Universal bike light battery

This page describes the construction of a universal bike light battery with eight "C" cell rechargeable NiMh batteries. It is made from a Parmesan cheese container which is strong, lightweight, splash proof, dust proof, fits in a water bottle cage, and allows for complete serviceability of the batteries.
High performance NiMh cells can raise the capacity of this unit to as much as 10,000 mAh.

This project was originally featured here: http://www.racedaynutrition.com/features/battery.aspx.

A complete shopping list can be found here: http://www.racedaynutrition.com/features/battery.aspx#shoppinglist

Step 1 Make several Italian dishes

An 8 ounce Kraft Parmesan Cheese container happens to fit into a standard bicycle water bottle cage very well. Run to your local supermarket (or perhaps your refrigerator) and pick up a container or two of this cheese.
Make several Italian dishes over the next few weeks (or empty contents in to another dish) and then clean out the cheese container. Remove the label or leave it on to confuse the competition.

Comments

[AnarchistAsian]

holy... 10,000 mAh??? that's like, woah...

[luigi2999]

It's like 10 amps. Yea, I know, you could run a 55w halogen headlight off of that.

[m1kta]

Why not just use a wide mouthed screw top water bottle, that is made for the bottle holder and will handle abuse a lote better than these food containers. They are usually made of thick type 1 plastic (recycling code on bottom of bottles). Then you will have a nice tough lid too. Also when it rains it can really rain. Plug in battery terminals on top would be simply hopeless, put them on the bottom and that way water will run off. Or far better is use a pair (red and black)Anderson connectors on leads to batteries that will make sure the battery is polarised correctly and you don't fly anything you connect to the battery! If you happen to have a dynamo on the bike and just use a spare light for night riding then instead of NiMH use a small gell cell/slealed lead acid battery instead (such as a motor cycle battery). Then depending on voltage required fit a simple rectifier, or a voltage doubler/tripler (3 schottky diodes and 3 electrolytic capacitor) and charge the battery from a DC voltage (Dynamos tend to be AC output) If you need to you could add a voltage regulator. I do this and recharge two sets of 12V batteries whilst riding on summer trips.

[Yerboogieman]

everything on my bike uses almost 12v 10,000mA

[flio191]

"(or empty contents in to another dish)" but that would be too easy ;) nice instructable!

[xhx]

I read through your racedaynutrition post earlier today - love it and I'm going to do my own version to power my Luxeon headlight. I'll use 3 4-AA battery holders to get my voltage up to 14.4 , with an extra independent pack to drive my taillight. I love the enclosure - I think I'll leave the label on mine for as long as it'll last on the trail.

[crazycommanche=US=]

i love that cheese

[mixadj]

Is there a way you could rig it up to charge some NiCad's without pulling them out?

[kwschofi]

Sure, you don't necessarily need to pull the individual cells out. If you already have a charger with a single connector, just match it up with your battery pack and plug it in. Use this battery charger calculator to figure out how best to match up a charger to your cells.

[StrangeRover]

WARNING: Don't use this to make food. Throw out the 'cheese food' and get some real parmesan or romano! For the health of your pet, make sure this goes straight into the garbage. Great instructable, by the way!

[Chicken2209]

Im surprised this was featured without a introductory image of the product but good job!