Cycling UK Forum

I have a pretty old, but unused lighting system I won in a competition:
http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/sigma-mirag ... EGAHALA016

Unused because when I lived in London my dynamo system was more than adequate lighting. Now living in the country requires me to have far better lighting, however although unused this battery is very dead due to long term loss of charge I think. Does anybody have ideas about replacement batteries, I cannot find them anywhere for this model. Can I buy another battery and jury rig it to this system. Ideas welcome please.

Thank you

You could try these people :- http://www.rebatt.co.uk/ though the cost may be prohibitive.

It would be more effective to get a decent modern dynamo light than a new battery for the Smart.
A B+M IQ Fly or Cyo

I may have been a bit confused by your reference to Smart lights, which are a specific make using 'gel cells' small lead acid batteries where the electrolyte is in gel form to stop it running out. Gel cells are available in all sorts of sizes and formats in both 6V and 12V. Maplin electronics sell them and they are quite cheaap, but heavy. You could use them to power all sorts.

andrew_s wrote:It would be more effective to get a decent modern dynamo light than a new battery for the Smart.
A B+M IQ Fly or Cyo

I have plenty of dynamo kit, on most of my bikes, it is not an option in this case. The off road nature of some of my routes, and the speed possible on these routes mean that dynamo systems are simply not enough.

.

You are best finding out if the original battery pack is NiMh (Nickel metal hydride) or Lithium Ion (Li-Ion).
It might even be Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) - it would be very heavy but I have a Smart system based on this
and inside the power pack is a small lead acid battery you can get from Maplin.

You also need to know the voltage - it will be marked on the bulb if nowhere else.

If it's NiMH and it's 6v you can by a battery carrier from Maplin for 5 cells (not shown here but they did do them!)
or run at 7.2v (6 batteries) and over volt the bulb which will be brighter but not last as long

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31427

and mount inside an old drink bottle.

You can get a charger that does the whole pack to save splitting the pack apart to charge it
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intelligent-1-2-3 ... 1c0b5a5722

If it's Lithium then best place for them is http://www.Dealextreme.com - you should be able to use the existing charger if the original pack was lithium but personally for $10 I would get a new charger too. They come in multiples of 3.7 volts so two cells gives you 7.4v and a 6v Halogen bulb would be OK - personally I would get 'protected' cells and run an inline fuse (car stereo type) as Lithium cells can catch fire! (You'd need a holder for these cells too remember)

If it's LEDs and not halogen bulbs then I wouldn't over-volt them - although if they have a decent driver circuit they could handle it, cheaper lights run straight from the battery and you would blow the LEDs pretty quickly.

I went the whole hog from DealExtreme and got a SSC-P7 torch, 2 batteries a mount and a charger for under £50 and it's stunning.

There are loads of DIY light projects if you Google a bit

cheers
Cookie

Sorry - I'd interpreted the original post as being a change from urban commuting to country lane commuting.

rgc_911 wrote:I went the whole hog from DealExtreme and got a SSC-P7 torch, 2 batteries a mount and a charger for under £50 and it's stunning.

You can also get a proper bike light for about £52 (Magicshine). This is basically a rip off of the Lupine Tesla (£250 - £300).

The downside of Dealextreme is that delivery can be pretty slow - up to a month. A 5-mode version of the same light is available from the US at a similar price (geoman gear, probably more likely to get caught for £15-£20 import duty/VAT), and it is available from the UK at a considerably higher price.

You could do what I have done (provided the battery is 6v and same physical size) purchase one of these,
http://tinyurl.com/yk7z5kj
Then strip it down keeping the battery and the charger ,you only need to ensure that polarity of charger to battery is observed.

Folks, thank you for your answers, I actually have two sets like this, and am a bit reluctant just to ditch the lamps (the bulb part) all because the battery is buggered.


I will try to find out the type of battery here, oddly thereare no marks on it saying what it might be.

Cheerio

Gary