Re: [NTLK] Newton battery questions

From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Apr 30 2002 - 16:21:22 EDT


Well, as was mentioned earlier, this is not something
that should be attempted lightly.
You need to be diligent about making sure that the
battery is disconnected immediatly after the bulb goes
dim. Like I said in another email, you can reverse the
polarity of a cell in the pack by draining the pack
too far!
That said, I do my draining at work. I have the
battery in a small box. The lightbulb is socketed and
is a 6 volt bulb (most of my rechargeables are around
6v so it works OK) The Bulb is a Krypton bulb becuase
it has a higher current draw than a standard filament
bulb. Off one lead, I have a resistor that terminates
to a standard spade connector. The other lead off of
the bulb end in a standard male space connector as
well. Since the battery packs are different in the way
they connect up, I just put the spade connectors on
the battery terminals and wrap them tight with a strip
of velcro. I close the lid to the box (any hobby
plastic opaque box works) and set the box in front of
me on top of my monitor. I have drilled a hole in the
side and placed a red lens there to keep the light
from blinding me whenever I look at it! Since I work
8-10 hours, I can monitor it all day until it is
completly drained. Once it's dead (I'm usually pretty
good about catching the pack before it's too dead) I
remove the pack, allow it to cool (some smaller 2-3
cell packs may get a little warm) and then charge it
back up! I used to do something similar when I raced
RC cars (battery powered) except I would use an old
motor instead (or I would cycle an old battery on a
new motor to break in the brushes).
Bear in mind that this is a really crude method that
requires that attention is paid to when the pack is
dead...if you are not comfortable with this method,
well...don't do it!
Ed
web/gadget guru
http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
http://npds.tek-ed.com (my NPDS server and it's new
subdomain)
--- Seth Hurwitz <shurwit1_at_jhmi.edu> wrote:
>
> Ed, I'm totally clueless when it comes to
> electronics that don't say
> Heathkit on the box. How did you make this? IOW, how
> is the battery
> connected to the lightbulb and the resistor and what
> kind of lightbulb?
> Thanks! Do you take orders for these boxes? :)
>

=====
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C. Clarke -

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