Dinotte 5w ultra light reliability issues

trevtherev

This is my second year of winter cycling and using the dinotte 5w ultralight....but it is causing me great problems. Last year no probs light worked great but this year is a different story! It has often cut out on me and will not work well (if at all in the strobe mode) and when I switch to the very high setting (for those dark bits of my commute) the light immediately geos "red" to indicate that the power is low ( even though I am on a new and full charge ) It strikes me that I may need to replace the batteries? It is still under guarantee, has anyone had similar problems?

alfablue

Not had the same problems, but NiMH batteries have a limited life. They are usually quoted as having 500 to 1000 recharge cycles, but in practice this can be much less depending on the quality and the charging method (faster chargers are likely to reduce life). Or are you using the Li-ion model?

The switching to red thing has happened to me when I use "tired" batteries.

But, the light is designed so that when battery levels get too low it locks on, not cut out, so this suggests something more sinister with your light. If it is under warranty they should fix it, and at the same time you could possibly wangle a 200L upgrade - a brighter LED with longer run-time. I think this upgrade is £36, but maybe they would negotiate this as it is a warranty repair. Only drawback is the shipping to US, but they seem like a very reputable company and should deal with you promptly.

edit: another thought - maybe one of your batteries is in a poor condition, I understand this can cause problems with the other batteries reversing polarity and charging the weak one (sorry - might be wrong, bit sketchy on this bit).

palinurus

I've got three sets of batteries I use for mine, all the same type, and I keep 'em all together in sets. One of those sets has got a dodgy battery in amongst 'em (just a guess, but it's probably the one that got run over by a truck) and I get much shorter run times out of that set.

I've only had my Dinotte front cut out once- when I bought it I thought I'd use an existing set of batteries but they just weren't man enough. Got halfway home and it just went out. Had some Duracells because I thought this might happen tho'.

Could well be the batteries- try a new set.

trevtherev

I think I will buy some batteries because my initial thoughts were the slower run times were due to battery wear. The light is distributed by on one in Doncaster so if I have to return for a replacement it is not as bad as the USA. My 2 year warranty is up next October so I have lots of time to check on the reliability of the light. The cheapest place to buy new Vapex 2700 mah batteries is from On one as well.

alfablue

Vapextech now do 2900mah batteries (in reality they wont achieve the stated capacity, but then neither will almost all NiMH batteries), I got them from Vapextech - £5.50 for 4, £10.45 for 8 including postage, they arrived within 3 days of purchase.

I think On-One are charging £5.95 plus postage for 4 x 2700mah.

trevtherev

thanks for the tip alfablue they are cheaper than on one and I will order from here

Steve I

You can pick up a multimeter cheaply these days. They're great for checking the charge state of batteries. You'll easily find the duffer in a set, it'll have a lower voltage than the others. I've generally found that nimh rechargeables are full at about 1.4 volts and empty at about 1.2 volts.

The Dinotte 200L that I've got strobes and turns red a fair bit before the batteries are run down, I reckon there's still at least 20% left in them. I only give them a 3/4 charge If I've removed them from the light right after it strobes and goes red.