cateye stadium

[RedBike]

I've just brought a cateye stadium off ebay. I'm slightly disapointed with it.

The low battery indicator comes on about 2 minutes after switching the light on; and the light noticably dims after about 2 hours use. (at which point I turned it off). Cateye claim a run time of 3 hours. Is my battery on the way out?

While on the light kept changing colour and flickering. At one point (when I hit a pot hole) it even turned it's self off. Is this normal?

I'm not sure I've got the confidence to use this light for commuting.

 

[yenrod]

These may suffer from memory effect - in other words: you have to charge them then use them till the battery is totally used then charged and no topping up in between charging / use

 

[leoc]

Hmmm, the stadium appears to use a HID lamp rather than incandescent so it will have some different characteristics to a conventional light (I've not used them on a bike, but have some experience of them as dive lights). The reason it turned off after you hit the bump is that the bulb has to be 'struck' and driven at a high voltage by ballast electonics in the box that contains the switch. If the circuit is temporarily interrupted by a loose connection the lamp will stay off until it is re -truck, unlike for example a halogen.

Unfortunately, the colour degradation and flickering might be symptoms of a bulb on it's way out, and HID lamps are v. expensive.

NiMH is supposed to suffer less from 'memory' than NiCad, so shouldn't require complete discharge every time you use it. But it is important to use a good quality charger, and not 'overcharge' http://www.dansdata.com/gz011.htm

HTH, Leo