Archive for December 20th, 2013

External DVD Battery Pack Status

Posted by Ed in Amateur Radio, Electronics Workbench, Recumbent Bicycling, Science on 2013-12-20

One of the battery packs powering the GPS+audio interface on our bikes has completely failed, with zero volts at the output and no charge indication. The other five chug along as well as can be expected:

Initial-brand DVD External Packs - 2013-11

Initial-brand DVD External Packs – 2013-11

The push-to-test button on Pack 4 has become increasingly erratic over the last few months, rendering the charge status LEDs mostly useless, so it has two curves: the lower capacity came directly from the bike, the higher hot off the charger.

For reference, here’s what they looked like in May 2012:

External Li-Ion packs - 2012-05

External Li-Ion packs – 2012-05

And right after they arrived:

Initial External Li-Ion packs

Initial External Li-Ion packs

Given their nearly constant use and charge cycling, I’m impressed.

Those Lenmar DVDU923 packs look similar, at twice the no-name 2010 price. So it goes…

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