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Replacement battery help - Please!

Old 09-05-05, 06:35 PM
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Replacement battery help - Please!

I have a set of Performance View Point Dual 12 watt halogen 6V lights. The SLA battery is shot. I need too know what after market battery will work with this system. It doesn't have to fit in my bottle cage, I don't care about weight, I just need lights!

The charger is a 6V,400mA SLA chager
The replacement battery that performance no longer sells (of course) is a 5.0Ahr battery.

This is all gibberish to me. I just want to know what to ask for at radio shack and not sound like an idiot. I can replace the charger to fit whatever battery I get, that isn't an issue, what is an issue is run time. I have a full hour commute each way on busy roads. I need bright lights for morning and night. I can recharge them at work if need be. I can purchase 2 chargers or carry the one with me.

Thanks in advance!
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Old 09-05-05, 06:54 PM
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As long as it pumps out 6V, you can use any battery you want. You just have to make sure the connector works, otherwise you'll have to make your own.
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Old 09-05-05, 07:14 PM
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Okay..... I have all the wiring from my Performance system. Can I just cut the cord off of the old battery and connect it in some way to a new 6V battery? What about recharging the new battery? I'll figure this out, I just need some clear directions/ideas.

I read most of the total geekiness thread and I am more confused than ever.

Signed,
Lost and in the dark.....
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Old 09-05-05, 07:27 PM
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Well you have a 12 watt light running on 6 volts. In theory that's 2,000 milliamps (2 amps). You'll need a 6-volt 4000milliamp battery pack to run for 2 hours.

Try taking apart the old battery pack to see what type of batteries are in there, chances are they're just a generic size.

For example, you can get 10 AA nimh batteries that pack 2600mah, hook em up 5 in series and pair that up to make around 5000mah in a small battery pack.

https://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...S&Category=470


This little battery pack is 17 bucks, good enough for about an hour of runtime for you. It's 5AA's stacked 2x3, so it's about the size of a cell phone (pretty damn small).


This monster's $90 but it comes with a smart charger (essential for maximum battery life) and is 12000mah, which would give you 6 continuous hours of battery life from a 12watt bulb.

Last edited by slvoid; 09-05-05 at 07:36 PM.
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Old 09-05-05, 11:34 PM
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Originally Posted by Crankaddict
I have a set of Performance View Point Dual 12 watt halogen 6V lights. The SLA battery is shot. I need too know what after market battery will work with this system. It doesn't have to fit in my bottle cage, I don't care about weight, I just need lights!

The charger is a 6V,400mA SLA chager
The replacement battery that performance no longer sells (of course) is a 5.0Ahr battery.

This is all gibberish to me. I just want to know what to ask for at radio shack and not sound like an idiot. I can replace the charger to fit whatever battery I get, that isn't an issue, what is an issue is run time. I have a full hour commute each way on busy roads. I need bright lights for morning and night. I can recharge them at work if need be. I can purchase 2 chargers or carry the one with me.

Thanks in advance!
You could frankenstein your light and make it a 12V system utilizing MUCH cheaper bulbs.... ya need to buy a new batt and charger anyway and the bulbs are only a couple of bucks each. You could even over-volt the 12V bulbs with 14.4V and REALLY have a nice setup... as bright as HID some say. I'm going to do that with my wife's setup... which was my old performance 6V system.
If you REALLY want to stay with the 6V setup I can send you a free 6V NIMH pack... it's from batteryspace and I think it's a 4500mAH. You'd still want a decent smart charger though..... actually I think the batt charger I got with my performance set up IS a smart charger... just not a fast one and I use it to charge the other 6V pack I built from the batteryspace.com kit. Hmmmmmm give me a week or so to finish up the wife's light conversion and you.... ONLY you LOL... can have my old set up.
Just pay for shipping and it's your's.. PM me if your interested
Doug
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Old 09-06-05, 08:01 PM
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Thanks you guys! After going to Radio Shack and being treated like an idiot by a 16 year old - and they could order a battery for me and have it in a week or so - Duh! I went to the only lighting place in town. They didn't have what I needed but the woman behind the counter knew me from seeing me riding near her home. She sent me to the hobby/train store where I found a 12v 7amp SLA battery. It was 20.00. I went to Tractor Supply and bought a 35watt tractor light for 9.99 and some connectors and wire. I brought the whole mess home and asked my husband to make it work. He spent 1/2 an hour or 2 beers time setting it up. I had a Minoura water bottle cage mount on the handlebars to carry a 3rd water bottle. He removed the cage and mounted the lamp bracket to the cage mount. It looks and works great! I took it out for a test run to get it aimed properly then tomorrow I'll have him do some fine tuning on the wiring.

Now I want a tail light! Thanks so much for all of your help and suggestions. You guys are the best!
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Old 09-06-05, 09:17 PM
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Well if you're going to make a home made thing, just have him rig a red light bulb and mount it on the back of the bike.
12V @ 35 watts will get you about 2 hours of run time on that battery. BTW, how much does that battery weigh? I'm guessing you could've gotten a lithium ion battery (albiet more expensive) with the same run time that weights 8 ounces.
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Old 09-06-05, 09:24 PM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
Well you have a 12 watt light running on 6 volts. In theory that's 2,000 milliamps (2 amps). You'll need a 6-volt 4000milliamp battery pack to run for 2 hours.
Can you explain this a bit? Say it's a 15 watt lamp running on 6-volts. How would one figure the milliamps to run for 2 hours?
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Old 09-06-05, 09:51 PM
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Originally Posted by chennai
Can you explain this a bit? Say it's a 15 watt lamp running on 6-volts. How would one figure the milliamps to run for 2 hours?
P=IV
15 watts = Current * 6 Volts
Current = 15/6 volts = 2.5 amps. You're gonna need a 5000 mah battery.
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Old 09-07-05, 03:13 AM
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It weighs in at 5.9 pounds, yikes! Heavy, but I consider it worth it. Weight doesn't bother me - I'll just be faster when I ride without it on the weekends! It is pretty small though. It fits in the small pocket of my handlebar bag / seatbag. The lamp is a sealed lamp with a black plastic housing. It is pretty light weight at around 6 ounces.

As for a lithium ion battery - not in this town. Radio shack wanted to sell me a bunch of d-cells in a holder. Gotta love the excellent advice you can glean from an 'associate'. Again, thanks for your help. At least I can see where I'm going, and just about where I've been with that big 'ol horkin light out front

Another consideration was recharging the battery. I can use our regular old 12V battery charger that we use to charge the lawnmower and trolling motor batteries. I can also throw it on the charger at work if the need should arise. They have a real nice quick charger in the service department. With a lithium battery I would have had to buy another charger, this way, I can use what I have available.

Last edited by Crankaddict; 09-07-05 at 03:25 AM.
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Old 09-07-05, 03:29 AM
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Hey I found all the battery stuff I could ever ask for at this place if anyone's interested??
https://stores.ebay.com.au/All-Batter...eNameZl3QQtZkm
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Old 09-07-05, 05:22 AM
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Holy moses... 6 pounds of battery..
I think the entire light & motion ultra HID setup is like 1.5 lbs for the battery and light and it runs for 6 hours with the equiv of 50 watts of light.
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Old 09-07-05, 06:01 AM
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Fortunately for us the battery/light technology is getting a little better (pretty slowly, though). I've been messing around with the same battery/light thing for quite a while. SLVOID, your formula is good informaion for any bike geek to memorize.

As said before, much of the light/battery combination will come down to weight and cost (of the battery). The Total Geekness tread is a great place to hang out and read!
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Old 09-08-05, 06:50 AM
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Has anyone ever tried one of these?

https://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=1344
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Old 09-08-05, 07:26 AM
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The HID lights that batteryspace sells uses the same enclosure as the Topeak HID lamps w/o the fancy electronics. They're a good deal if you don't mind the home made look.
What I find funny is their halogen vs. HID comparison.

Of COURSE the HID is brighter, the halogen lamp has the top half blocked off!
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Old 09-08-05, 08:39 AM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
The HID lights that batteryspace sells uses the same enclosure as the Topeak HID lamps w/o the fancy electronics. They're a good deal if you don't mind the home made look.
What I find funny is their halogen vs. HID comparison.

Of COURSE the HID is brighter, the halogen lamp has the top half blocked off!
When I run my 50w halogen light connected to the 7ah sla battery for a couple of hours it looks like this.
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Old 09-08-05, 09:06 AM
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Originally Posted by 2manybikes
When I run my 50w halogen light connected to the 7ah sla battery for a couple of hours it looks like this.
I'd make a sharp left turn right there if I were you. There are two egyptian hieroglyphs in your way.
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Old 09-08-05, 09:36 AM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
P=IV
15 watts = Current * 6 Volts
Current = 15/6 volts = 2.5 amps. You're gonna need a 5000 mah battery.
Electricity challenged here. The concepts just don't stick. Can anyone explain this?

P= power?
IV=??
watts=resistance?
current= volume? pressure?
volts=flow rate?
amps=another way of saying current?
2.5 amp == 5000 mah because only 50% effective power?

Guess who wasn't able to take physics. Don't you hate it when ignorance comes to bite you later in life?
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Old 09-08-05, 09:44 AM
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Yea pretty much, P is short for urine, it's what comes out of your body after we inject you with whatever was in the IV. Haw haw haw...

Anyway, Power (watts)=I (current, measured in amps) * V (volts)

It's not perfect but it's a pretty good way to estimating. I usually don't use resistance anywhere if I'm just doing a simple light, but resistance is measured in ohms. And V=I*R, or P=I^2*R.

mah is milliamps per hour.

If your light bulb is calculated to draw 2.5 amps or 2500milliamps per hour, and your battery provides 5000 milliamps per hour, then your battery, in theory, will provide 2 hours of battery life.

Things aren't always perfect, as the battery drains, voltage goes down, etc, so I'd say you might get an 1:45-1:50 on a full charge, also depends on battery chemistry, temperature, how old it is, etc, some batteries are also under spec'ed with a large safety factor, so 5000 mah might mean 5500mah. I'd just take those numbers and tack on a plus or minute 15-20 min.
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Old 09-08-05, 02:48 PM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
I'd make a sharp left turn right there if I were you. There are two egyptian hieroglyphs in your way.
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