Busch+Müller IXON IQ Premium Headlamp batteries

paulbnix

I saw one of the IXON IQ Premium Headlamps for sale at a good price so I bought it.
When it arrived I realised I had bought the one without batteries and charger.
I have AA rechargeable batteries so I have been using those.

The light lasts a few hours on my 2900mAh batteries but the IXON light never seems to acknowledge they are at full power by the green light remaining steady in the full power mode.
If anyone happens to have one of these lights and has found good replacement batteries for it please let me know.
I have had no success contacting Busch+Müller as I could not seem to explain what the problem was.

xcMuttley

Probably best to ring Spa cycles in Harrogate, they will likely be able to tell you your problem and the best way to solve it.

sungod

what type of batteries are you using? different battery technologies have different characteristics

paulbnix

I use 2900mAh nmih AA batteries from 7Dayshop
As I said they do seem to have the run time specified for the light but they don't make the light indicate they are fully charged.
I posted this because I want a second set as spares.

Ouija

Most battery indicators go by voltage to determine amount of charge. Non rechargeable AA style batteries are usually 1.5v nominal voltage (actually about 1.9v when new and fully charged). Rechargeable, NiMh AA style batteries are only 1.2v nominal charge (about 1.4/1.6v fully charged). Consequently, they only look partially charged to some devices which have been designed with traditional, one shot, AA batteries in mind.

sungod

^^^this

afaik you are using the correct type of battery for the light, i've got an older ixon, it uses 2200mAh NiMh ones

it's possible that the ones you have suffer from higher internal resistance than the light is designed for, this means at high drain the voltage will drop more (it could even be that one of the cells is bad - you'd need to check them under load to determine this)

i've read that high capacity NiMh cells also have higher internal resistance, but not seen any hard figures, probably will vary with manufacturer as well

as long as you're getting expected/sufficient runtime it's not really a problem that justifies replacing the batteries

keef66

So what happens to the indicator light when you switch between high power and eco modes?

I was using 2900 mAh rechargeables from 7Dayshop in my old Fenix L2D torch. Found that when I put 4 of them in my new Ixon IQ Premium it was not giving me the runtime I expected, and it was quickly switching to the flashing red / green light and dimming the output. So I left them in the smart charger doing a charge / discharge / test cycle for a couple of days. Turned out one cell was duff, and they aren't that old.

When I bought the Ixon IQ Premium I deliberately avoided the one with batteries and charger, having read that the B&M cells weren't very good, and already having an excellent charger. So I splashed out on 2 sets of 4 Eneloops to use in my charger. These are proving good so far. I like the fact I can leave the light with fully charged batteries in it for days / weeks at a time, and it will still give me 4-5 hours on full power when I need it.