 2 Male sets (Battery Connections) and one Female set (Output). Make an Umbilical cable to attach to the First Pack in the line and to your host. This can either go straight to your host battery connectors (via some added slot in the back door say ??? Or you can fit a locking connector into the body of the host and then the Umbilical can be disconnected if desired and the host used as a stand alone unit. I have used these connectors - AMPHENOL - 62IP-16B10-02SN (Cable Plug) and 62IP-12E10-02PN (Chassis Mount Socket)
Thanks for the PM. Sorry, I can't build any packs or cables due to other commitments.
Hope that helps and is understandable !
Cheers
Pete
What BVH said
Most (all) Chinese 100W ballasts are indeed 100W input power and tend to deliver about 75-80W at the bulb. Your pack should be lasting longer than it is.
Your best bet would probably be more packs in parallel as a solution. If your current pack is so far from expected spec. then you should try a better more respected brand and see if that helps.
More packs with simple paralleling cables (Y-Combiners) in a belt pack arrangement would probably be the simplest arrangement. Use your existing connectors/system so that you can simply add more packs as needed and charge using your existing system. You can have a belt pouch for each pack and add a Y-Cable for each pack. Simple soldering, plus good cable and connectors from your Hobby/RC Shop would be all that is required.
Make a Y-Cable >>> One longer Arm for the next pack + Short Arm and the Output Leg. Be aware that the second Arm is live as soon as you attach the Y-Cable - Each Y-Cable normally will have 2 Male sets (Battery Connections) and one Female set (Output). Make an Umbilical cable to attach to the First Pack in the line and to your host. This can either go straight to your host battery connectors (via some added slot in the back door say ??? Or you can fit a locking connector into the body of the host and then the Umbilical can be disconnected if desired and the host used as a stand alone unit. I have used these connectors - AMPHENOL - 62IP-16B10-02SN (Cable Plug) and 62IP-12E10-02PN (Chassis Mount Socket)
Thanks for the PM. Sorry, I can't build any packs or cables due to other commitments.
Hope that helps and is understandable !
Cheers
Pete
