69V Burgess Battery

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Well, no meaning to that light featured.

... The real sad thing,
is remembering all those sites now closed down.
Like flashlightmuseum, from the link in 1st post
:(
 
I am currently in the process of gutting this light and using a LED replacement tube. At the time I started this project, the brightest tube was from Marinebeams.com....There are also many battery considerations...I have settled on the attachment, because it can use 12 Size C Alkaline's, 12 Size C NiMH's, or 8 Lithium Ion's (either 26650's with length adapters or 21700 with fitting adapters)...times 2 for additional runtimes.
 

Attachments

Do you guys happen to know....
1. When these are switched to the battery side are they running directly off the battery? Meaning DC current to the lamp? Or is there an inverter in there?

2. When the lamp is switched to the AC plug in mode, is that switching it to an entirely separate set of electronics? Or is it utilizing some of the same internal components

3. Has anyone found a 110v voltage booster that could be utilized so that a lower voltage pack can be installed?

I was thinking about putting like a 14.8v RC pack in there with a voltage booster.
 
Matt (Lumencraft) the 69 volt batteries that used to be installed in the Safari Lite were wired in series to present the lamp with around 138 volts DC...there was a ballast with give the fluorescent tube that kick it needed to star. There was not any inverter installed. You can do what you said but that inverter is gonna present yet another drain on your battery. To get the dim function there was a dropping resistor switched into the power path to the tube. I actually started out with your idea, but decided to gut the thing and go with LED's or what I selected, an LED tube. It works great...but not close to the color of the original tube.
 
Macgravy said:
Matt (Lumencraft) the 69 volt batteries that used to be installed in the Safari Lite were wired in series to present the lamp with around 138 volts DC...there was a ballast with give the fluorescent tube that kick it needed to star. There was not any inverter installed. You can do what you said but that inverter is gonna present yet another drain on your battery. To get the dim function there was a dropping resistor switched into the power path to the tube. I actually started out with your idea, but decided to gut the thing and go with LED's or what I selected, an LED tube. It works great...but not close to the color of the original tube.
Click to expand...
I used to have one of those lights. If I still had one I'd probably gut all of the electronics and replace it with an LED tape light strip, a C or D cell carrier and an appropriate driver. No mains voltage, no mercury, no worries.
 
I still have MY Burgess Safari Light ! ! !
:D
Got it (at my request) from Santa Claus 🎅
waaaaayyyy back in 1967 !
(when I was 14 years old)
o_O
Been DECADES since I've used it,
as the batteries (VERY expensive)
haven't been available for ages.

BTW --
This light is why I chose my CPF moniker !
:lovecpf:
_
 
Burgess said:
I still have MY Burgess Safari Light ! ! !
:D
Got it (at my request) from Santa Claus 🎅
waaaaayyyy back in 1967 !
(when I was 14 years old)
o_O
Been DECADES since I've used it,
as the batteries (VERY expensive)
haven't been available for ages.

BTW --
This light is why I chose my CPF moniker !
:lovecpf:
_
Click to expand...

Would you mind posting some photos of it ?

If possible, with a ruler for some size estimates of things.

Just for fun.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Lumencraft (Matt) said:
Do you guys happen to know....
1. When these are switched to the battery side are they running directly off the battery? Meaning DC current to the lamp? Or is there an inverter in there?

2. When the lamp is switched to the AC plug in mode, is that switching it to an entirely separate set of electronics? Or is it utilizing some of the same internal components

3. Has anyone found a 110v voltage booster that could be utilized so that a lower voltage pack can be installed?

I was thinking about putting like a 14.8v RC pack in there with a voltage booster.
Click to expand...

Hi Matt - I hope that you are doing well. I remember you from a long time ago - you are a great guy.

____________

Back to the light.

In theory you can build or buy DC voltage boosters / boost converters.

The best efficiency comes from staying within a 10:1 voltage change or less, but more is possible. ( 10 ) x ( 14 ) ~ 140 volts so very viable.

The part that isn't obvious to me is how it will behave with the electronic circuit inside, if there is one. International rectifier used to sell a FL bulb controller chip that did the necessary parts of starting up those bulbs and keeping it all under control. Most DC - DC circuits use a pulsing technology to drive them, and the output is smoothed out with capacitors and chokes until the application is happy.

You could look at digikey or mouser and see if they have anything.

Given how little power it draws, I would be tempted to find a small inverter that fits into the space of one of the packs, and put your DC battery pack into the other side.

Then just feed that 120 vac into the existing path that is used for the external 120 vac feed. Only run one of those at a time, as the sine waves will be out of phase with each other, and you "don't want to cross the beams".

The DC - DC approach will be more efficient, but it will still have some standby power draw as well.

The inverter will use 10 ish watts even in standby unless you cut the input power, but since it is just a hobby, it does not matter.
 
If I wanted to use a light like that running on DC, I would be tempted to build a pack using AA NiMHs.

Interestingly not enloops, because they don't leak any power between them, which is necessary for a project like this for maintaining internal balance.

I am using Ansmann AAs for their high capacity but they have modest discharge capability - similar this need. They also have some self discharge.

There used to be people who soldered / welded up NiMH AAs and similar for RC packs. Not sure what is available these days.
 
BTW the original batteries were 2 inches by 2.5 inches by 8 inches. There are many different ways to fix this light by using the original tube. Those that say using an inverter with 10 watts power dissipation for an 8 watt lamp....that's 18 watts out of the battery....think efficiency here, but if this is just a hobby I guess it won't matter....and then there is the use of AA batteries....get ready for using around 100 of them for them for 120vdc...I don't know if 100 will fit in the battery compartment...and yes you could use led strips...in fact at least 3 of them...but then you are using up your battery(s)...as I stated I used a direct replacement led tube with a Size C type battery holders..in fact like 4 of those...with 2 wired in series....the led tube is good for 10 volts to 30 volt DC and consumes around 300 ma...as I recall....that type of current draw out of C cells will decrease their capacity to around 4-5 amp hours. The battery holder that I picked holds 6 cells and 2 wired in series. Yes, still a lot of batteries, but cheaper than the original batteries when they finally quit manufacturing them...as I recall my last purchase of the original batteries was like 35$ each and you needed 2 of them...of course if you wanted to use NiMH cells they are much more expensive than alkaline. But you can get the NiMH cells on sale at certain times of the year. Still quit an investment. I have not done a run time test on my redesigned light with C cells...(currently alkaline)...it just works...I haven't had any problems with the switch contacts yet as the current is quit a bit higher than the orginal fluorescent lamp.
 
Burgess said:
I still have MY Burgess Safari Light ! ! !
:D
Got it (at my request) from Santa Claus 🎅
waaaaayyyy back in 1967 !
(when I was 14 years old)
o_O
Been DECADES since I've used it,
as the batteries (VERY expensive)
haven't been available for ages.

BTW --
This light is why I chose my CPF moniker !
:lovecpf:
_
Click to expand...
So THAT'S where your moniker comes from! Very cool! :cool:
 
raggie33 said:
Id use a 80 volt battery but I do dumb stuff lol. And I already have a 80 volt battery
Click to expand...
Its probably close enough to work.
Will any 80v tool packs fit inside?
I would think by now all tool packs would have the bms in the pack not the tool like some older ones did.
Otherwise if you forget and leave it run you can destroy your pack.
 
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