A
Anonymous
Guest
Hi Kev,
No, I have not modified my low voltage indicator. The reason is, I have modified my detector so I can charge the batteries in place and do so each night after a long day's use of nugget hunting. As such, I really don't worry about having them die on me in the field.
I do this because I may be a mile or more from my vehicle at any point during my hunting periods and really do not want to carry my spare set of batteries with me while I am out in the field. Even a set of extra batteries can get tiring lugging them up and down hills all day.
I just use a simple modified wall charger that charges the batteries with a current less than the .1C rating. I started out with 1300 mah batteries and picked a charger that would charge the batteries at less than 130 ma (.1C) when the batteries were near full charge. This has worked quite well and is about as simple as one can get. After a long day's hunt, I just don't feel like pulling the batteries and placing them in special chargers. Instead, I just plug in the charger and let them charge.
This has worked quite well for me on my GQ clone. It is the detector I use when nugget hunting and that only happens a few times a year. I will use it from early in the morning to late in the evening during those periods.
I do play with the detector during other times and I am constantly trying different things to improve it. As such, it is on a lot but much of the time I am at or near home. To be honest, when at home, I deliberately do not charge the detector as regular to get a feel of the overall time I can safely use it before having to worry about changing them. I don't actually time it, but just make a general mental note. I have gone more than a week without charging them, but that has occured when the testing is reduced to just short periods each day.
This also allows me get a better feel of just what might happen when the batteries begin to fail. Normally, the detector gets erratic.
However, my first premature battery failure was quite strange. The detector seemed to work fine but would just beep every couple of seconds or so for no apparent reason, which might be what the low battery indicator is supposed to do. It really didn't make much sense at the time, and I was about a half mile from my vehicle. Since batteries are the logical thing to fail, I hunted my way back to the vehicle and replaced the set, and went about my hunting again. Later I checked each battery and found one was bad. BTW, it was just a short time after changing the battery pack that I found my 3/8 oz nugget.
I never had any battery problems or failures at all prio to the ones that failed from one particular batch and that bunch had several fail prematurely. Up until then, they seemed to be indestructible no matter what I did to them or what brand I used.
Since batteries are constantly improving, I also have a tendency to just replace my detector batteries with higher current rated ones when the price is right. This usually happens about once a year. The old batteries are then used in my flashlights, etc.
It is hard for me to justify trying to maximize the life cycle of a NiMh when they only cost me about $1.25 USD apiece to upgrade. Recently I was lucky enough to get 2250 mah for the price of 2000 mah batteries. Unfortunately, I just ordered another set of them and did get 2000 mah this last order instead of the 2250 mah I received on the previous order. Now, I need to find time to see just how much of a difference there really is between the 2000 mah and the 2250 mah batteries.
Since my GQ clone is really not hard on batteries, current wise, I haven't really worried too much about batteries. In fact, the actual current draw is much less than the .1C of most AA NiMh's sold today.
Reg
No, I have not modified my low voltage indicator. The reason is, I have modified my detector so I can charge the batteries in place and do so each night after a long day's use of nugget hunting. As such, I really don't worry about having them die on me in the field.
I do this because I may be a mile or more from my vehicle at any point during my hunting periods and really do not want to carry my spare set of batteries with me while I am out in the field. Even a set of extra batteries can get tiring lugging them up and down hills all day.
I just use a simple modified wall charger that charges the batteries with a current less than the .1C rating. I started out with 1300 mah batteries and picked a charger that would charge the batteries at less than 130 ma (.1C) when the batteries were near full charge. This has worked quite well and is about as simple as one can get. After a long day's hunt, I just don't feel like pulling the batteries and placing them in special chargers. Instead, I just plug in the charger and let them charge.
This has worked quite well for me on my GQ clone. It is the detector I use when nugget hunting and that only happens a few times a year. I will use it from early in the morning to late in the evening during those periods.
I do play with the detector during other times and I am constantly trying different things to improve it. As such, it is on a lot but much of the time I am at or near home. To be honest, when at home, I deliberately do not charge the detector as regular to get a feel of the overall time I can safely use it before having to worry about changing them. I don't actually time it, but just make a general mental note. I have gone more than a week without charging them, but that has occured when the testing is reduced to just short periods each day.
This also allows me get a better feel of just what might happen when the batteries begin to fail. Normally, the detector gets erratic.
However, my first premature battery failure was quite strange. The detector seemed to work fine but would just beep every couple of seconds or so for no apparent reason, which might be what the low battery indicator is supposed to do. It really didn't make much sense at the time, and I was about a half mile from my vehicle. Since batteries are the logical thing to fail, I hunted my way back to the vehicle and replaced the set, and went about my hunting again. Later I checked each battery and found one was bad. BTW, it was just a short time after changing the battery pack that I found my 3/8 oz nugget.
I never had any battery problems or failures at all prio to the ones that failed from one particular batch and that bunch had several fail prematurely. Up until then, they seemed to be indestructible no matter what I did to them or what brand I used.
Since batteries are constantly improving, I also have a tendency to just replace my detector batteries with higher current rated ones when the price is right. This usually happens about once a year. The old batteries are then used in my flashlights, etc.
It is hard for me to justify trying to maximize the life cycle of a NiMh when they only cost me about $1.25 USD apiece to upgrade. Recently I was lucky enough to get 2250 mah for the price of 2000 mah batteries. Unfortunately, I just ordered another set of them and did get 2000 mah this last order instead of the 2250 mah I received on the previous order. Now, I need to find time to see just how much of a difference there really is between the 2000 mah and the 2250 mah batteries.
Since my GQ clone is really not hard on batteries, current wise, I haven't really worried too much about batteries. In fact, the actual current draw is much less than the .1C of most AA NiMh's sold today.
Reg