Bicycle Lighting and 9.6v Cordless Drill Batteries

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Oysterville

New Member
Apr 20, 2010
42
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Ocean Park, WA
One topic that gives me the proverbial "deer in the headlights" look is electrical. Watts, volts, and amps just don't sink in with me, so I apologize in advance if my questions seem pretty rudimentary.

While I know that I can go to such purveyors of high-end Chinese crap like DealExtreme and eBay for cheap lighting for my bike, I'd rather create something more effective and long-lasting if I can. My packrattiness finally cashed in when I was able to locate my now-deceased Makita 9.6v cordless drill with two battery packs and charger. The batteries seem to work fine, and I'd love to use them if possible in this project.

As per Washington State law I need a headlight, turn signals, tail light, and brake light. I'm not likely to be much of a night rider (with the tune Sister Christian firmly implanted in my head, I continue), so really I don't need a kit that will light up the world.

Do any of you long-timers have any leads on what these 9.6v batteries will be able to power? Also, any ideas on how to connect the batteries to the system would be grand, outside of a few wraps of electrical tape. I'm not above doing that. I'd just rather not.

Thanks everyone.
 
turkman

turkman

Member
Nov 12, 2009
221
7
18
burbank,ca
an so I will, I was looking for a power supply that would work on my bike I ride at night allot,I tried the gen. on the wheel (smoked the bulbs then went to bigger bulbs smoked the gen.)so I started looking around my shop an I have a bunch of those 9.6v batts.and a belt holder for them(came form a spacesuit on an old show I think it was V the final battle)and then I started thinking about LED's an how efficient they are so I went to Pep Boys an saw these LED off road driving lights, they had a try me button on the package so I opened it up and it was being powered by 2 1.5v batteries and was pretty bright so I took it home an made a bracket(the one that came with it was cheesy) mounted it on my bike and I haven't had any problems it is very bright and lasts for a long time here's a pIc of it
 

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Cabinfever1977

Cabinfever1977

New Member
Mar 23, 2009
2,288
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Upstate,NY
Im using a 18v cordless hedge trimmer battery and 1hr quick charger.
I have a 12v 3-led car emergency light with high and low beam for the headlight and a 12v dual bulb(hooked in series to = 24v) red dome trailer tail light.
I cut the handle off the trimmer and mounted on bike so i would have a place to hold battery,it comes off by pushing in 2 clips on handle. I use a fuse from radio shack and a on/off switch from a house fan.

Lights are very very bright and last for many hours.

I know you have 9.6v batterys,try one with a set of small car lights and if not bright enough hook 2 batterys together and hook lights in series,leds are great.
 
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