Product Satisfaction Update for Cordura Battery Cases with Buckle Tether Strap

Your battery softcase has been designed for ease of use and security in severe conditions. It is readily adaptable to most any mounting situations you are likely to encounter. When installing the redundant tether strap, gently snug it to the mounting appendage AFTER tightly attaching it with the hook-and-loop band. When unfastening the clip, use two hands to separate the superlight fastener--- with one thumb depressing the inset grooved tab as the other thumb and forefinger gently pull apart the strap fastener ends.

In a Nutshell: How to take Care of your LiIon-Batteries

During the Season

The Dos and Don’ts: WHAT TO DO

Store your battery in a cool place: Such a cool place could be the cellar or any other cool room. If there is no cool room available, you may also use the fridge to store your rechargeable batteries. In this case you will need an airtight box to protect your battery from condensed water.

Tap your battery’s full potential: Charge your battery only when it is almost empty. Charging the battery after every short-time use will shorten its life span.

Charge your battery at room temperature: If your battery is "deep-frozen" after the tour, give it some time to adapt to room temperature.

The Dos and Don’ts: What NOT to do

Do not discharge your battery before charging:: In contrast to other types of batteries, the LiIon battery’s life span will not increase when being discharged before charging. Discharging the battery before charging is only useful in order to measure the remaining battery capacity.

Do not try to "push" your battery (i.e. to connect it to the charger for some minutes before the tour when it is already charged): A LiIon battery has a very low self-discharge rate. Therefore, "pushing" is not necessary and may even shorten the battery’s life span.

Do not deep discharge your battery: In case the PCS has switched off the light bulb, please do not try to switch your lamp on again using the discharged battery. Please charge it or change it!

Do not charge your battery below 0°C: Give your battery some time to adapt to room temperature before charging.

Do not charge your battery below 40°C: Give your battery some time to adapt to room temperature before charging.

Do not expose your battery to enormous heat: For example, do not leave your battery exposed to direct sunlight or in a car in the blazing sun. Heat will cause a very rapid and irretrievable loss of capacity!

Do not use the wrong type of charger: LiIon batteries need a special charger which uses exactly the right charging current and the correct progress of stress. Lupine rechargeable batteries do have a protective circuit (PCB); however, for charging your battery you will always need a LiIon charger. For batteries without such a protective circuit, there is even fire and explosion hazard!

Short circuit: In case a short circuit occurs, unprotected LiIon cells will be irretrievably damaged. Lupine rechargeable batteries, however, have a protective circuit (PCB) which turns off the electricity before the cells can be damaged. Then the battery needs to be “re-activated” (see below).

Activating a deactivated battery:

Caution! LI-ION ONLY!

All Lupine batteries contain a protective circuit (PCB) which prevents the battery from damage such as incorrect charging, deep discharging, short circuit etc. In these cases, the PCB deactivates the battery. The current versions of ChargerOne and MicroCharger will automatically re-activate such a deactivated battery. An older ChargerOne, however, will not be able to identify the battery and charge it. But help is on the way: Use the 12V power supply to re-activate your battery. The power supply needs to be connected to the socket. Now connect the hollow plug to the positive pole within the male plug of the battery (the positive pole is the one beneath the “roof”). The outside of the hollow plug will then touch the negative pole within the male plug. After that, the battery can be charged as usual.

Newer Lupine batteries with plug coating

Older Lupine batteries without plug coating

Confusing the two pole plug connectors when connecting battery and charger: This may happen with the Twin Charger only. The protective circuit (PCB) will immediately deactivate the Lupine battery to prevent damage.

Storing the battery when not used

If you use your battery only at certain times and seasons, please make sure to store it according to the following hints. Then you can extend its life span and tap to its full potential!

A LiIon battery will irretrievably lose some of its capacity if it is not stored correctly (however, the loss of some of the charge is perfectly normal). The goal is to prevent battery damage and to be able to use the full capacity in the next season.

Storing the battery for a longer period of time: Store the battery at approx. 50% charge in a cool room (e.g. the cellar) or in an air-tight casing in the fridge (not the freezer!).

For a storage period of no more than 6 months, there is no danger of deep discharge. If you want to store your battery for a longer time, we recommend charging it once a year. After the storage period, charge your battery as usual. It is then ready for use - no special treatments required. However, to measure the remaining capacity, you might want to do a complete charge cycle - i.e. to discharge and then completely charge your battery with the charger. The charger then shows the remaining capacity (only the Micro Charger is not able to show that).

By the way: Some say that any LiIon battery is dead after 3 years. This is not true! A LiIon battery does lose some of its capacity, but if treated correctly, it can last much longer than 3 years.

Regeneration

A LiIon battery does not need regeneration after periods of storage. After charging, it is ready to use.

A weak LiIon battery cannot be regenerated. The loss of capacity is permanent. The battery needs to be exchanged.

Life Span

A LiIon battery which is always treated correctly has a life span of approx. 300-400 charge cycles. After that, the remaining capacity is only 80% (e.g. a 12.8Ah battery has a remaining capacity of 10.2 Ah). The battery will still work, nonetheless it has already lost some qualities and will continue to do so.

Please care for your Lupine battery, otherwise you will shorten its life span. The protective circuit will prevent the most severe damages.

Even if you do not use your battery it will lose some of the capacity depending on the type of cells. The permanent capacity loss will be up to 10% per year when stored at full charge and approx. 3-5% when stored at 40% charge.

Other rechargeable battery technologies

Starting from the 2006 series, Lupine uses LiIon batteries only. Prior to that, we also used NiMH batteries.

Besides, there are other types of rechargeable batteries. Lupine has also used NiCd batteries in older sets.

Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd)

NiCd batteries, which were quite popular some years ago, have lost their significance. They were replaced by NiMH batteries, which have more capacity and lower weight and are still easy to use. In addition to that, they suffer less from the memory effect. In regard to all other qualities, NiMH and NiCd are very similar.

NiCd batteries contain the toxic heavy metal cadmium and should therefore be prohibited in the European Union.

Charger One is able to also charge older NiCd batteries.

Lead Acid Batteries

Lead batteries are slowly disappearing in the field of portable lamps. Their advantage is that they do not need special care. Besides, they are cheap and therefore popular with manufacurers of low-price lamps. However, the energy density is little and they are thus heavy: A lead battery of 3.2Ah weighs 800 g, in contrast, the Lupine NiMH-Nightmare battery with the same weight has 8.2Ah, the biggest Lupine LiIon battery weighs 640 g and has 13.8 Ah - the prices differ, of course.

·  Lead batteries need a special charger, which stops the charging when a cell voltage of approx. 2.35V is reached. Chargers which do not stop the charging at that point (often supplied by the manufacturers) will damage the battery after some time.

·  The self-discharge rate is quite low at approx. 0.2 ... 0.5% per day.

·  Lead batteries are very sensitive to deep discharging. The voltage after discharging should not be below 1.75V per cell.

Lithium Ion Polymer (LiPo/LiPoly)

LiPo batteries are widely used in mobile phones, organizers and palms; and they are becoming more popular in the field of RC-modeling. LiPo batteries use the same chemical processes as LiIon batteries, but use a gel electrolyte (LiIon: liquid electrolyte). The qualities of both types of batteries are very much the same.

·  The construction of LiPo cells is usually flat; the single cells are not protected mechanically and therefore very sensitive. On the other side, battery packs are very small and tight.

·  LiPo batteries are charged like LiIon batteries, the charging current is 4.2V (like newer LiIon cells, older LiIon cells need 4.1V).

·  The life span of modern LiPo cells is the same as that of LiIon cells (approx. 300-500 cycles).

·  LiPo batteries are more sensitive to temperatures than LiIon (and  NiMH) batteries - they are therefore not very suitable for outdoor use. The loss of capacity is 10-15% at 0°C, compared to 20°C (LiIon: approx. 5%, NiMH: approx. 10%). Below 0°C, things are getting worse: at -10°C, the LiPo battery has only 70-75% of its capacity left.

·  Battery packs with several LiPo cells often do not have a protective circuit and can therefore be dangerous (fire and explosion hazard!).