ItsJustMe

There are places that will rebuild any pack for you. Check around town, yellow pages, google.

But honestly, you can probably get a better light for < $30 these days. I went through the days of using MR16 halogens, through HID, through weak LEDs. LEDs these days are wonderful. Any $30 Chinese light will spank any of the solutions I spent $200 and more for 10 years ago.

Papa Tom

Yes, I get it. But this project was not built on logic, just the desire to learn something new and salvage something old. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions!

noglider 

Will you let us know how it works out?

Papa Tom

If I don't die in a battery fire, sure.

Papa Tom

OK, it looks like a pile of garbage (I'm terrible at soldering and the solder wasn't adhering to the batteries too well), but it did light my headlamp! They seem to have a full charge, so the next big test will be to see if they can be RE-charged later on.

I'm glad I did this, but I don't think I will ever do it again. Now, were some of you trying to beat it into my head that I could have used regular or rechargeable AA batteries?

noglider 

I think some of us were trying to beat it into your head that "sunk cost" is a fallacy and that replacing it with something newer will provide you with a better product and save money at the same time.

CliffordK

Assuming your batteries are in series.

5 x 1.25V ==> about 6.25V.

There are quite a few on E-Bay. Just search for something like:I usually go by the highest mAh rating of the size I'm interested in.

High Quality AA 6V 1800mAh Ni MH Rechargable Battery Pack Useful | eBay

Just put on a plug compatible with your system (or transfer the old one over).

Can you replace bulbs? I might try an 8.4V Lithium Ion battery pack. They're already setup for bikes with a nice pouch. The light should handle the extra voltage, and just get a bit brighter (you can add a resistor if you wish, but a bright light might not be bad).

Try this search on E-Bay.You'll also need the charger if you go this route.

Papa Tom

No, what I meant was, could I have done this with standard AA-size batteries, either rechargeable or throw-away alkalines?

As I said, I am not sorry I did what I did, but now that I have a little bit of experience building a battery pack, I might want to see if I can power this light with AA's, if even for the very short time I need it in the morning.

cyccommute 

RC shops won't replace the pack "exactly". RC packs are 6 cell packs that run 7.2V. But that's not a bad thing. See below.

To bad you pulled the trigger on new batteries. You had the chance to upgrade your light for the cost of a new connector or for the cost of solder to attach your old connector to a new battery. Your Nightrider is a 6V MR11 halogen light. Halogens can be overvolted or run at a higher voltage than nominal. This decreases the lamp life by a significant amount but the output of the light is significantly increased. Overvolting by 20%...going from 6V to 7.2V...increases the output from about 400 lumens to about 700 lumens. The life of the bulb is decreased from 5000 hours to about 500 hours but 500 hours is a lot of ride time.

You can get 7.2V batteries from an RC shop or you could just use a 2S/2P (2 serial/2 parallel) Li-ion batteries which is around that 7.2V. You can get that kind of battery for $10 and all you need to do is to swap out the connector or build an adapter.

On the plus side, you go from a "be seen" light to a good "seeing" light.

If you want to really go crazy, you can build a light using MR16 halogens that outputs a true 1500 lumens instead of the claimed 1500 lumens of the Magicshine clones. Overvolting a 20W MR16 by 20% increase the output from 850 lumens (which is still pretty bright). Unfortunately, you need 14.4V or 14 NiMH batteries per light. Li-ion would be better but you'd still need twice as many batteries.

01 CAt Man Do

Absolutely. You could of bought a six cell AA holder, ( pre-wired for series ) then bought 6 rechargeable LSD ( low self discharge ) NiMh AA's ( 2000mAh cells ) ( Eneloops, Eveready or Duracell ) available almost everywhere. Of course you would need a charger to charge the cells but a 4 cell-bay AA charger is not too expensive. You would of course have needed to splice the old connector from the old battery onto the new cell holder and place the holder in some kind of bag. Sometimes old camera bags will work with a bit of DIY.

The link that Cliff suggested was the cheaper but easier option. NiMh packs though are usually built with standard ( old-tech ) NiMh cell packs. With those you need a charger that will safely charge the pack at the right voltage. The problem is that standard NiMh cells ( not LSD ) will eventually self discharge when not in use and at some point become unusable if they are not routinely charged ( which you already know ). The cell holder with LSD cells would of lasted for years and if you had other items using AA's, it becomes even more usable.

Back in the days of the MR-11 Halogen bike lamps, companies like Niterider sold these lamps with standard rechargeable NiMh battery packs. Unfortunately the chargers they supplied were not technical enough to properly keep the battery from eventual failure. Back then the batteries I had only lasted about a year and half, if that. Later it became known that better chargers might have been able to make the old NiMh packs last longer "IF" they had used "trickle charge circuitry". Most of the old chargers had no such circuitry build into them. Not to mention that you couldn't just leave the packs on the old chargers because old-school NiMh batteries get REAL hot if left on a charger ( without trickle ) too long ( Read into this..."Fire Hazard" ). FWIW, the newer LSD NiMh cells if charged in a cell charger bay will not have that problem. A good modern cell bay charger will sense the voltage and stop charging when the cells are fully charged. LSD cells hold their charge a long time when not being used ( unless connected to a device with parasitic drain ).

Anyway, 6-cell LSD NiMh pack would give you 7.2 volts peak voltage ( 1.2 volt per cell ). That would of worked fine with the old 6 volt lights. Like cyccommute said, you could of also used a Li-ion pack with even higher voltage.. BUT sometimes that doesn't work. Back in the days of the old Halogen lamps I used to power my old Niterider lamp ( and Marwi lamp ) with Li-ion packs. Yes, the over-volting of the bulb makes them brighter but as was said reduces bulb life. Still, problem is sometimes the Li-ion packs won't work with all halogen lamps because when a halogen lamp is first turned on there is no intermediate circuitry in the lamp head, only a switch for on/off. When you first turn the lamp on this creates a "Surge current" ( current spike ) through the bulb. It only last less than a second but sometimes that is enough to trigger the "shut down" protection circuit built into the Li-ion pack. Some of the older Li-ion packs only allowed for so much current to flow. Back in the day I had to "Gehetto start" some of my Halogen lamps because of this. My old Niterider ( 10 watt spot ) worked fine with the 7.2-8.4 volt Li-ion packs but when the original bulb went up the lamp would no longer work with the replacement bulb using the Li-ion pack. Nowadays though it is possible to buy a Li-ion pack capable of handling a 10A surge current but you really won't know if it will work till you try it. Of course the other option is to use non-protected cells but that wouldn't necessarily be a good idea.

Well, good luck with the battery you bought. Be careful how you charge it. Don't be surprised if it no longer seems to work in a couple years. BTW, I have a small AA, LED flashlight about the L/W of my middle finger. It puts out 120 lumen for close to an hour on one rechargeable Eveready LSD AA cell. If I wanted to I could ride with that alone. I suggest buying one of those ( 15-$20 ) to use as back-up...because....one never rides with just one light just in case the bulb, LED, driver circuit, battery...etc.. fails...Crap happens ) Being nostalgic I can understand; waxing nostalgic though won't get you safely home if your dinosaur lamp decides to crap out on you.

Papa Tom

Thanks for these thorough explanations. This was a good learning experience, and now I know never to do it again!

I have a 32-led flashlight that I bought at Harbor Freight for $5. It runs on 3 AAA's and puts out a lot more light than my old NiteRider. Now that I'm over this whole nostalgic episode, I will probably just use the NiteRider to light up a closet at home or something. I would like a blinking light on the front for day-riding, so I may be replacing the $5 HF light anyway.

Papa Tom

Update (October 17, 2016): Well, I decided to let the NiteRider run its course before tossing it along with the new battery pack I built. I really thought I'd at least finish the season, but after only two charge cycles, I can't even charge the batteries anymore. I think it's the actual power supply, because the red indicator light is not even glowing when I plug it in. I don't want to put any more $$ into this project. Does anybody know of a reason my batteries won't charge?