Rechargeable battery systems. What's available and what would you recommend?

[Cyclopathic]

Darkening nights and winter drawers on so I'm thinking of a stronger and more reliable set up for my lights and potentially something that will power a loud horn on my every day town bike. Ideally something powerful enough for a few hours of lights and the odd blast on the horn that would be easily switched to another bike if necessary and that could just be plugged in to charge at the end of the day.
If possible I'd like something that was not limited to powering just one specific make of light and or horn. Do they come like that or is this wishful thinking.
I am off to look at what I can find along these lines in the online stores and such but have put this thread up as someone usually throws up something valuable that I wouldn't necessarily have seen otherwise and I like knowing how people are getting along with the choices they have made. And I admit it...I'm lazy.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

a set of rechargeables in one form or another?

 

[slowmotion]

I bought a stack of Sanyo Eneloop AA batteries which are 2000mA capacity, and a Technoline BL700 smart charger which also works with AAA cells. The AAs run my front light and a whole range of bits of electronics from camera to BP monitor. The AAAs run my backlight, MP3 player etc. It's very versatile and I like it a lot.

 

[400bhp]

If you're after a charger then try and get one that recharges each independently. That way you can charge odd numbers of batteries and mixture of makes too.

The 7 day shop one I got last year is pretty good. Charges 4 AA or AAA batteries.

 

[400bhp]

Oh, and maplin currently have offers on 12 packs of AAA's

 

[fossyant]

If you're after a charger then try and get one that recharges each independently. That way you can charge odd numbers of batteries and mixture of makes too.

The 7 day shop one I got last year is pretty good. Charges 4 AA or AAA batteries.

Got two of their 808 chargers - one at home one at work. Great

 

[400bhp]

I think it was you that recommended them

 

[marinyork]

Like a few other people got a Technoline BL-700. It's a bit old now but it's great as it charges each batter independently and you can cycle between 200mA, 500 mA and 700 mA. Also fixed a couple of a mates broken batteries for a while.

 

[slowmotion]

Here's the blurb for the BL-700 charger
http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-BL700.asp

 

[ohnovino]

+1 to that the 7dayshop charger (although I'm not sure it's still available).

 

[Cyclopathic]

If you're after a charger then try and get one that recharges each independently. That way you can charge odd numbers of batteries and mixture of makes too.

The 7 day shop one I got last year is pretty good. Charges 4 AA or AAA batteries.

Got two of their 808 chargers - one at home one at work. Great

So you'd recommend these over a system that ran both lights off one rechargeable battery that sits on the crossbar or in the bottle holder? This is fine by me as I already have some AA rechargeables and a cheapy charger (currently used to power the batteries in the xbox controler so will have to wrestle it off the other half, which could be fun).
The only other thing is that I was looking for something that would power a good, loud electric horn that doesn't sound like a bee in a jam jar but more like the QE2 comming into port. I'm also looking for a horn like that to power. There was a post somewhere recently from a chap who'd rigged up a car horn on his bike and it's got me thinking that I want something similar. Bike specific but as loud as a car horn. Probably not available but something might be aranged.

 

[fossyant]

I've powered my two magicshine rear lights of two 6xAA packs from Maplin, so 6 AAs give you 7.2 volts (1.2v rechargeables)

 

[PpPete]

I like the SCH600F charger because it can be run from USB... and therefore I can run it (with a rectifier) from my hub dynamo.
Independent channels, and the AA/AAA adapter mechanism is split so you can 2xAAA and 2xAA at the same time.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I have done a Di2 conversion recently which included lights and a horn powered by the same Di2 battery and a charging port for your mobile devices.. The fella I did it for seems to be happy with it.

 

[Mugshot]

Have a look at this thread from last year Cyclo, I bought the Vapex AA and AAA and the 7 day shop charger which were recommended and I have found them excellent.

EDIT, Just checked the link to the charger from that thread and they don't appear to do the same one anymore, I've checked the site too and can't see an obvious replacement for it.