Rebuilding SS400/300 battery packs

Hi,

I'm considering rebuilding or getting rebuilt my old SS400 and SS300 battery packs. This should be a fairly straightforward operation, but I have a couple of questions some of you might know the answer to:

1) I intend to use my Ike smart charger and the plug adapter to charge the batteries from now on. Can I just bypass the charging electronics on the pack? I'm pretty sure I can do this...

2) What type of cells would work best? I'm considering 5000mAh D-cell nicads, but there's a warning about modern nicads on the Ikelite web site, have any of you had problems? The smart charger can also handle NiMH, would they work with the strobe electronics?

BR,

//LN

Hi Lauri,

I have one of the "open" battery packs for my SS400 - where you can put in your own cells. I have used it with D-cell NiMH batteries and it works. Recharge is not as fast. With that pack, I took them out and charged them in a standard charger.

For your new charger, are you talking about putting a new separate female plug on the pack, so you can connect the smart charger directly, without the 2prong adapter? That would be cool.

Cheers

James

Hi Lauri,

 

I have one of the "open" battery packs for my SS400 - where you can put in your own cells. I have used it with D-cell NiMH batteries and it works. Recharge is not as fast. With that pack, I took them out and charged them in a standard charger.

Yes, I've understood that NiCads give more current than most NiMHs, so the NiMHs might be better for the strobe, considering the warning on Ikelite web site.

For your new charger, are you talking about putting a new separate female plug on the pack, so you can connect the smart charger directly, without the 2prong adapter? That would be cool.

A separate plug would be neat, but I think it will be too much work trying to fit one to to the pack. I think the Smart charger uses a standard DC plug, and it would probably fit in the place of the old plug, but the adapter isn't that expensive or bulky to travel with, so I'm thinking about buying adapter. Until now I've been using the older Quick charger for the SS batteries, but it seems a bit dodgy...

I think the adapter bypasses the thermistor.

//LN