Trying to find battery for lead which powers LEDs in a cycling jacket

Thread Starter

mrodent

Joined Feb 8, 2020
4
I wonder if anyone can help with this. A few years ago I bought a cycling jacket which lit up like a Christmas tree because it has LEDs incorporated into it.

Unfortunately the battery was terrible: it would lose charge even when not being used. Eventually I lost the battery. It also appears (from many indications) that the company which made the jacket, Visijax, is no longer in business.

I still have the jacket and am wondering whether it is feasible to imagine I might be able to get a battery, hopefully rechargeable, which could power it. The connector leading inside the lining of the jacket is an electronics PIN-type connector (sorry I am ignorant of the right term to use here) with 2 rows of 5 pin sockets (see attached photo), about 14 mm wide.

The cable (bus?) connected to the connector has some writing on it which may indicate something about the electrical characteristics of the required battery:
"AWM 2651 UW-1 105°C 300U 28AWG 3AT111805 20140415"

Can anyone suggest anything I might do here, the specifications of any such battery, where I might find one, etc... ?
 

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Thread Starter

mrodent

Joined Feb 8, 2020
4
hi,
The connector type an IDC double row 10 female.. 0.1inch pitch.
Insulation Displacement Connector.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=10+way+idc+connector
Battery type ???
E
Thanks!

I don't think there's anything else I can say about the battery unfortunately. It was a little plastic box (maybe 3 cm x 3 cm x 2 cm) with a red switch on top and rechargeable through a micro USB connector. As I say, it powered some LEDs, maybe 20 or so. I'm hoping some experienced person here may be able to make an intelligent guess about the kind of battery (with the right connector pins) I might think of buying... I'm willing to take a punt (gamble a bit of money) ...
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,673
You need someone to test the wiring to see how the LEDs are wired, discover their polarity and forward voltage, see their brightness and if the wiring has current-limiting resistors in it.
For years I have used a 9V battery with a connector and a 390 ohms series resistor to do most of those tests.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,813
Having 10 connectors from the “battery” to the jacket indicates that it is likely something more going on here. Did the lights flash in a pattern or something? If so, your battery box has a driver circuit inside as well as the battery.

The fact that it charges from a USB port makes it likely that it is a Li Ion cell.

Bob
 

Thread Starter

mrodent

Joined Feb 8, 2020
4
@ericgibbs - there aren't any other wires (and never were any).

@Audioguru again - where might I find someone in North London to do that? Or if you could link to the sort of parts I might need to test ... ?

@BobTPH - yes, the lights could flash or be constant, as far as I remember. I think that you cycled through a number of states as you pressed the switch...
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,813
Then your "battery" was actually a controller, not just a battery. If you can't find the exact replacement, it is not as simple as attaching a battery. Did you try EBay?

Bob
 

oz93666

Joined Sep 7, 2010
739
The only battery choice is Li-ion or Li-po both are rechargeable and not heavy ... Li-po will probably be best they are flat silvery looking come in many sizes and voltages ...eBay

First you need to know how long you want the lights to run for between recharging ... measure power consumption of jacket in Watts ....li-po hold about 20WHrs for a 100gm battery .. if jacket consumes 5Watts , a 100gm battery will run it for 4 hrs
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,673
Before you connect a battery, first you need a circuit for testing that limits current in the LEDs to prevent them from blowing up instantly. Then you can design a circuit and find a suitable battery for it.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,175
I wonder if anyone can help with this. A few years ago I bought a cycling jacket which lit up like a Christmas tree because it has LEDs incorporated into it.

Unfortunately the battery was terrible: it would lose charge even when not being used. Eventually I lost the battery. It also appears (from many indications) that the company which made the jacket, Visijax, is no longer in business.

I still have the jacket and am wondering whether it is feasible to imagine I might be able to get a battery, hopefully rechargeable, which could power it. The connector leading inside the lining of the jacket is an electronics PIN-type connector (sorry I am ignorant of the right term to use here) with 2 rows of 5 pin sockets (see attached photo), about 14 mm wide.

The cable (bus?) connected to the connector has some writing on it which may indicate something about the electrical characteristics of the required battery:
"AWM 2651 UW-1 105°C 300U 28AWG 3AT111805 20140415"

Can anyone suggest anything I might do here, the specifications of any such battery, where I might find one, etc... ?
The writing that you copied is the specification of the wire,Which is #28 sized, which is quite skinny.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,175
If you still had the battery pack then it would be simple to add connections and use a different battery. Now we need to know about the LEDs, did they flash? Did they flash in a pattern, which would tell us that there is a bit of circuit some place. But with ten connections and no additional information, unless somebody has one of those, we do not know what the connections are or what the voltage should be.
 

Thread Starter

mrodent

Joined Feb 8, 2020
4
If you still had the battery pack then it would be simple to add connections and use a different battery. Now we need to know about the LEDs, did they flash? Did they flash in a pattern, which would tell us that there is a bit of circuit some place. But with ten connections and no additional information, unless somebody has one of those, we do not know what the connections are or what the voltage should be.
Thanks... in fact there are Visijax products still advertised on ebay... including a simple "vest" with LEDs for £12. I've now written to ask the seller to confirm that one of these controller/battery units will come with it.

NB this page shows a picture of the little grey/red plastic box involved...

But as a general thing, could you just tell me what minimal electrical gear I'm going to need to investigate the voltage because, as I say, whatever battery they were using was truly rubbish, and would discharge with no load after few hours. Perhaps you could supply a link to the kind of online store you might use (NB I'm in the UK)?
 
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oz93666

Joined Sep 7, 2010
739
Break open the box and show us a picture of the battery inside , or tell us the writing on the battery voltage etc ... Manufacturers have been known to use junk or recycled(already used) batteries in products .... Not many leds on that bag , a small battery will do it.
Don't buy a vest in the hope the box will contain a good battery , it may also be old and exhausted (recycled) ... if you buy a new replacement battery it will be much cheaper and experience shows it will work for many years
 
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MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,175
The current per string of standard LEDs would be about 0.020 milliamps per series string. But for the more modern much brighter ones it may be up to 50 milliamps per string. For the different colors the forward drop per LED varies, but it is between 2 volts and 3.5 volts for most kinds. So now the challenge will be to discover how many strings and how many LEDs in each string.
Is there access to the conductors that connect the LEDs at any point? AND, how many total LEDs are there in the jacket? And what color were they?
 
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