Lightforce 170 - Suitable Battery

sikastag

Lads,

Just wondering do many of ye use the lightforce 170 and if so what battery pack do ye find most suitable for mobile use?

Have an old Deben Battery Pack for years (Diamec 12v-18a/20hr) but between blown fuses and connections overheating to near melting point its beginning to become a pain. Would ye reckon the battery isnt powerful enough? Battery is knackered? Or im sh!te with a soldering iron?

Searched the lightforce website for power ratings but couldnt find anything and of course I dont have box or paperwork for lamp.

Tackleberrywho

sikastag wrote: »

Lads,

Just wondering do many of ye use the lightforce 170 and if so what battery pack do ye find most suitable for mobile use?

Have an old Deben Battery Pack for years (Diamec 12v-18a/20hr) but between blown fuses and connections overheating to near melting point its beginning to become a pain. Would ye reckon the battery isnt powerful enough? Battery is knackered? Or im sh!te with a soldering iron?

Searched the lightforce website for power ratings but couldnt find anything and of course I dont have box or paperwork for lamp.

Lithium Ion seems to be the way forward, much lighter.

But Waaaaaaaaaaaay more shillins!

Soldering Iron might be cheaper

palo

Hello Sikastag.

Yes I do use the 170 and have a 22amp battery pack very heavy for carrying around on your own but have not had that kind of trouble with it. I would think 18amp is good enough for the 170 the dimmer switch is a good job saves a lot of power. But if your battery is not holding the charge then it is time to get a new one I know Deben have this new line of batterys a lot smaller than what you have but just as good and very expensive.

sikastag

Battery holding its charge fine. dont have dimmer model. Might just give the lot an overhaul and change all connections etc.

clivej

The LF 170 takes 8.8amps.
If your melting wires, blowing fuses then your battery is OK and your soldering is sh!te.
Or it's the connections that can't take the 8.8amps. I used Hella 15amp connections for all the LF lamps I had and never had any trouble with fuses or melting wires.

I also put a Hella socket in the car, run from the car battery, for running the lamps from the car, the car cig lighter socket will not give you 8.8amps for long before it starts to get hot.

search the bay for hella plugs.


If you use the dimmer you will get far longer out of your battery. About £30 + post from opticswarehouse.co.uk. It says 5amps but I found it to be OK for the LF170. Get the curly cable from there as well.

Tackleberrywho

clivej wrote: »

The LF 170 takes 8.8amps.
If your melting wires, blowing fuses then your battery is OK and your soldering is sh!te.
Or it's the connections that can't take the 8.8amps. I used Hella 15amp connections for all the LF lamps I had and never had any trouble with fuses or melting wires.

I also put a Hella socket in the car, run from the car battery, for running the lamps from the car, the car cig lighter socket will not give you 8.8amps for long before it starts to get hot.

search the bay for hella plugs.


If you use the dimmer you will get far longer out of your battery. About £30 + post from opticswarehouse.co.uk. It says 5amps but I found it to be OK for the LF170. Get the curly cable from there as well.

Did you rob that battery out of a BMW GS1200?

****ty solder is a pain, the cable wire thickness can be an issue too. Flow of electrons and all that craic.

Lithium ion batteries are a fraction of the weight. Same type battery used in your mobile phone

sikastag

clivej wrote: »

The LF 170 takes 8.8amps.
If your melting wires, blowing fuses then your battery is OK and your soldering is sh!te.
Or it's the connections that can't take the 8.8amps. I used Hella 15amp connections for all the LF lamps I had and never had any trouble with fuses or melting wires.

I also put a Hella socket in the car, run from the car battery, for running the lamps from the car, the car cig lighter socket will not give you 8.8amps for long before it starts to get hot.

search the bay for hella plugs.


If you use the dimmer you will get far longer out of your battery. About £30 + post from opticswarehouse.co.uk. It says 5amps but I found it to be OK for the LF170. Get the curly cable from there as well.

Thanks Clive,

Yeah, ive no doubt my soldering is sh!te but certainly those hella plugs look a lot more 'up to the task' than the connections im using. Nothing has melted but certainly heated to the point of being 'soft'. Also as you said, does not take long for car cig lighter plug to heat up.

I'll check those hellas out on the bay. Thanks for posting the pics. Good to know what im after.

johngalway

I put up a post at some stage about rewiring a LF 170. It's easy, there are few innards to the lamp and just a few simple tools needed.

I use 18+ amp batteries with mine, no melting problems.

sikastag

johngalway wrote: »

I put up a post at some stage about rewiring a LF 170. It's easy, there are few innards to the lamp and just a few simple tools needed.

I use 18+ amp batteries with mine, no melting problems.

Cheers John,

Thanks for tellin us about that thread. Found it. Good stuff. Just sticking up link to it in case anyone else may be interested.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055806433


Looks like i'll be rewiring with hella plugs.

clivej

Lads the power of the battery has nothing what so ever to do with the blowing of fuses or the melting of wires, as long as it charged up that is.

A fuse is there to protect anything/everything after the fuse from overloading and/or drawing an excessive current from the battery NO more NO less

A battery will give up ALL of it's power if short circuited i.e. the wires touching. Just work it out for yourself.
A 12amp/hour battery will give 12amps for 1 hour or 24 amps for 1/2 hour or 720amps for 1 minute.

Thats how fires start with short circuit wiring. The cable get red hot the insulation melts and anything touching the wires starts to burn.
And that's why we have fuses in the circuits to prevent fires as the fuse will blow and stop the current flow in a circuit.

So we use a 10amp fuse in the circuit for a LF 170 that draws 8.8 amps on full load.

Be careful out there it's a bad world

sikastag

clivej wrote: »

Be careful out there it's a bad world

:D:D

johngalway

clivej wrote: »

Be careful out there it's a bad world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2QApwtE8zQ

bitemybanger

Have a 12v 20AH/20HR sealed motorbike batt for my 170. Dont have it that long but no problems so far.