Cat eye RC230 mods?

[ape]

I thought that this is going to the best place to ask seeing as I know a lot of you like to tinker away with things. I've brought a set of Cateye RC230's from my brother as I needed something a bit better than the cheap LED light that I was using for my commute home late at night. The only thing is I've read a couple of reviews and apparently he battery life isn't great and also the charger and battery are really fussy i.e. you have to run the battery down to a certain level and then charge between 8-10 hours as the charger isn't a smart charger. Anyway if I've not sent everyone to sleep already, I've heard of people changing the battery to something else, any idea on how I go about doing that?

 

[ape]

No one know?

 

[IDB1]

You should be able to change the battery for the same voltage and higher aH to get a longer burn.

What sort of battery is it?

** edited**

It's a 6V 4.2AH... if it's sealed lead acid, you'll be able to up the ah but it'll be a bigger battery..
Or you could get more batteries of the same size and connect them in parallel.. this'd also give you the option of using a different charger

 

[ape]

Hmmm I wouldn't want more batteries of the same size as its huge and takes a bottle cage, I've heard something about using RC car batteries instead, but not sure if it would work.

 

[IDB1]

RC car batteries will kill the burn time I think..

Standard for your lamp is 4.2ah . . rc car batteries aren't anywhere near I don't think.

 

[ape]

RC car batteries will kill the burn time I think..

Standard for your lamp is 4.2ah . . rc car batteries aren't anywhere near I don't think.

I think you can get them up to around 3.0 and are 7.2v but thought running 2 batteries, 1 for each light?, but not sure if it would kill the bulbs. Might just grin and bare them as I'm going on a driving course soon so hopefully only a few more horrible 2am from work commutes left.

 

[IDB1]

The voltage hike isn't that great.. the life of the bulb will be shortened but I would doubt it'd be by much..

You could connect them in parallel and multiply the ah that way....

Or carry some spare and change them as necessary...

A home charger for rc batteries can be made relatively easily from a pc power supply too.

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

If you understend electrickery, have a wee look in here dude, I did find a section on custom bike lights ages ago

Fill yer boots ..................

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/for ... y.php?f=86

G

 

[ape]

If you understend electrickery, have a wee look in here dude, I did find a section on custom bike lights ages ago

Fill yer boots ..................

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/for ... y.php?f=86

G

Lol I dont understan electrickery very well at all But I shall take a look anyway, battery lasted bugger all time lastnight ended up resulting to using my backup 3led torch which as you can imagine at about 3am with no street lighting is a bit less than ideal lol

 

[cchris2lou]

do a search on singletrackworld.com in bike forum , there is a guy who sells custom batteries ( smudge is his username I think ) .