Marduke
Flashaholic
There is also the possibility that your off brand 700mAh's are either not in the best of shape, or never were. It's hard to tell without doing a discharge test though.
Picked one up the other night to compare it to my Seoul modded EOS. It's a very nice little headlamp! With fresh hybrids in each, the Coleman is brighter with a very nice beam. Nice hotspot and lots of bright flood. The one I picked up has an awesome tint. Love the UI on this thing ( very fast and easy to change modes ). I'm sure it's not the best out there but for $25.00 it's awesome! Might be my new hunting and night fishing headlamp.
I got a current meter to supplement my ailing 14 year old meter.
Tested two Coleman lights I own--105 lumen head lamp and 117 lumen 3 AAA $25. Both seem to be driven at about 200 milliamps on new NiMh 1.2 volt x 3 cells (.72 watts). This makes me doubt the lumen rating; at least last December the best Cree's were up to about 100 lumen per watt.
To me converting to a wrist light, (just hack saw head off and velcro/solder onto a 4 AA holder with variable resistor to get it brighter. Though this doesn't make a suitable, typical 3 AA conversion headlamp, since the dim hot spot doesn't compare to a properly setup brinkman lux 1 or garrity lux 1.
I will need to remove internal resistor, I guess. And perhaps add a controller. What a pain.
unless you incorporate a suitable driver. A resistor could do the job if nothing better was available.I wonder what happens if you nail it with the 8.4 volts of two 18650's in series...
If they are the holders I'm thinking of they're bigger than a C cell.Perhaps the best thing about the greatlites was that they came with what appears to be a three-AAA to "C" adapter in series, from all I can gather. I was wondering what evil things I could do with a few of these voltage-boosting adapters in something which took C cells.
My hottest tip is at a shop that sell 'em cheap. You might like to mention where you are, and whether you want to buy online or at a local brick-'n'-mortar, or just look up a "Where do I buy Eneloops?" thread. They're worth looking for. :twothumbs@Torchboy: I don't have Eneloops, but I'm obviously in the market for some AAA rechargeables if you have hot tips where to pick 'em up.
Your drive current is way off. not sure why though. I just can tell you that the drive current on these lights is much higher than 200. Either you have a defective light, or maybe an issue with your meter, since both of them test at 200,
Perhaps there's a production variation here, but there are other possibilities too. Is it possible for you to try shorting the multimeter leads while reading the current, so the resistance of the ammeter is taken out of the circuit? Does the light get brighter? Have you tried using one of your meters to measure the resistance of the other when it's in ammeter mode?No, just bought a brand new meter for $30 at RS. And still, about 200 milliamp draw from 3 cells on all three coleman lights, give or take a few milliamps.
I would hope not. 200 mega-amps would melt it instantly.I have both the Coleman 3AAA headlamp and the Coleman 2AA Flashlight sold at Walmart, and there is no way they are only running at 200MA.
With just three AAA cells there isn't much spare voltage to buck.Of course, this doesn't mean that is what the led is receiving, there is some sort of buck circuit isn't there?