Richard Cranium

Colleen, nice work. Assuming the charger does indeed have sufficiently rated components then the lower charge rate is indeed a plus with respect to battery life.

However, if the charger "heats up" when charging a completely discharged battery - and if indeed it is NOT limiting the charge rate to nearly 1 amp - then the semi-conductors used in the chargers "gate circuitry" are insufficient in value or capacity. (hmmmm?)

I missed it - but did you measure the current at the very beginning of a charge of a completely drained battery?

Was it indeed down near 1 amp, or was it more like 1.6A?

In addition to the measuring you have performed -I used an Excel sheet in conjunction with a stop watch to to record and calculate watt/hours produced during discharge. Although it is necessary to "average" the values across x/minute periods - it is still reasonably accurate method of determining "true" battery/run time /watt hour capacity.

Thanks for getting "down to it" - the bike forums are a better place for people like you.

You get the:

colleen c

Thank you Richard for the award. Wow, first time I've received a reward through a public forum

The battery was completely drain to the time when the Titan light automatic switched to Lo mode. At that time, it was ran for almost 4hrs minus a few minutes. I let the pack rested for a while to let the voltage bounce back to a stable state, then I plugged in the charger. The current remain 0.94 amps from the start and throughout the first half hour while I was monitoring it. It never got above the 0.94 reading which is a good thing as it show the charger has a stable limit clamp for what it is rated for. Somewhere between the 1 and 2nd hrs was when the charge current start to taper down to 0.78amps and so did the housing temperature.

Richard Cranium

Oh, and the "other thing" - I saw you your test lead setup in the pics and it looks like you would have a hard time using two meters at the same time with those connectors. I used "old school" automotive connectors that allow for a meter in "series" for current measurement while attaching another meter across the battery leads to measure voltage.

In this way, it is possible to factor voltage x current across a time frame for determining watt/power consumption.

I just tested a friend's battery from Geoman - that is indeed defective in some way. It's circuitry abruptly stops charging at 7.8V. If you monitor the charging - you would see it charging at 44mA at 8V - and then just "stop" and go to zero charge. Disconnect the charger and it reads 7.8V.

And the "scary" part - its the first battery I've seen draw 2 amps when it begins to charge.
I think it became warm as well. So yes - there are battery anomalies out there although this is the first one I've seen.

Garfield Cat

Maybe what you should do is to mail Colleen the new charger at no cost to her so that she can do the review.

colleen c

When I received my unit, it already came with the newer 1amp charger. Apparently the Gemini team has already updated with the newer charger when I placed my order. I didn't even know there were a change in charger until another member noticed the difference between my charger and another charger from a different review in the MTBR forum.

Worth noting is the fact that neither Vag or the Gemini team had any knowledge of my intention of doing a review of the Titan light, nor did I for that matter. What they mailed me was no difference than what anyone else would have received in their order. I felt this is the best way can one get an honest review of a product

NBYRDR

Colleen, I also have a different charger than what you have shown in your pics. I plan on posting some more pics later tonight along with some night shots along paths etc.