Magicshine Battery Alternatives
 

I thought I saw a thread like this already, but I can seem to find it now, so I thought I would start this one.

What options have people found for replacement batteries for their Magicshine. I have continued using mine. It has not given me any problems yet, I put it on the kitchen stove under the vent-a-hood while charging though ;)

The seller on ebay I got mine from has a replacement battey available with this note in the description

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-WATERPROOF-B...ht_1049wt_1113

Someone in another thread mentioned a Dinotte battery could be a direct replacement. Do the connectors fit? Can you use your old MS charger?

I saw another option with a 4-battery pack (different shape). Has anyone found the exact connectors MS uses?

Battery Junction sells 18650 battery packs with safety circuitry installed including 7.2 volt 2, 4 and 6 battery packs. The latter should give increased burn time compared to any Magicshine pack. You will have to come up with your own power cord and connectors, possibly from a Magicshine extension cable? Also the big pack will almost certainly not fit in the old cordura carrier.

Does anyone know if I could use the MagicShine charger with this battery pack?

I know it would take longer to charge, but I'm wondering if there are other issues to be concerned with.

This the thread you were thinking of?

Yes, that's it. I browsed back about 10 pages and searched and couldn't seem to find it - probably put the wrong words in search.

Well, my Magicshine original battery pack suddenly died (about 5.6 volts O.C.; won't run the light at all). I was trying to cobble together something with parts on hand, Eneloop AAs. With 6 cells, it will run on high for at least 15 minutes (my test), gets the head pretty hot, but the voltage sags to about 6.5v and the head shows the red warning light. With 7 cells, it seems to run fine and the switch is green, which makes some sense if the red/green is calibrated for 2S2P LiIon cell voltage. Nominal voltage of the Eneloops is 1.25 volts no load, evidently sagging to about 1.1v under load. I hate to run them under 1 volt. Pretty tough duty for an Eneloop.

Wondering if anyone had an opinion on what combination of AAs is least worst. I hate to run the Eneloops below 1v each, which 7 cells could do without me knowing easily, but also hate to possibly overvolt the light head. I only need to get about 40-50 minutes of light each day.

I hope Geoman gets replacements soon.

Litespeedlouie;

I would say go with the 7 Eneloops as the Eneloops reportedly have the lowest internal resistance of any NiMh AA battery out there, a consideration at high current draws. With that many cells running in series there is a risk of cell reversal if one cell has a lower capacity than the others. This is a risk with any NiMh or Nicad battery pack. That is what usually what destroys a NiMh rechargeable tool battery pack. Least likely to happen by making sure that the batteries are not run down too low. Do not try to get the last lumen out.

Yeah, I used 7 cells this morning, on medium, for about 15 minutes. I'll see what the cells measure at home tonight. Too bad no one knows the safe voltage range for the head.

Hello,

You can use the Gemini Battery pack. It has the same connectors and is covered by one year warranty once it is used with Gemini charger. The cells we are using come from CBAK and are UL listed.
http://gemini-lights.com/products/battery

On behalf of teh Gemini Team
Vag

]

do you use china or japan cells?

Hello,

We are using the best battery cells produced in China. I am copy pasting from our website:

Our battery cells are produced by one of the top 10 manufacturers in the world, NASDAQ listed China BAK Battery, Inc. (CBAK). CBAK batteries are used by many well-known companies, among them are DELL and Hewlett-Packard. CBAK has been recently accepted into the approved vendor list of the international first-tier OEM notebook manufacturers.