"Ian Smith" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Drinky <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Does anyone have views on how these things stack up against each other
in
> > terms of performance and reliability in actual use. I'm particularly interested to know if the
> > claimed burn times and battery life (in terms
of
> > charging cycles) are for real.
>
> I don't know about these units, but I do know a little about metal halide discharge lamps (which
> is what I believe is lurking in there), and one thing to bear in mind is that they don't much like
> switching on. In particular, you get incredible life if you switch one on and leave it forever,
> but if you switch it on and off and on again and so on, the lifetime is much reduced.
>
> Also, while they're striking teh arc, teh power consumption is higher than when running -
> potentially, a start-up current around twice teh running current for teh first few minutes (and a
> strike current of 25 x that for a few milliseconds). So, switching off and on, unless they're
> going to be off for quite a while, might drain more battery than leaving them running.
>
> And finally, you can't actually switch them off and on again immediately - they won't start if
> they're too hot. If you switch them off, you need to let them cool down somewhat before it's even
> possible to switch them back on.
>
> I don't actually know to what extent these problems affect teh bike units - my interest is in
> higher power units. I can imagine that the smaller, lower power units are less troublesome, at
> least in teh last two issues, because running twice teh current for a minute or two may not be a
> big deal, and being so small, they might cool down so quick that you never notice they won't
> re-light immediately. I'd be interested to hear from someone who's actually used them whether
> these issues show up...
>
> regards, Ian SMith
> --
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Everyone I know who rides with Stadiums just leaves them on all the time during a ride as they're
aware of the issues you mention.