# Xeray Runtime Test



## Lips (Jan 23, 2007)

*Xeray Runtime Test*


A fellow flashoholic told me the other day he was getting 30 and 40 minute runtimes on his Barnburner batteries so I decided to try mine. I did runtime test using a small fan for cooling. Units were fully charged and sat up one day.


Test *#1*

Xeray *BarnBurner* (original battery) *49* min

Xeray *BarnBurner* (second battery) *48* min

Xeray *50w* 138 min Correction *98 Min*


Test *#2*

Xeray *BarnBurner* (original battery) *48* min

Xeray *BarnBurner* (second battery) min

Xeray *50w* min 




What are you getting. 


.


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## Roy (Jan 23, 2007)

How are you measuring runtime?


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## 65535 (Jan 23, 2007)

Nice results I think the 50 watt is more practical anyways.


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## lasercrazy (Jan 23, 2007)

First runtime test:
Started at 11:15
Ended at 11:58
43 minutes of runtime.

Second test to come soon.


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## LuxLuthor (Jan 23, 2007)

I also fully charged and did test with both about 15-16 hours later

*Xeray BarnBurner* (original battery) *:51* min _(Have not used 2nd battery that I got from Chris Dallas) That seems hella-long enough for my uses._

* Xeray 50w **1Hr 43 min (103 mins)*_ (corrected...I meant 1:43)_ _(I was surprised it lasted this long.)_


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## Lumos (Jan 23, 2007)

143 minutes, that explains why mine never seems to need charging. That is such a useful output from the 50w for such a huge amount of light. I am sure that I am not alone in thinking that the 50w at 140 minutes is more practical for a working light than 50 minutes at 75w. But of course that is not why most of us are here. 


Ian


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## Lips (Jan 23, 2007)

Roy said:


> How are you measuring run-time?





*Fully Charge Units, set up a timer, use small fan to control over heating and press GO.*




*This test is can save you money *  

Great time to vacuum under and behind the refrigerator. I sucked out a ton of dust and debris clogging the condenser vents on the refrigerator! Should run cooler and save money throughout the next year... :rock: 

I had plenty of light to see what trash and dust was clogging that frig up  


.


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## Roy (Jan 23, 2007)

What is the end point of your runtime measurment? 50% ofmax brightness ? battery goes dead?


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## BVH (Jan 23, 2007)

Battery goes dead. The light flickers or maybe not, then goes completely out. This happens over less than a second. No guessing with HID.

IIRC, my two tests a month ago resulted in 85 and 89 minutes. These were essentially the 1st discharges of the battery in each light. Guess i should try again. IIRC, they take a few cycles to break in.


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## LuxLuthor (Jan 23, 2007)

Roy said:


> What is the end point of your runtime measurment? 50% ofmax brightness ? battery goes dead?



What BVH just said.


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## NAW (Jan 23, 2007)

Roy said:


> What is the end point of your runtime measurment? 50% ofmax brightness ? battery goes dead?


 
One of the great advantages about HID lights is that unlike LEd and Incandescent lights, HID doesn't dim because of the batteries getting low. WHen the light shuts off, the brightneess is the same as it was in the beggining.


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## lasercrazy (Jan 23, 2007)

I just did the second test and got a mere 3 minutes more runtime. This time I did 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off, both times I had a fan blowing on it. A 15 minutes loss might not seem like much, but for a light like this that's a huge difference. The battery shouldn't be loosing that much capacity so soon.

Edit: Just out of curiosity, how long are your lights taking to charge? My light takes 5 hours to fully charge from empty.


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## BVH (Jan 23, 2007)

I just finished a continuous run with fan cooling. 89 minutes right off the charger about 5 minutes after the led turned green. This is so far under what Lux got. Lips & Lux, how many cycles do you have on your 50 watter with 140+ run time?


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## LuxLuthor (Jan 24, 2007)

BVH said:


> I just finished a continuous run with fan cooling. 89 minutes right off the charger about 5 minutes after the led turned green. This is so far under what Lux got. Lips & Lux, how many cycles do you have on your 50 watter with 140+ run time?



I probably have 40-50 cycles on it. I waited about 12-15 hrs after charging...and it sat on green for a while, since I charged it while I was out running errands for 8 hours.


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## frogs3 (Jan 24, 2007)

I have cycled my battery about fifty times so far, rarely very deep, and runtime to darkness is close to 57 minutes very consistently. (I am also a stopwatch fanatic.) I do leave the unit on the charger after the green light for about ten minutes to an hour -- maybe this is voodoo, but it seems to get the best results. (BarnBurner 75)

I also don't put a fan on it. It was made to run "as is".

-HAK


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## larryk (Jan 24, 2007)

I know this goes against conventional wisdom that Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries need no cycling to get full capacity, but I got 10 minutes more time on my BB after only one full discharge. Mine went from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. I'll try a couple more cycles and see if there is anymore improvement. After cycling a very small Li-Polymer battery (50 mah) for a little R/C helicopter, my flight time went from 7 minutes to 10 minutes. Others that have the same helicopter reported the same increase in runtime. Go figure.


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## Lips (Jan 24, 2007)

BVH said:


> I just finished a continuous run with fan cooling. 89 minutes right off the charger about 5 minutes after the led turned green. This is so far under what Lux got. Lips & Lux, how many cycles do you have on your 50 watter with 140+ run time?





*BVH*

You made me realize I made a mistake reading the timer; Lux probably did the same. First post corrected. My 50w runtime was *98* minutes.



Both my units are pre-owned, 50w no idea about cycles but the barnburner had less than an hour runtime...


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## LuxLuthor (Jan 24, 2007)

Lips said:


> *BVH*
> 
> You made me realize I made a mistake reading the timer; Lux probably did the same. First post corrected. My 50w runtime was *98* minutes.
> 
> ...



Doh....I thought I had typed 1:43...yeah mine was 1 Hr 43 min (103 Mins). Also about once a month, my discharges were using it until light shut off.


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## BVH (Jan 25, 2007)

OK, this makes a lot of sense now. I think I remember Dan saying around 105 - 108 minutes of run time when he first introduced them. I don't feel left out in the cold any longer! Thanks, guys for the update. I've got only 3 cycles on mine and I'm guessing it'll go up as I get towards 15-25 cycles.


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## Lips (Jan 29, 2007)

Test #2 for BarnBurner came in at *48* min


Looks pretty consistent for my unit...



I remember Dan saying it takes 100% as much power to go from 50 to 75 watts so that seems to be correspond with about 1/2 as much run-time between the 50w and the Barnburner.


48 min is a long time for allot of casual spotlight needs but it sure is nice to have the run-time for critical situations...


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## LED61 (Jan 29, 2007)

Right on Lips, just did a runtime with one of my batteries I got from GhostReaction and got exactly 48 minutes. Looks like the light continues to get hotter (bottom metal plate) after tuning off but not near danger level. I have yet to test the other battery.

I´m going to drain this first battery down to 40% and store in the refrigerator. There is a huge difference in what it loses at room temperature 68F and at 32F at 40% charge.


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## LuxLuthor (Jan 31, 2007)

Hey I have a question about this extra BB battery pack. I'm not sure if there are two separate sets of 6 batteries, but if I wanted to charge this pack with two sets of red & black wires how should I hook it up?

If I take DMM readings of any combination of black & red, I get 15.0V....so I guess I'm trying to figure out if I should charge one set of black & red wires, and then charge the other set? If this is all one pack, then why two sets of black/red wires?


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## XeRay (Jan 31, 2007)

LuxLuthor said:


> Hey I have a question about this extra BB battery pack. I'm not sure if there are two separate sets of 6 batteries, but if I wanted to charge this pack with two sets of red & black wires how should I hook it up?
> 
> If I take DMM readings of any combination of black & red, I get 15.0V....so I guess I'm trying to figure out if I should charge one set of black & red wires, and then charge the other set? If this is all one pack, then why two sets of black/red wires?


 
The wires are tied together inside the pack. 2 wires Black and 2 wires red are for geater current carrying capacity also 2 pins for each - & + .


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## LuxLuthor (Jan 31, 2007)

XeRay said:


> The wires are tied together inside the pack. 2 wires Black and 2 wires red are for geater current carrying capacity also 2 pins for each - & + .



OK, thanks Dan....so it would work ok if I hooked up one of those Lithium Ion battery pack chargers to one set of red/black wires only?....oh crap....I just realized this one says only for 4 cells, which is the only Lithium pack charger I have....but then I also wonder now why FiveMega recommended using this for this latest light using 8 Lithiums (2 parallel sets of 4 in series) in this thread??? I guess my only other option is to open up the bottom of one of the XeRay lights and connect this pack.

Since the BB has that thermal paste which I don't want to break the contact seal, could I just plug this pack into my 50W model to charge it...or does it have a different "Charge Status" indicator setup that only works properly in the BB ?


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## XeRay (Jan 31, 2007)

LuxLuthor said:


> OK, thanks Dan....so it would work ok if I hooked up one of those Lithium Ion battery pack chargers to one set of red/black wires only?....oh crap....I just realized this one says only for 4 cells, which is the only Lithium pack charger I have....but then I also wonder now why FiveMega recommended using this for this latest light using 8 Lithiums (2 parallel sets of 4 in series) in this thread??? I guess my only other option is to open up the bottom of one of the XeRay lights and connect this pack.
> 
> Since the BB has that thermal paste which I don't want to break the contact seal, could I just plug this pack into my 50W model to charge it...or does it have a different "Charge Status" indicator setup that only works properly in the BB ?


 
New battery with extra connector will work in both older and newer style XeRay. Old style battery with no extra wires on small connector will not work properly in the newer lights with push button on/off.


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## Flashanator (Feb 1, 2007)

Does anyone now the long term life expectency with bulbs when comparing 50watt to a 75watt barnburner. I would imagine the 75watt wouldn't last as long, I tried finding some specs on the 50watt bulb life expectancy in for example hours, but couldn't find any info.


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## LED61 (Feb 1, 2007)

Any overdriven HID capsule will reduce its life expectancy, but, from 3,000 hours down to 1,000 ? or 1,500? that's a heck of a lot and insignificant. I have a spare DL-50 and seriously doubt it will see any use in decades, unless something haywire happens.

A few things that can be done to have lamps for longer life:

1) Don´t turn on more than 3 times an hour and allow adequate cooling.

2) Don´t rotate the light or incline more than 20 degrees of the horizontal plane.

3) Don´t use cheap ballasts other than those provided by XeVision.


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## LuxLuthor (Feb 1, 2007)

LuxLuthor said:


> OK, thanks Dan....so it would work ok if I hooked up one of those Lithium Ion battery pack chargers to one set of red/black wires only?....oh crap....I just realized this one says only for 4 cells, which is the only Lithium pack charger I have....but then I also wonder now why FiveMega recommended using this for this latest light using 8 Lithiums (2 parallel sets of 4 in series) in this thread??? I guess my only other option is to open up the bottom of one of the XeRay lights and connect this pack.
> 
> Since the BB has that thermal paste which I don't want to break the contact seal, could I just plug this pack into my 50W model to charge it...or does it have a different "Charge Status" indicator setup that only works properly in the BB ?



Got back a thumbs up on using Alin's charger for these 12 packs, or for FiveMega's 8 cell pack (2-parallel sets of 4-S Li-Ions) so gives another option.


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## Lips (Jul 9, 2007)

LED61 said:


> Right on Lips, just did a runtime with one of my batteries I got from GhostReaction and got exactly 48 minutes. Looks like the light continues to get hotter (bottom metal plate) after tuning off but not near danger level. I have yet to test the other battery.
> 
> I´m going to drain this first battery down to 40% and store in the refrigerator. There is a huge difference in what it loses at room temperature 68F and at 32F at 40% charge.





I decided to take the battery in my Barn B down to 40% and put it in the freezer. Put my spare that was sitting around for around 5-6 months at 100% and put it in the light for use. Turned the light on and it shut down in *3* seconds...




This happened to me once before on a 50w unit but I discounted it. I did a test after around 3 months on a pack and it held the charge fine... Maybe that protection circuit is draining the battery on that pack more... :thinking:



.


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## LuxLuthor (Jul 9, 2007)

Lips said:


> I decided to take the battery in my Barn B down to 40% and put it in the freezer. Put my spare that was sitting around for around 5-6 months at 100% and put it in the light for use. Turned the light on and it shut down in *3* seconds...
> 
> This happened to me once before on a 50w unit but I discounted it. I did a test after around 3 months on a pack and it held the charge fine... Maybe that protection circuit is draining the battery on that pack more... :thinking:


So you had a BB generation extra pack that you had never used, and put it in an original GB BB (or was it an upgraded 50W==>BB)? The backup pack lying dormant that had never been used very likely arrived from XeVision never charged.

I don't see any way that the plain battery pack just sitting outside a light would self discharge like the light charge monitoring circuit inside the light that drains Ver 1 (50W GB) battery packs in 5-7 weeks, or Ver 2 (BB-GB) in 4-7 mos (I forget exact amount of time).

Edit: I know you said this spare battery was at 100%, but it just doesn't make any sense. That would mean there was a partial internal short in the battery pack.


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## Lips (Jul 9, 2007)

The packs have been used in the test thread here. They came with this BB unit (one battery was shipped at a later date I believe)


Most likely I only thought I charged it to 100% as the last time it was used, the pack was doing these test and was ran down to 0. My bad...


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