Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
I hopped on my bike a couple nights ago, and got ready to ride: helmet and gloves on, pants cuffs rolled up, and various lights switched on. Something didn't seem right, so I looked down, and saw that my shiny new Nite Rider Minewt X2 was no longer illuminated. I switched it back on to the low-power mode (where I use it 99% of the time -- it's nearly as bright as the full-power mode, but uses half the battery power).
After a few seconds, it switched off. Wait a minute, I thought, it's not supposed to do that... I tried again, but it wouldn't stay on. With anger in my heart, I set out for home.
After stopping half way for dinner, I tried again. I discovered that if I switched modes back and forth a few times, I could sometimes trick it into switching on the red, "Battery low" LED, but not all the time. If I just switched it on, it would stay on for a few seconds, then switch itself off. Very frustrating.
I kept a close eye on it for the ride home, but once it was in the red-light mode, it seemed to be happy enough. I made it all the way home (about 30 minutes) without further degradation to the light -- at least, not that I could tell.
I tried switching it off then on once I got home, and it immediately displayed the low-battery indicator, so I theorized that when it was behaving strangely, it must have been at the threshold point between not-low-battery and low-battery. After an overnight charge (this time blessedly free of overheating batteries), it worked as expected.
So, maybe it was just in an odd spot when it started misbehaving, but it was still frustrating, and not the kind of behavior I want to see out of one of my primary safety devices. I've got my eye on you, little headlight.
Posted at 09:41 permanent link category: /bicycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater