Batteries Expensive

[cachenut]

Since its raining I am thinking of other stuff.

I was wondering if it would be possible to use an alternate power supply for these detectors with a cable that ran from a hip mount battery pack to the headphone cable and down with it into the existing battery pack. Of course a hole in the back would be needed for a power plug.

There are all sorts of low cost alternatives like lantern batteries and 12 volt, light weight, lead acid things that do not leak ever. Sealed! Special batteries come in all sorts of sizes and voltages.

I spent over 100 this year alone on batteries and did not spend that many months searching.

Another issue is the use of batteries, a combination of rechargeable high output say 2500 mAp and a set of alkalines. Say 4 of each in a explorer.

I was wondering what this would do. Put the 2500 at the front so they get drained faster and the alkalines at the back so they last longer. Would this give me/you longer search time on one recharge because the alkalines were supporting the rechargeables and also make alkalines last longer cause the rechargeables were there. In practice it seems this would be more cost effective and hive me more time in the field. With my alkalines there always seems to be another 2 hours left in them even after they are run down the first time. They rebound when left alone or warmed up.

Just a question for someone who knows about such things.

Joe.

 

[hansenrw]

Sounds like you don't have the Nimh battery pack. Go buy 8 Nickle Metal Hydride batterys with a charger and you won't have to buy another battery for years. They don't have the memory problem of Nicads. I am using the same battery pack that came with my detector and I bought it in 2000. Some of the hard core hunters may wear out a set in a year or two but mine still hold a good enough charge to do the detecting I do.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

The easy solution is to just buy 8 NiMH rechareables. I use a mixed collection of Energiser 2100mAh and 2500mAh. Most are 2 years old or more and still work fine even thought I punish them with the 30 minute quick charger. You can get the batteries and the charger for about half of what you have paid for the throw away batts.

If you also want to reduce the weight by hipmounting the battery thats a worthwhile project. If you go the hipmount route consider using 10 rechargeable NiMH cells. That will give you 12 volts since they are only 1.2vdc each. I run a hipmount 10 cell pack and they last a long time, several hours into the hunt and the battery meter hasn't even budged off the full mark.

Here's my hipmount battery pack, its a semi-hard shell case with a port for cables in the top. I picked this up at Target.

[attachment 11895 exl2.jpg]

 

[Varmint]

Like other said just get some NiMH 2500mAH cells and a charger, I use the Energizers and the 15 minute charger, 30 minutes fom 8 dead cells to fully primed and ready to go. (4 at a time). I also got a Radio Shack univeral cigarette lighter adaptor and the correct plug to mate with the Energizer charger, so I can do this in the vehicle if need be.

Now, on to the mixing batteries. DON'T. Alkalines are a higher voltage so they will do the brunt of the work, and once the rechageables are depleted, the alkalines will still have a bit left, so they will cause a reverse polarity situation in the NiMH or other cells. Cells in series form a "battery" and since they are in series, the CURRENT is the SAME through each cell. That is until the NiMHs are depleted (no longer able to supply current), when the alkalines end up reversing polarity on the NiMHs.

Same problem with mixing any sort of cells, you certainly wouldn't want to run 4 alkalines and 4 standard dry cells for the exact same reason.

OK, you will spend about $35 for the charger which comes with (4) NiMH cells, you will need to buy (4) more, but make sure to get the same capacity as the ones that come with the charger or you will STILL end up with the reversal problem described above. My charger came with (4) 2300mAH cells, I've heard that some come with 2500mAH. If you can't get the exact same cells that match the capacity of those provided with the charger, bite the bullet and buy a full set of ( 2500mAH Energizers, then use the 2300mAH (if that's what came with your charger) for another machine (worked out perfect for me, my Ace 250 uses (4) cells).

You will spend the better part of $75 to get the charger, ( 2500mAH cells, and the RadioShack universal lighter adaptor, but the cells will last you several seasons (supposedly 1000 charge cycles), and you'll have the (4) cells that came with the charger for use in another device.

Hope this helps. Please don't mix cells either by chemistry (alkaline/NiMH) or capacity of rechargables!

DAS

 

[Duce]

Try this web site for batteries I have been using them for two years and they have kept my detectors running all day. And their prices are hard to beat. I have the 10 unit charger it now comes with 20 AA 2300 cells.

http://www.batteryspace.com/
[attachment 11931 charger.jpg]

 

[tfo pana il]

can you list some pictures of the face

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Funny you should ask about the face plate. I'm in the middle of version 2.0 of this waterproof shell. I just remolded the black housing pictured here in .125 inch thick ABS versus the .060 I used for the original housing in the picture. I finished the CAD/CAM for the aluminum faceplate clamping rings tonight. Stay tuned.

 

[Buzzz (Southern Tier NY)]

n/t

 

[bing! (L.A.)]

Are you going to do conversions? Line me up. /bing

 

[Ace]

Cachenut just do what I did, buy the 15-Minute charger from Sony, it comes with four 2500MaH batteries for $29.95, then buy 4 more for about $10. that will save you a lot of money, it's what I did, I think I posted about this a while ago on the forums, anyways the 15-Minute chargers are great. By the way, I have a 8 unit charger (no batteries) I don't use and have never used, it's about 4 months old, since I have two 15-Minute chargers I never found a use for it, PM me if interested.

 

[Ace]

Forgott to mention, buy NimH not NiCad since NiMh's hold a better charge, they don't need to be discharged and don't have memory characteristics like NiCads do.