FX Uni charger

[Cryptic]

On the FX uni charger, there are 2 lights.

If I put a battery on to charge, and switch on, the power light comes on green, and the charge light comes on red.

Does anyone know if the charge light is supposed to turn off or change colour when the battery is fully charged?

Thanks

 

[paul]

Try checking with the instructions on http://www.speleo.co.uk/instructions.htm.

 

[cavemanjez]

Hi mate,

the unicharger (if its the metal blue box one) is a constant current charger, it dosnt have a charge level monitor circuit, so charges at a constant level no matter how charged the battery is, and will not switch off when its fully charged, so watch out for over charging the battery

so you have to judge how long you need to charge it for (1.5hrs for every 1Hrs used, and a max of 15hrs) watch out for creating a memory effect in the battery

hope this helps

jez

 

[Cryptic]

Hi mate,

the unicharger (if its the metal blue box one) is a constant current charger, it dosnt have a charge level monitor circuit, so charges at a constant level no matter how charged the battery is, and will not switch off when its fully charged, so watch out for over charging the battery

so you have to judge how long you need to charge it for (1.5hrs for every 1Hrs used, and a max of 15hrs) watch out for creating a memory effect in the battery

hope this helps

jez

Thanks Jez, it is indeed the pale blue box charger. Will have to work out charge times, as I've changed the bulb to an led, so it will be drawing less.

 

[Cryptic]

Okay, so I believe the standard FX2 bulb is 2.4v and draws 850mA.

I've replaced that with one of these http://thetorchsite.co.uk/TTS-1_Watt_Cree_Petzl_LED_Bulb.html# which draws 350mA.

By my reckoning, that's about 40% of the original.

Am I right in assuming that for each hour of run time, I would therefore charge for 40% of the original 1.5 hours i.e. 36mins?

I've also got an FX5 battery. Thsi http://www.speleo.co.uk/images/fx5instr.pdf talks about wattages - any suggestions with this LED?

TIA

 

[graham]

Will have to work out charge times, as I've changed the bulb to an led, so it will be drawing less.

Somewhere I have (had?) a typed set of instructions covering this situation. I'll try to find them, when I get a moment.

Found it! for the 7 led conversion it says charge for 0.75 of the use time, i.e. for 4 hours usage, charge for 3 hours.

 

[Cryptic]

Found it! for the 7 led conversion it says charge for 0.75 of the use time, i.e. for 4 hours usage, charge for 3 hours.

So presumably that 7 led conversion is drawing 640mA (or thereabouts - 75% of the original bulb 850mA)

Any idea what this all means for the FX5 battery (the instruction sheet talks about bulb wattage, rather than ampage).

 

[Cryptic]

I'm thinking the FX5 will also be 36 mins for each hour used (because the led will draw the same 350mA). Is this right?

 

[Ian]

Watts = volts x amps.

The battery is 6v so the 6watt bulb pulls 1amp. Battery life will be 7.5 / LED current in amps.

Hence if the Led current is 0.5 amps then battery life is 7.5/0.5 = 15.

Charge times are reduced by the same factor.

 

[Cryptic]

Cheers Ian