Post by Seaco on Jul 5, 2015 21:54:15 GMT
Trend Airshield Pro Battery Conversion
My Airshield’s battery has let me down once again it’s the second I’ve had and at £45 each I wasn’t too happy and it seems it’s a common problem that the batteries die over a matter of months mine has lasted about a year and now dies after about half an hour on a full charge.
I thought there must be a better solution apparently you can’t get the same batteries Trend use there are three cells, 1.2v Nimh 3600Mah =3.6v they are a bit larger than AA and being as AA’s are also 1.2v I bought three of those and copied the connections on the cells and tried that the fan worked and lasted about 3 hours but after a while the cells started dying also so I then abandoned that idea.
I then thought outside the box and started to look at external batteries for mobile phones etc. they run at about 3.6 to 5v but are a little large to fit into the helmet itself, so it will run on a cable and just pop in my pocket or I may add a belt clip at some point.
The one I ordered here is 12,000Mah and cost the princely sum of £6.50 inc. postage from eBay, it runs from a USB cable both to power and to charge, I decided to utilise the Trend battery case so I took it apart they use a strong rubber type cement and it was fiddly to get it apart the cells are also glued in but it does finally come apart the cells have a Red and a Black wire, cut the wires close to the cells so you have plenty of wire to work with.
The USB wire will also have to have one end cut off, a 1mtr cable will be enough unless your 7 foot tall, cut back the outer wire to show the small wires and you will see four wires Red, Black, White, Green all you need is the Red and Black so cut the others off just leaving the two. Drill a hole in the end of the battery casing the size of the USB cable, inside the box tie a knot in the cable so it can’t pull out then solder the cables Red to Red and Black to Black with the leads you had cut off from the battery then clip the unit back together that part is now complete.
The USB lead now just plugs into the new battery and away you go, when I got the battery it showed 86% so being impatient I didn’t charge it I connected it up and left the fan running well I stopped it after 10 hours and went to bed and it was still showing 25% left, I have no doubt it would last 12 hours maybe more. As for charging the battery it came with a USB cable but you will need a plug that takes a USB connector like you get with an iPhone charging back to 100% took about 12 hours…
The Good Points:
Much better battery life.
Lithium Battery = No memory.
Smart Charger trickle feeds after the battery gets to 100%.
Removes the batteries weight from the helmet and you really notice it.
Bad Points:
You have a cable from the helmet (that comes from the back of the helmet to your waist)
The battery will have to be put on your waist or as in my case in your pocket.
The battery has to be taken off or unplugged when the helmet is removed.
Battery Casing
Old Battery
New Battery
USB Cable
Soldered Up...
Finished Casing
Helmet to Battery
Charging Battery
Finished...
My Airshield’s battery has let me down once again it’s the second I’ve had and at £45 each I wasn’t too happy and it seems it’s a common problem that the batteries die over a matter of months mine has lasted about a year and now dies after about half an hour on a full charge.
I thought there must be a better solution apparently you can’t get the same batteries Trend use there are three cells, 1.2v Nimh 3600Mah =3.6v they are a bit larger than AA and being as AA’s are also 1.2v I bought three of those and copied the connections on the cells and tried that the fan worked and lasted about 3 hours but after a while the cells started dying also so I then abandoned that idea.
I then thought outside the box and started to look at external batteries for mobile phones etc. they run at about 3.6 to 5v but are a little large to fit into the helmet itself, so it will run on a cable and just pop in my pocket or I may add a belt clip at some point.
The one I ordered here is 12,000Mah and cost the princely sum of £6.50 inc. postage from eBay, it runs from a USB cable both to power and to charge, I decided to utilise the Trend battery case so I took it apart they use a strong rubber type cement and it was fiddly to get it apart the cells are also glued in but it does finally come apart the cells have a Red and a Black wire, cut the wires close to the cells so you have plenty of wire to work with.
The USB wire will also have to have one end cut off, a 1mtr cable will be enough unless your 7 foot tall, cut back the outer wire to show the small wires and you will see four wires Red, Black, White, Green all you need is the Red and Black so cut the others off just leaving the two. Drill a hole in the end of the battery casing the size of the USB cable, inside the box tie a knot in the cable so it can’t pull out then solder the cables Red to Red and Black to Black with the leads you had cut off from the battery then clip the unit back together that part is now complete.
The USB lead now just plugs into the new battery and away you go, when I got the battery it showed 86% so being impatient I didn’t charge it I connected it up and left the fan running well I stopped it after 10 hours and went to bed and it was still showing 25% left, I have no doubt it would last 12 hours maybe more. As for charging the battery it came with a USB cable but you will need a plug that takes a USB connector like you get with an iPhone charging back to 100% took about 12 hours…
The Good Points:
Much better battery life.
Lithium Battery = No memory.
Smart Charger trickle feeds after the battery gets to 100%.
Removes the batteries weight from the helmet and you really notice it.
Bad Points:
You have a cable from the helmet (that comes from the back of the helmet to your waist)
The battery will have to be put on your waist or as in my case in your pocket.
The battery has to be taken off or unplugged when the helmet is removed.
Battery Casing
Old Battery
New Battery
USB Cable
Soldered Up...
Finished Casing
Helmet to Battery
Charging Battery
Finished...
