Rebuilding battery pack for old Niterider?

one piece crank

one piece crank

1pc Cranky
I have an older Nitrider Pro Digital-6 light with a dead NiMH water-bottle battery. I'd like to rebuild the water-bottle pack (or make a new pack) using Li-cells. I disassembled the battery pack and there are no electonics inside, so everything must be inside the light head. Is this project as simple as replacing the battery cells, and possibloy over-driving to 7V?

Anyone have expertise in this area?

Tom P.
 
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Yes, you are on the right track. Li-Ion cells are classified as 3.7v per cell, but are actually ~4.2 volts per cell when fully charged. You could probably get away with using two Li-Ion cells in series yielding 8.4v across the NiteRider. You would be overvolting it and thereby reducing the life of the bulb somewhat, but it should still last for a few years of use.

A couple of things to consider. I don't know if NiteRider uses any overvoltage protection in the headlamp. If they do, you might have to bypass it. Second and most important, you will need a dedicated Li-Ion smart charger for the new battery pack. DO NOT use your old NiMH charger. You can easily start a fire with those cells if you don't charge them properly.

My advice... Ditch the old halogen light and pick up a new LED based light. You will be amazed how much bike light technology has progressed in the past few years.
 
mtbdawgJeff said:
DO NOT use your old NiMH charger. You can easily start a fire with those cells if you don't charge them properly.
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Jeff - Thanks for the warning!

I'm thinking I can get a functional light for <$25, incl. charger, when I would spend maybe $100 max on a new light. No night trail use planned, just an excuse-buster to get me out in the early AM!

I'll play with the light a bit and see if I can drive it at 7-8V...

Thanks,

Tom P.
 
http://forums.batteryspace.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=20854

I was looking to update mine awhile back and found this company. They are easy to work with and pretty cheap.

Honestly I ended up just buying a new Dinotte due to issues with circuitry in light-head. I have a mechanical background, not electrical.

From my understanding in this past work, if you do replace your nimh with li-ion, you will also have to replace the charger!
 
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qsilvr99,

That's a good site. It looks like I can get a NiMH battery set for $20-$30, or a Li-ion pack w/charger for $60. Since this is a band-aid fix, I think I'll look to the cheaper option.

I just need to figure out of my light originally came with NiCad or NiMH batteries....

Tom P.
 
I'm curious to hear about what you do... I have a Digital 12 wit ha dead battery... I have a pending RA# with Niterider, but have yet to send it back. The thing that concerns me about DIY battery swapping with the Digital lights is the way they are charged through the controller.

Replacing it is a thought... but at the same time, I spent over $300 on this thing... (10+ years ago...) and I have the add-on LED tail light that is obscenely bright... I'd like to keep that.
 
Ian F said:
The thing that concerns me about DIY battery swapping with the Digital lights is the way they are charged through the controller.

Replacing it is a thought... but at the same time, I spent over $300 on this thing... (10+ years ago...) and I have the add-on LED tail light that is obscenely bright... I'd like to keep that.
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I'm not sure what your concern about DIY battery charging? Can you elaborate?

I know it's hard to relegate a $300 light to the junkyard, but if you like to ride off-road at night at speeds that approach daytime speeds, then it's time to move on. Get yourself a decent LED setup and you will wonder how you ever lived with that pale, yellowish halogen lamp.

OTOH, if you just use the light a couple times a year at slower speeds, then a battery replacement is an inexpensive option. I have done plenty of NiteRider battery retrofits for friends using batteryspace.com. If your not afraid to use a soldering iron and shrink tubing, it's pretty easy.
 
Yeah... I'm basically done with night riding... BTDT... At most I'll do a large group city ride some friends do every year around Christmas. For that, I want that rear LED light... much brighter than any clip-on style light I've seen... ten years ago or yesterday. It was so freakin' bright nobody would ride behind me...

How come they can make a good LED bike light but every LED flashlight I've tried doesn't work worth shit? 😕

The Digital Pro is charged (at least mine is) by connecting the charger to the handlebar controller. The charger doesn't plug into the battery. The multi-LED on the controller sequentially lights until the battery is fully charged and also prevents it from over-charging. I never saw many others uing the Digital Pro systems... probably due to the expense... it cost about 2x the system Classic system (which I also have... and still works... OE battery).
 
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Ian,

My charger plugs into the battery pack lead. There are no electronics in the battery pack itself, so the charger monitors charging and the light head on-board electronics handle power management. I'm still going to test it at 7-8V before investing any $$$.

My night riding consists of flat, out-n-back, Delaware River canal paths, with a few road miles to & from. Something to let me see and be seen is all I need.

I have seen really nice LED flashlights in operation- anywhere from $40 - $2000! Personally, I use an old 3D Maglite with LED conversion bulb and it is much brighter with much longer battery life. I haven't converted any AA Mini-mags yet. However, I do have a couple old-school, CNC'd mini-mag h-bar mounts somewhere. (I can't believe that passed for a lighting system back in 1988!) Maybe I should dig them out as back-up to my home-brew battery!!!

Tom P.
 
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Ian F said:
The Digital Pro is charged (at least mine is) by connecting the charger to the handlebar controller. The charger doesn't plug into the battery. The multi-LED on the controller sequentially lights until the battery is fully charged and also prevents it from over-charging. I never saw many others uing the Digital Pro systems... probably due to the expense... it cost about 2x the system Classic system (which I also have... and still works... OE battery).
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Ahh OK, I haven't seen this setup before. Basically, to replace the battery pack you have to move the connector from the old pack and splice it to the new pack. Most likely, there is a thermister inside your old pack that the NiteRider controller monitors for temperature. To be 100% compatible, you would have to move the thermister over to the new pack too. That may mean opening the shrink wrap on the new pack, taping the thermister that you pulled from the old pack right onto one of the new battery cells, and then resealing the pack. Kind of a pain in the azz. Is this absolutely necessary? Probably not. But I don't know for sure since I'm not familiar with your setup. Most likely, the battery would charge normally without the thermister and the charger will monitor the battery voltage to determine when the battery is fully charged. The temperature info is secondary anyway. Kind of like belts and suspenders.
 
Ian F said:
How come they can make a good LED bike light but every LED flashlight I've tried doesn't work worth shit? 😕
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There are lots of good inexpensive LED flashlights out there. You just don't find them at the average WalMart. Here's an example. Plenty of people use these for ghetto bike lights... think tie wrapped to your helmet or strapped to the bar somehow. I guarantee you this would be way brighter then your old halogen setup.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15335
 
I had my Nite Rider Battery rebuilt at one of those Battery Plus stores. There is one in Whippany ,across from the Antique railroad on Route 10. I saw one up by Ledgewood Circle too.
 
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