birding-aus

Re: SPOTLIGHTING equipment news

To: Robert Inglis <>, birding-aus <>
Subject: Re: SPOTLIGHTING equipment news
From: Alan McBride <>
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 17:25:18 +1000
Hi Bob,

good advice I'm sure.

I was only talking about the battery for this M11 ("Naturally with these batteries") which incidentally is a 4 C NiCad battery. It also comes with it's own charger supplied by Pelican and the instructions from them recommend this charge / delete process a number of times as it lengthens battery life for each charge and ultimately its total life.

The batteries on this flashlight don't "need" to be flattened but as I usually flatten them anyway while spotlighting it's not an issue. The charger that comes with the light is also a drip or trickle type charger which doesn't damage the batteries. My suggestion is only that periodically you should flatten them. I have worked this way with Dry cell motorcycle batteries for twenty years plus and have still got one of my original Yuasa Dry cell batteries! working just fine.

I wouldn't personally recommend anyone carry around a battery with lead / acid (if that's what you mean?) I've always used Dry-cell motor cycle batteries (which nothing leaks out of) with the old Aussie shooters spotlights, which by the way is still great around Sydney but not much use for carrying on flights with the weight, wires, and size issues! It's several KG heavier due to motorcycle battery weight and needs a back pack of its own!. The chargers are also considerably heavier although much lighter than 20 years ago!

This torch fits in a side pocket is strong, sturdy and well protected and comes with a car plug in charger too!

Regards and thanks for the interesting comments.

Alan

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On 19 Oct 2006, at 17:00, Robert Inglis wrote:

Hi Alan and others,

Alan, you suggested: "Naturally with these batteries you need to charge, then flatten, charge, flatten, charge, flatten and naturally, charge before going out into the field. They also last
longer with full discharging and charging each time."

If the torch uses Ni-Cad or Nimh cells then your suggestion is reasonable. But if the torch uses lead-acid cells (the so-called motorcycle battery) the suggestion is not so good. It is not really
advisable to continually fully discharge lead acid batteries.
Doing so will shorten their working life and can make them harder, if not impossible, to recharge with standard battery chargers.
This goes for the liquid or gel type electrolyte batteries.

The lead acid type batteries are probably better for spotlight applications as they hold their charge better between outings. And they don't have to be fully discharged before recharging. In other words, they can simply be topped up, something that the other types of rechargeable batteries don't tolerate so well. Although the Nimh type are better than the Ni- cad type in this regard.

Cheers

Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
SE Qld

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