[bhc]

It is my first winter with the Dinotte 200L AA. I have two of them. Now with early morning temps in the upper 30's/ low 40's ( I know not that cold, but I live in AZ) I am consistently getting the low battery warning in less than an hour. How is this comparing with the rest of you running the same light?

 

[gmcttr]

I get longer runtimes than that at those temps (using 2500 mah batteries). When the temps get down into the lower 20's or less I notice reduced times.

Also see - http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=478790

 

[bhc]

I am bit surprised by the quick drops. As our temps are not that cold in the winter, no riding under freezing. I have one set at 2500 and three at 2700. All are dropping off about the same. Hopefully I can get an evening ride in and see how they do in the warmer temps to make sure it isn't something else.

 

[itsdoable]

We've been running the 200L-AA's down to -20C regularly the last 2 years. If you know the batteries are good, it's sometimes best to ignore the low battery warning.

The low battery warning is a simple voltage sensor. Battery voltage depresses as you draw more current and as the temperature decreases, and this effect increases as the battery ages (also, battery capacity decreases with age). At full power, you are driving the AA batteries pretty hard - so they age quicker. All this combined means that it's pretty easy to prematurely trip the low voltage sensor on the DiNottes-AA's in cold weather. Brand and quality of battery also play a big role in how quickly they age.

I've managed to stretch a set of batteries for 3 season, but the last season was pretty poor - the low voltage sensor would go on within 5min at full power in the cold (still fine at 20C), and the unit would often reduce power and go into limp mode. However, if I ran it at medium power, it would still go for a few hours without tripping the low voltage sensor, so the battery still had decent capacity - it just could not tolerate the high current load any more.

I really should have replaced the batteries earlier, but I'm cheap. Or maybe I'm just trying to be green? DiNotte recommends replacing the batteries every year, and decent off the shelf NiMH AA's are really pretty cheap.

 

[bhc]

Thanks for the good information. I will run these batteries through next fall, and start fresh going into the winter next time. I too am cheap, and our cold weather doesn't last long in the desert.

 

[gmcttr]

As Itsdoable stated, when I have had the low battery warning light due to cold temps, I have still been able to run them for a decent period of time (1 hr+) on medium.

 

[Cat-man-do]

Hi all, I posted up a run test of the 200L with 4XAA's using a thermometer and heavy insulation of the battery pack on another thread > http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=478790 Anyway, I thought you might be interested in the results.