Lithium Beta

“I was reading a review of headlamps in a French language magazine and I learned that Petzl does not recommend the use of lithium batteries.

The same day I heard on CBC Radio (and so it must be true) that there have been eploding laptops due to over charged lithium batteries.

Just a heads-up.”

“Makes me wonder about auto makers changing over to lithium ion batteries for their hybrid/ electric cars.”

“the issue with Petzl is that unregulated headlamps are designed around a certain internal resistance of the battery itself - lithium batteries have a lower resistance that results in higher than design current through the LED(s) resulting in higher temperature and shorter (much shorter in some cases) LED life

If one wants to use lithium batteries in a headlamp Princeton Tec has a couple current regulated LEDs that will handle them - I use the Quad from PT which can handle the lithium batteries.

I did damage my Aurora using lithium batteries because it was a unregulated headlamp - one LED now blinks at a rate that will drive me crazy (short trip I know but ...).

I have no idea what the issue is with the exploding laptop batteries however.
last edited: 3/21/07 11:25:51 AM”

“HOI, from what I've read it had to do with metal particles from the manufacturing process getting inside the batteries and causing problems.”

“what about the effect of cold on the lithiums, HOI? Does the cold shorten the life of the battery more than your regular one?”

“lithiums are better in the cold than the regular batteries”

“Yeah, I was looking into lithiums for their cold resistance (I'm a Canuck, remember), but I'll stick with Ni-Cad now.

Also, there was a report on CBC TV about the low energy flourescent bulbs that replace halogen in table lamps, et c. melting down.”

“has anyone come up with an external battery pack for a camera for use in the cold - the battery pack would be kept warm near one's body and a power cord would go out to the camera? Same question applies to cell phones.”

“Now that would be a good idea. I have a remote battery pack on my headlamp (Petzl Myobelt 5).”