Maxa Beam Battery Question

[cyrix9445]

Hey Guys,

I'm new to this forum and I just picked up a Maxa Beam search light and I had a couple of questions about the batteries, I hear that they li-ion batteries are expensive and don't last long? I remember seeing an auction on ebay a while back where the seller had cut open the battery housing and replaced the battery with a sealed lead acid battery that are much cheaper. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Patriot]

:welcome:

It would be less expensive but the li-ion battery will outperform the SLA in run-time by a large margin while being half the weight. You'd be better off building your own li-ion or li-po pack if you're going to start that sort of project. Even then, you'll have to decide if the parts and labor involved with a do-it-yourself project would be worth it vs. just purchasing the stock li-ion pack.

 

[cyrix9445]

Thanks for the reply,


Another quick question, if I do build a new battery pack (SLA or otherwise) would I need to use a different charger? Our would the supplied maxa beam charger work?

 

[dwminer]

If you build your own battery pack you probably have to use your own battery charger. For the most part Maxa Beam chargers are proprietary and only for their own products. If you purchase one of their li-ion batteries and have one of their battery chargers it my or my not work. Some can be upgraded by the factory. Go to their website and look around for more information. If I need to purchase any of their products (always expensive) I use a dealer in Oregon and he will usually work with you (15 to 20%) off and the product ships directly from the factory. The last time I purchased a Collimating Lens and saved about 18%.

http://www.peakbeam.com/
Dave

Also you can call peakbeam directly and speak to their support team. They have always been very professional and helpful.

 

[LuxLuthor]

My strong advice is if you build your own Lithium battery supply, use a separate charger that will regulate, balance, and use protection circuits. PeakBeam does sell a Lithium battery & charger solution...but is muchos dineros...and I don't mean Taco Bell type "dinner-o."

 

[cyrix9445]

Haha,

Thanks guys

 

[Leon02635]

Hey Guys,

I'm new to this forum and I just picked up a Maxa Beam search light and I had a couple of questions about the batteries, I hear that they li-ion batteries are expensive and don't last long? I remember seeing an auction on ebay a while back where the seller had cut open the battery housing and replaced the battery with a sealed lead acid battery that are much cheaper. Anyone have any experience with this?

Hello. I have a new original nickel-cadmium battery for the Maxa Beam flashlight. How can it be carefully disassembled?

 

[Leon02635]

Hello, friends. Help me with advice: I want to carefully disassemble the nickel-cadmium battery from the Maxa Beam flashlight. Can you help me with this?

 

[JurassicFrench]

Hi Leon, perhaps this thread can help you:

MaxaBeam - NiCd cells replacement

Hi everyone, I bought a MaxaBeam MBS 450 few months ago with a NiCd battery. Unfortunately, the cells were dead. So I wanted to remplace them and not buy a LiFePO4 battery with new supply charger, etc ... ($$$) I found in France a cells pack ( 10 cells, size F, 12V for 7000mAh) for 120€...

www.candlepowerforums.com

Louis

 

[sven_m]

(digging up old threads is fun)

Cyrix9445, my advice: just replace the NiCd cells with a 4S-LiFePo pack. They are even available in sealed motorcylce-like battery format for $50-100 and fit into the battery housing. Voltage matches perfectly, 10 Ah means a nice runtime. I ran several MB light with quite some cycles. Charge with somethig like "Imax B6AC", that is, some versatile, good price RC charger.

Ok, LeonFrench replaced his NiCd here. But I really would only bother to buy new NiCd if keeping historic configuration were important to me. Cadmium is bad stuff (and properly disposing them is a good idea).

Leon02635, you have to break up the battery housing just below the top, like LeonFrench mentioned. The housing is glued and it might split a bit at the edges, but it worked always well for me (opened four MB batteries). Next step: refrain from NiCd :- )