I have an old set of Dinotte lights that have a 9V battery style connector, and use a remote battery holder loaded with 4 AA batteries (6V). I have run a number of different rechargeable NiMH batteries, and use alkalines in a pinch but the alkalines don't last very long, and the Eneloops are needing constant attention. I'm getting tired of batteries not working when I'm ready to ride. I've also had the alkalines leak and ruin the holder when I forgot them.


So I'm looking for a different battery solution. Dinotte states to use 2300-2500m NiMH AA batteries but that is what I was doing. I'm looking for a battery pack with the correct voltage. Has anyone toyed around with aftermarket battery packs for their lighting/power needs?


Thanks!

I don't have the battery pack for the Dinotte I got used. I haven't come up with a solution yet.

They make 6 volt, sealed batteries that duck hunters use to power their decoys. Works fine and lasts forever on a charge. My Dinotte headlight is very old and one of their first offerings. There's better stuff out there but it works and it's paid for.
I never did like using the 4, AA rechargeable design that thing came with. What a PITA.
If you go with this, don't forget to unhook the battery when its not in use. The Dinotte light has a very low drain even when it is not switched on. That drain will run down the battery to zero and ruin it. Due to the connector I used, the black wire is positive and the red is negative on my set-up.




https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wildgame-...BoCRj4QAvD_BwE

Sealed lead acid is going to self-discharge.

Do you know what connector dinotte uses?

If you can run your light on a lower power setting, the batteries should last longer. I am not familiar with the light, so I do not know if that is an option.

I like the Ikea low discharge Ladda 2450ma AA batteries. I use them in a lot of AA applications. But they probably would not give much longer life than the Eneloops do. And this is only a good idea if you live close to an Ikea store, otherwise shipping might cost more than the batteries.

In my other thread about dinotte lights, someone told me what voltage they use. I recall they are easy to drive. I think they must use liion cells in their battery packs.

Just searched, I had previously figured out they are 7.4v, which is two Li ion cells in series. I imagine packs like that are pretty easy to find.

Now I just have to figure out what the connector is. I'm pretty good at that, I just haven't had the energy.

Two Li Ion cells in series can be over 8v, freshly charged could be 8.2v. When run down, closer to the 7.4 you cited.

Some of my Li Ion batteries for a DSLR camera (Pentax K-30) are two cells in series in one battery pack. The battery charger for that battery pack is labeled 8.4v output.

Some devices do that. I have a headlamp (for my head) for camping that takes three AAA that does that. And a couple LED bike lights that take three AAA that also will do that. I have to store them without batteries, or a piece of plastic or some other insulator over one of battery terminals to block the flow.

skhngy is driving it with 12v, I think 8v is just fine.

I assumed he was using this one that is labeled 6v, pasted photo from his post:



Perhaps you have info that I do not have.

I have many old Dinottee lights. One setup uses the 4xAA NiMH - I get your point about the longevity and hassles. So I went ahead an experimented with a 6xAA setup. This resulted in damaging the control unit in the light. So now I have a fairly bright and long lasting light - but no way to control its output. Its either connected and on - or disconnect for off.

In any case -- the only way to build longevity into a battery pack is to use Li ion cells in series/parallel configuration supplying 7.2 or 7.4 nominal voltage. 6xAA definitely blows chunks......

You're right, I didn't look hard enough at his pic. But Dinotte saying the battery packs are 7.4 means they are using li ion in series. So it must be able to handle the short period of higher voltage that results from a fully charged Li Ion cell. It's the nominal voltage of two Li Ion in series and different chemistries don't result in that voltage.

Got it. I have never owned a Dinotte, thus am unfamiliar with the Li Ion battery pack under their brand.

That's a very old Dinotte light. I had one! It was at least 15 years ago, maybe closer to 20 years.
All the other riders were impressed by the amazing for it's time 200 lumens! These older LED lights weren't very efficient, so the light overheated on High without airflow from a moving bike. I used NiMH AA rechargeables.

I'd suggest getting a new rechargeable light. More lumens, longer runtimes, no overheating. No separate battery pack either.

A quick note on NiMH batteries, specifically the low discharge ones. If you buy a package and they are labeled ready to use, that means they are low discharge.

Sometimes I find that when I put a dead battery in a charger, it does not seem to charge to full capacity. Example, yesterday my living room wall clock with a NiMH AA quit running, so I swapped batteries. Put the dead one in the charger. The charger should have put over 2000 mAh into the battery, but only put in a bit over 1000mAh when it said it was full this morning Thus, not fully charged. I use a charger (Accupower IQ-328 that I think is over a decade old) that can also discharge and recharge batteries, it also does that on each cell individually. This morning I set the charger to fully discharge that battery and recharge it, I was impatient so I set it at a higher discharge and recharge rate. Just checked it now, it is done charging, this time it put in 2420 mAh into the battery. That is close to the battery rating.

I have often found that if I discharge a battery to really low voltage, example less than 0.75v, it only takes a small bit of charge the first time I charge it, it needs a few discharge and recharge cycles to get it back to working up to full capacity.

Also, if you are unhappy with the NiMH batteries you are using, if the charger needs to have two batteries in it to charge by charging them in series. In that case if a battery is half empty and the other empty, the same number of electrons go through both batteries when charging, thus it will not fully charge the fully discharged one. I have a couple older chargers that only charge pairs of batteries that way.

Mine came with off-the-shelf, rechargeable AA's. It ran on four of them in series so I went with 6 volts.

That sealed battery set-up works really well.

My old Dinotte uses the same battery connection that smoke alarms use. I got the mating part and added crimp-on connector tabs.

The rest is history.

As an aside - the dang thing was really expensive. Now they give away flashlights with more oomph.

Chargers that insist on charging in pairs are annoying. Where can I get one that charges single AAA batteries?

I think the choices for NiMH battery chargers are less than they used to be, many things that used AA or AAA now are instead using internal Li Ion.

I see that Amazon still sells the one that I use, I think I have had mine for a decade. I am guessing this is new old stock since it looks identical to mine and mine is quite old. I am quite happy with this one. I avoid buying cheap electronics that have internal Li Ion batteries that die long before the device does, so I have a lot of use for AA/AAA batteries. Am charging batteries a few times a month with this one.
https://www.amazon.com/IQ-328-Batter.../dp/B01LDLG6IY

Here is a low budget one that is USB powered:
https://www.amazon.com/Noxgear-Batte...dp/B0F19823HS/

For NiMH there are smart chargers and dumb chargers, the smart ones sense when a battery is fully charged and quit charging at that point. Dumb chargers charge very slowly, slow enough that it won't damage a battery by over charging so they take a long time to charge, and they just keep charging forever.

I did not spend a lot of time on this search, I am sure there are many other options. I only searched on Amazon.

It's okay to toss old stuff in the bin. Recycling will be even better.

Here's the batteries I use for my Dinotte XLM-3. They are RC batteries with nominal 7.4v. I got a 2 pack, with two 5000mah batteries, for $39 from Amazon. These batteries, like most RC batteries, use Tamiya connectors. To connect with the Dinotte (assuming your light is similar), you will need a 2.1x5.5mm DC female plug (about $3 each) for the battery. I think I used 18awg size. I connected the 2.1x5.5 to the Tamiya which then allows the light to connect to the battery (as shown in the top of the image below). An easier approach is to remove the Tamiya connector from the battery and attach the 2.1x5.5mm dc female plug directly to the battery wires so the light and battery connect without need for the Tamiya connection. See bottom part of image below. I think the Dinotte charger will work for this battery, and I think I used my Dinotte charger as a test, but I also bought Tenergy TB-6AB Balance Charger Discharger ($40) for use with these batteries. Since these batteries do not attach to the frame like Dinotte batteries, I sometimes carry the battery in my handlebar bag or in a waterbottle bag attached to my handlebars.