Kswhitetails Wrote:Klem, good call yourself on the mount for the bench. I am glad to read about your external battery source and the voltage regulator, curious reasoning only, as most every battery I can find out now has a "smart" charge system, which includes what you bought there from ebay. Doubling those in series may cause problems? If one goes out, I guess... one is none... I have four batteries sitting around, two 12k, one 15k, and one 20k. I think one of the 12k's will be my new dedicated radar battery, sorry son.
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KS,
Don't want to get too far off the spirit of your thread but to clarify. Lab Radar (LR) draws more power than all other chronograph types because it is active, not passive. I use the same 9V battery for the old fold-out Chrony for months but with the LR you cannot take for granted your power supply. It needs to be fresh every time, or at least have a back-up. Arguably rechargeables are the go because they are the cheapest.
With my battery pack in the last post I think the smart charge system you are referring to is the PCB, not the power regulator. It is the Protection Circuit Board (PCB) found in all Li-ion battery packs. The PCB protects and manages what otherwise would be a fragile battery from over-charging, over-discharging, or drawing too much current. Without a PCB the battery will likely be permanently damaged or even catch fire. For example, if you let a Li-ion cell drain below 3V it's difficult to get it to hold a charge again.
The PCB is the bulge in my pack shown in the photo. With the PCB the Li-ion battery still provides 8.1V when fully charged down to 6V when 'empty'. As I said, the sales rep for LR won't tell me the acceptable voltage range of the radar so I have to limit the external power supply to a constant 5V with a voltage regulator (on left). I could do away with the voltage regulator and attach the battery straight to the radar and it will probably be fine. But it's an expensive risk so I'd rather spend $2 and a few minutes of soldering time.
I did initially use a commercial (Chinese) USB power pack but after a while it stopped taking a charge. I threw it away and built my own power pack. Here's the original setup. My fault for choosing the cheapest power pack on Fleabay.
I use a Pelican case to protect the LR.