Battery Question

[supersith]

Been toying around with the idea about building a new hilt with a recharge port. But Ive noticed nobody seems to use regular Duracell Rechargeable batteries. Is there any reason behind that or is it just preference.

[Silver Serpent]

Most of the Duracell rechargeables I've seen in stores are NiMH, so they'd work fine in a saber set up for NiMH. You're generally paying a premium price for the name brand though.

Li-ion seems to be the way to go for a lot of builds, due to higher energy density. You get more juice in a smaller space.

[acerocket]

Partially preference, partially for space saving.

Duracell AA sized batteries are NiMH chemistry. I googled and found a pack of two AA sized Duracell rechargeable NiMH rated at 1.2V and 2450 mAh. You will need 3 of these to get a 3.6V 2450 mAh pack. You will need 4 to get a 4.8V 2450 mAh pack. With a 3 cell pack, you have 8.82 Wh (3.6x2.450). With a 4 cell pack, you have 11.76 Wh (4.8x2.45).

I can buy two 14500 li-ion cells (AA sized cells) with a 3.6V 900mAh rating. I can make a 2 cell pack with 3.6V and 1800 mAh or a two cell pack with 7.2V and 900mAh ratings. Both packs have a 6.48 Wh capacity.

With the NiMH pack, you will need a different charger than the Li-ion use. Just something to remember when buying the batteries and charger.

If you used the NiMH Duracell packs, both would have a greater run time than the li-ion packs but the tradeoff is the amount of room gained inside the hilt. A 2 cell li-ion pack takes up half the real estate a 4 cell AA pack would use. You would be down about 50 percent run time though. With today's feature laden sabers, it becomes extremely hard to stuff a battery pack, LED driver/sound board, speaker, crystal chamber, recharge port, switch (or switches), blinky LEDs, and whatever else you deem necessary to your design (like a choke which decreases useble space in the hilt) without having to make some sacrafices. If you are building a simple stunt saber with light up blade only, then I would go for a 4 cell NiMH pack because the batteries easier to work with and you can use an off the shelf battery holder. You will have a long run time and easy wiring job. If you want to deck out your saber with everything possible, you may want to look into li-ion for the space savings they afford.

As a comparison, say I use a 3 cell pack of Duracell. I have 3.6V and 2450 mAh (8.82 Wh). I could also use a 2 cell pack of Li-ion 14500 and make a 3.6V and 1800 mAh pack (6.48 Wh). So do I go with the 3 cell Duracell pack or go with the 2 cell li-ion pack and give up about 25 percent of the runtime, but gain 33% of the space back inside the hilt? Now suppose I want to add a driver/sound card to the saber. With the 3 cell Duracell pack, I will have to set the driver in front or behind the battery pack. But, if I choose the 2 cell li-ion pack, I might be able to piggyback the driver board on the top of the battery pack. I gave up 25% runtime, but saved way more space in my hilt.

[PhoenixReborn]

If you're going without sound, I would go with two to four 14500 li-ion cells. The lithiums tend to function longer (as in last through more charges) as well as what acerocket said above. (I have two 14.8V Packs because the charger can handle it) and it allows me more runtime than 4AA Nimh. (You should use a buckpuck with these though)

[Sunrider]

My general recommendation is if you can't fit 2 18650s then use 2 14650s li-ions for 7.4v.

[Jedi-Loreen]

You know, you could have just asked this in the other thread with this same title, instead of starting a new thread.

I may just merge this one with the other thread.

[Farmer42]

Ehh. It's a different question, TBH. Your call, but it might get confusing.

[kage_no_mozaiku]

You know, you could have just asked this in the other thread with this same title, instead of starting a new thread.

he was very right in doing this. if you piggyback something on a related thread it wont get as much exposure as it will standing alone. it jsut gets buried among the other comments. now, like i did, when you look through the thread tittles and see "battery question" it makes you stop and see what the question really is and are more likely to give advice on it or again, as i did, learn something new. i never would have gotten these viewpoints if it had been merged as you said it should. sorry....its just basic logic.