Delta Zulu charger?

[JVerb]

Does anyone have a lightspeed external charger? They're advertised at $80 which seems pretty steep. I'm trying to see how it connects to see if it's something I can make instead of selling my first born for it.

 

[Hang 4]

All you need is the UAC cable, they are $13 on the Lightspeed website. Any USB charger will work.

 

[Adventure]

@Hang 4 sadly LS didn't include the USB charging components in the battery itself, it's only able to charge while inserted in the headset controller or in the aforementioned optional $80 charging port.

 

[Hang 4]

Ah, understand now. I have a DZ and it lasts a long time on one charge. I've never felt the need for stand alone charger. You could charge it in the headset and switch it out, then charge a second one.

 

[Clip4]

There was a thread recently on another OEM headset with rechargeable battery. All I can say is $80 buys a hell of a lot of AA alkaline.

 

[JVerb]

All you need is the UAC cable, they are $13 on the Lightspeed website. Any USB charger will work.

Not the cable. The freestanding charger so you can charge with the battery off the headset.

 

[JVerb]

There was a thread recently on another OEM headset with rechargeable battery. All I can say is $80 buys a hell of a lot of AA alkaline.

It comes with the battery option, too. I agree completely you can go through a ton of AAs before you get to $80. Or use rechargeable AAs, too.

But...it'd be nice to have a desk charger for the primary battery sitting next to the handheld radio stand charger too. It's annoying to pull the headset out of the case and leave it on the table for 9 hours while it slow charges. I've got limited space in my worktable for things! I just don't want to spend $80 for that convenience.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Does anyone have a lightspeed external charger? They're advertised at $80 which seems pretty steep. I'm trying to see how it connects to see if it's something I can make instead of selling my first born for it.

If you're part of the "Wingman Club" you get a 30% discount off of all that stuff, so $56 instead of $80. You join by either buying a headset or a renewal kit for your headset, that pays for five years in the club:

https://www.lightspeedaviation.com/programs/lightspeed-wingman-club/

I have to say, even though I've read the whole blog post they have about UAC vs USB and why they went with UAC... Sorry, I don't buy it. UAC is a junk connector. It feels as wimpy as micro USB, and at least half of the micro USB stuff I have ever had doesn't charge any more because of that.

In the Delta Zulu thread a while back, charging was the major complaint:

1) It charges REALLY slowly on LEMO - I flew 9 hours in the Mooney and it only charged up enough that I could fly another 5 hours or so.
2) I hate having to take the whole headset to a hotel on an overnight to charge, especially since I already have a million other things to charge. It's also bulky and expensive enough that I use the headset case to carry it, so there's another thing to carry. I don't even like having to bring it into my house.
3) I think it was @Brad Z who suggested carrying an external battery pack and charging it off of that in flight. Great idea, but I still have to use the proprietary cable plugged into the crappy unreliable UAC port. I've done it exactly once.

I really wish there was USB-C charging. In fact, the best of all would be a USB-C port right on the battery pack, so I could charge that at a hotel without having to carry the entire headset around, or carry a separate charging dock. Then they can keep their silly UAC port because I'll never have to use it.

 

[Brad Z]

It comes with the battery option, too. I agree completely you can go through a ton of AAs before you get to $80. Or use rechargeable AAs, too.

But...it'd be nice to have a desk charger for the primary battery sitting next to the handheld radio stand charger too. It's annoying to pull the headset out of the case and leave it on the table for 9 hours while it slow charges. I've got limited space in my worktable for things! I just don't want to spend $80 for that convenience.

I agree with all of your complaints. I probably would have returned the headset if I hadn't bought it while my plane was down for what would become an extended period of maintenance and was past the return window by the time I actually used it.

I use 20,000 mah charging blocks. When the headset gets below 50% (which seems to take several hours of flying), I'll leave the charging block behind and plug the headset into the block. A full charge doesn't even use 5% of the battery. The stupid proprietary cable lives in the plane.

When it's time to charge the charging block, I take it home and swap it with another block. For fire safety reasons, I don't want to leave the charger plugged in in the hangar unattended.

It's not the most elegant solution, but it seems to work. A simple battery with a direct USB C charging port would have been so much better, but these devices were clearly not intended for the mass market. Also, having a charging block provides utility if I need to charge other devices while we're on the trip, so it does have additional utility.

 

[Racerx]

When I bought mine they had a promo for an extra battery. Can't remember if the charger came with or not but I have it. I've had no complaints charging

 

[asicer]

In fact, the best of all would be a USB-C port right on the battery pack, so I could charge that at a hotel without having to carry the entire headset around, or carry a separate charging dock.

Yup, advantage AA. However, I'm not sure which style I like better between these two:

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Yup, advantage AA. However, I'm not sure which style I like better between these two:

I prefer the "Squid" myself, since otherwise you'd need 4 USB-A ports to charge those batteries. Seems like the other ones might be giving up some capacity by using that amount of volume for the connector, too.