The New Hotness

With the rear running lights up and mmmm running on our Tour Easy recumbents, I could finally retire the Planet Bike Superflash blinkie after a decade of constant use:

For the last six years, a set of eight Panasonic Eneloop AAA cells have been marching in pairs through the Superflashes in lockstep alphabetic order. We ride several times a week, less in the winter, and I changed the batteries once a week whether they need it or not, so they’ve gone through maybe 200 charge cycles. With four pairs and two bikes, that’s 100 cycles each.

They’re not dead yet, but they’re showing signs of age:

In round numbers, the capacity is down 20% from their original 850 mW·hr. The 50 to 75 mV depression is probably more significant for an LED power supply intended for alkaline cells, as the light was running from 2.3 V instead of 3 V.

They worked surprisingly well, all things considered.

Nowadays, one might use bucked lithium cells with a constant 1.5 V output for their entire discharge curve, although I absolutely do not believe a claimed 1000+ mW·hr capacity.