Thread: Total Geekiness
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Old 11-23-05, 08:08 AM
  #960  
SpecialKev
SS Commuter
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: SE Michigan
Posts: 69

Bikes: Trek 6700 converted to SS;Specialized Stumpjumper FSR

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Just a review on the battery I bought for my geek light. It is model CHUN-100DC02 from that great battery store BatterySpace.com.

I purchased a Laptop NiMH Universal External Battery 12V 4500mAh and Universal Smart fast charger from BatterySpace.com. It is made of 10 c-cells matched pieces. It is quite large and heavy and weighs about 1.5 pounds. It is small when compared to a SLA battery of equal voltage and amperage.
The battery comes double PVC shrink wrapped for water resistance in a nice neat package. The cord coming out of the battery is quite long and should accommodate most applications although it is thin.
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It comes with a set of detachable universal connectors with 5 plugs that will fit to most DC rated devices. These connectors look well made.
One multi voltage smart NiMH /Li-Ion battery charger is included for safely charging. Auto cut off switches the charger to trickle charge power when battery fully charged. Just plug it in and leave it. It is not clear from the instructions what charging level I am supposed to use. The sheet of printed instructions that came with the unit are poor. Also, there are no instructions printed on the charger itself. It would be nice if the key instructions and a code explaining what the colors of the LED mean were printed on the back of the charger. I have seen this on other models and it is very helpful.
My other observation and suggestion for charger is the fabrication of the connector and the end of the cord. This connector is used to connect the battery to the charger and to connect the battery to the connectors supplied in the kit the connector is made up of two pins that stick out from the end of a plastic rubber like wire about an eighth of an inch These pins are exposed and are of slightly different thickness. The difference in diameter makes it easier to insert into the female connector that is on the battery. exposed connector. The small nature of the pins and the diameter of the connecter make it a little difficult to use. The exposed pins are thin and split down the middle making it easy to break them off. Also, the cord if thin. The point where the cord enters the charger is well supported by a plastic nub. Heavy rubber would be better as the plastic could break if the charger is dropped.

The power cord is beefy and the connection to the charger is snug but not too tight. The cord coming from the charger to the battery is long enough for most applications. There is an inline fuse. The plastic fuse holder is made of hard plastic and although it is not something that is opened often, these types of fuse holders are know to fail; that is the little nubs that hold the two ends together snap off. The kit comes with three extra fuses..
The battery did not come fully charged from Batteryspace.com. It took about 2 hours to charge it.

I am using this battery for my homemade for Halogen bike headlight. The burning time is about 4hrs.
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