Article 7350 of sci.electronics: | |
Path: | icdoc!zmact61 |
>From: | zmact61@doc.ic.ac.uk (D Spinellis) |
Newsgroups: | rec.bicycles,sci.electronics |
Subject: | Re: Why can't this bicycle light use NiCds? |
Keywords: | cateye taillight |
Message-ID: | <1737@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> |
Date: | 20 Mar 90 19:18:45 GMT |
References: | <10245@cbmvax.commodore.com> |
Sender: | news@doc.ic.ac.uk |
Reply-To: | dds@cc.ic.ac.uk (Diomidis Spinellis) |
Organization: | Imperial College Department of Computing |
Lines: | 25 |
Content-Length: | 1305 |
In article <10245@cbmvax.commodore.com> adam@cbmcats.UUCP (Adam Keith Levin) writes: >I just bought a CatEye taillight for my bicycle. It states on the box >that it requires two 'C' size batteries. Inside the battery compartment >is a label which warns against using NiCd batteries, but doesn't tell why. > >It certainly _works_ with NiCds, there is no reason it shouldn't. >[Stuff describing the circuit deleted] One reason I can think of might be safety. The voltage discharge curve of NiCd batteries is extremely steep compared to the curve of conventional batteries. For the taillight application this means that the light will go from bright to dark in a few seconds. This can be dangerous since you might fail to notice it. Using conventional batteries you get an extended `grace' period where the light is gradually dimming giving you time to notice it change batteries. I find it conceivable that the company is trying to avoid product liability problems. Diomidis -- Diomidis Spinellis Internet: dds@cc.ic.ac.uk Department of Computing UUCP: ...!ukc!iccc!dds Imperial College JANET: dds@uk.ac.ic.cc London SW7 2BZ #include "/dev/tty"