CF4.0 with 11.1v battery pack?

[Malaki Skywalker]

So do I understand correctly you couldnt use that 11v battery with a CF to run THIS?

http://www.ledsupply.com/07007-pb01-18-3.php

You can try it, but to me its to risky.

[Donnovan Sunrider]

What are opinions of this battery pack? It's one of the few I've seen that will fit in an MHS double-female tube that isn't super long.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=4308

There's also this one as a possibility.
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=2714

[Ari-Jaq Xulden]

the second will not go in a mhs at all, the first one will but if your trying to get the whole pack in one mh section piece it would have to be 6 inches long. 134mm is about 5.5 inches.you would still have some room, but not much, for panel mount pieces like accent leds where battery is. they would probably help in keeping the pack from rolling around too a bit, but mesure twice cut once cut, it will be tight with space.

[Donnovan Sunrider]

Okay, I'm confuzzed now. I don't see why the either wouldn't fit.
The internal dia of an MHS piece is 1.24" wide.
Battery A is 1.2" wide (nice firm fit) and battery B is .866" wide (can roll around in there).

I know that if I were going with a 7" hilt it would be tight to fit it all lengthwise, but mine will be a 10" hilt piece for the base, so either should fit physically.

Are there other better suited locations to look for Li-Ion batteries? That site is one of the few that I've seen linked to, so that's where I've been looking.
Feel free to share links where experienced CF users have gotten good battery packs so us new folks can know better what our choices are. I want the best bang for my buck and space in the hilt.

[MoonDragn]

Both of them would fit in MHS as long as its not a choke piece or some of the narrow ribbed ones.

The first one is only 2.8 inches long and will fit in a MHS just fine at 1.2"

The second is 5 inches long and that would be half of your saber right there if you are using a 10" hilt.

Both of those are 7.4 volts though. I thought we were talking about 11.1v?

The one originally posted won't fit in anything unless your hilt is slightly wider than 1.5" Remember your 1.5" diameter is the Outside diameter of a sinktube, not inside. The inside is like 1.48" or something close.

Or, you could do what you were saying Moon and split the current for each pair, giving 750mA each LED and I believe that would only be 1/2 the battery runtime (two pairs @ 750mA each).

Either way... the more high current LEDs CF has to run... the quicker it'll be sucking the batteries down!

Well I was thinking of driving 1 pair with the CF and other pair with two 750 ma buckpucks or the power extender. (turned on by one fo the CF circuits)

That would be 3000 ma for all 4. Each one of those 18650s have 2400 mAh. So theoretically it would run 4800 mAH or about 1.5 hours.

[Donnovan Sunrider]

Both of those are 7.4 volts though. I thought we were talking about 11.1v?

I thought someone said that Li-Ion ran high, and that it came too close to risking the CF. The general consensus I've seen is that 7.4 is pretty good for most setups. Even Mad Hatter's Monster runs all of that on a 7.4 power supply (although a custom one).

[Jedi-Diah]

I asked Erv the same question regarding 3xLiIon cells and he said:

"I've tested the board at 12v and it worked, but the motion detection becomes noisy. Not recommended.
When full charged, 3 cells goes ABOVE 12 volts !
Erv'"

I'd like to try the red 10W LedEngin too but you probably need to go without sound for now.

[Novastar]

I want people to be clear on this, so... for everyone wondering about:

CF + "11.1v" battery pack = OK???? ? ?? ??? ?

Here ya go. Make sure you read it all so that you understand!!!!

It's true that "11.1v" packs are almost NEVER an actual, true to life 11.1v when they are fully charged--they are MORE. This is actually true of most any battery (non-rechargeable included!)... for examples:

X. Cell type -- ["LISTED/RATED", ACTUAL / REAL WORLD]

1. Alkaline -- "1.5v", 1.55v or even more in extreme cases
2. Ni-Mh -- "1.2v", 1.34v or even >
3. Li-Ion -- "3.6v", 4.2v or even 4.24v!!!

Now these are NOT perfect numbers, but the bloody POINT is: fully charged cells begin with OVER their rated (or AVERAGE) voltage.

The rated voltage is the AVERAGE voltage over the charge cycle.

Let me say this again:

A battery cell's rated voltage (by the manufacturer) is the AVERAGE voltage over the charge cycle... since the voltage drops as the battery is depleted of charge.

Ok... that being said...... 3 x 3.6v = 10.8 ... in the "rated" world...
But... if we look above... 3 x 4.2v = 12.6!!! ... in the real world.

Now that is an extreme case, but... STILL.

So... what is the answer you ask?!??! Can I use CF with 11.1v??!?!? Yes and no.

YES --- if you somehow REGULATE the voltage from the pack and essentially "cap it off" at a REAL 11v. With a voltage regulator, sure. Or some kind of diode (xener?? EDIT: probably RECTIFIER DIODES here, but I don't know). Whatever. If you don't allow more than 11v (eleven REAL volts, hehehhehe) through... you should be good!

NO --- if you decide to supercharge a bunch of cells, each brimming with amperage (and thus, voltage), topped off to the max, and then throw what you think is merely "11.1v". Then hook it up to CF.

Finally, as you've heard from Erv himself... the board *CAN* work at even 12v... but then it's just the noise factor. And I doubt any of us know what the long-term effects would be. It might be somewhat akin to "pushing" an MR board to 6v or more. Do so at your own risk.

If this is all about using 11v because of the Rebel... there are better ways to use a "3-up" LED. It's called looking at serial vs. parallel... parallel vs. serial.

[Eandori]

I had an 11v pack "rated" hooked up to my CF for a short period of time. It would not work with the board so I quickly disconnected it and never tried again.

My pack was 9x 1.2v AA NiMH cells. Rating of 10.8v but on a full charge it got close to 13v

The only reason I even tried it is I assumed when Erv said 11.1v max he meant 11.1v rating on the cells. But no... Erv' meant an actual max of 11.1v. In this case, Erv' is a bit different then the industry standard, because when you buy cells for other consumer devices they tell you the max voltage for cell rating. Only electronic components usually go on ACTUAL cell voltage.

For example... if you buy an RC Car, it might say "7.2v accepted" but those packs will measure nearly 9v on a full charge.

If you buy a capacitor, it will tell you 10v max, they mean 10v is the max.

So... products = cell rating, components = actual voltage rating. Erv's spec for CF follows closer to component style. It's a good question that probably should be made very clear in Erv's manual.

Cheers,

[erv]

very well said & explained !
To be fully accurate : the problem is in the core voltage regulator. It accepts an absolute MAX RATINGS of 12V and regulates down to 3.3V. It's a big step down for a rail to rail regulator and when reaching 12V, it becomes noisy enough (on the electrical point of view) to get the motion sensor not "silent" enough. And it gets warmer too. While you might do various kinds of hack to solve that, it's just not a good idea to be so close to the specs and until now, I haven't found a good and cost effective rail to rail regulator that works on such a large voltage range
(to anyone : don't ask me why I'm not using a 7805 or something similar or I put your ass in my toaster hoven to see if it bakes CF boards better)

Erv'