HDS Clicky 140, 200 & N170 Low Mode Runtime Tests

[skyfire]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

Thought there'd be more interest in this. Oh well, that's OK.

80 hours in this morning.

im very interested.... i never got around to doing a runtime test with my clicky. i couldnt deal with the downtime. hehe

 

[notsofast]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

Thought there'd be more interest in this. Oh well, that's OK.

80 hours in this morning.

812 views. Looks like a lot of us are quietly waiting. :twothumbs

 

[davyro]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

812 views. Looks like a lot of us are quietly waiting. :twothumbs

+1 i'm one of those eagerly waiting the results

 

[Johnbeck180]

As am I.

 

[nbp]

Welcome guys. :wave:

There's plenty of and :buddies: to go around!

96 hours and counting!

 

[nbp]

Yay! 120 hours!

 

[Johnbeck180]

Nice!
Did they both go about the same time? Or are they still going?

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

Bump for runtime. The drive circuit can give what, 20% variance on runtime?

 

[nbp]

Nice!
Did they both go about the same time? Or are they still going?

Ha, good question, I didn't make that clear sorry. Now we are 129.5 hrs and they are still running.

 

[nbp]

Well, they both konked out since I last checked them about 6:30 pm, which means they got somewhere between 138-144 hrs of runtime. :rock:

Once I discovered this, I tried to click them back on to their turn-on level and both came on. They're set to something like 20 lm or so upon initial activation. They both ramped up to find their max output level, which looked to be 5-10 lm. Now they have been on a few minutes, and are periodically dropping down a level at a time. It seems that the rest they got allowed the cells to recover a bit and are trying to squeeze a little more out of them.

 

[nbp]

So they ended up running about another 30 min., stepping down here and there, then began to blink steadily for a couple minutes, and the they died again. I think these batteries are about spent.

 

[Johnbeck180]

138-144 hrs.. Cool!!!! Henry advertises them as going 128 hrs right?

 

[reppans]

I'm a huge runtime fan...

I'm actually quite surprised it was so short. I thought I had read somewhere here that an HDS clicky would run a month, and the rotaries a week.

So how do ZL and 4/7s manage to squeeze out twice as many hours AND twice as many lumens from half as much battery?

 

[Torchaddict]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

Yes, the older clickys/twistys could go on forever. Modern ones sacrifice efficiency at low levels for customization and more efficiency at high levels. The more available power levels you have (HDS have 24?), the less efficient the driver is (broadly speaking) because the switching has to be done at the electronic/program level instead of from hardware.

Regulation (current and voltage) also comes into play. For example, the Arc6, notoriously known for it's lackluster runtimes is a beast when it comes to low level endurance due to level 1 being unregulated.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

I'm a huge runtime fan...

Then this version of the HDS isn't for you. I plan to have other lights for extreme runtime needs. Under daily circumstances I'm up to 8 hours from a charger when I leave the driveway to go to work.

So how do ZL and 4/7s manage to squeeze out twice as many hours AND twice as many lumens from half as much battery?

Simpler driver, less-regulated output, and no parasitic draw for certain parts of the Rotary UI. I wonder if Henry (Or someone clever; CPF members have rewritten driver firmware for DX lights) could disable the rotary knob on the lowest level?

 

[reppans]

Thanks for the explanation folks... over a hundy hrs ain't all that bad. Anyone know if the recent rotaries have proportionally reduced runtimes too (from a week to around 1-2 days?).

 

[Bronco]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

Once my new-style rotary arrives (August? Fingers crossed)...

Would you be so kind as to give us a short Reader's Digest synopsis of what changes are coming in the "new-style" rotary. Those 19,000 post HDS threads are all but impossible for the casual user to learn anything from without devoting hundreds of hours to the read.

 

[skyfire]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

i was expecting alittle more runtime. but around 140 is pretty good.
thanks for doing this. you've inspired me to do a low low runtime test on my surefire minimus starting at the top of the hour.

edit:
runtime test completed on surefire minimus vision on its lowest setting.
103 - 111 hours before turn out.
cell read 2.26 volts when depleted.

runtime on max = 2 hours 28 minutes.

test were done with fresh rayovac primaries.

 

[nbp]

More runtimes tests are good, they're fun!

Glad to be of help.

 

[RobertM]

Re: NEW HDS Clicky 140 & 200 Runtime Tests

Yes.

Send me any cells you want and I'll do the test with them.

AFAIK, SF is the only brand that even puts expirations on their CR123s so you may be using 9 yr. old cells and not even know it.

Anyways, I used these because I figured no one would question the quality of the cells as SF cells are universally accepted as high quality. And if their engineers feel that the cells are still good after 10 years, I guess I'll take their word for it.

I could do it again later with other cells if these are questionable to folks. :shrug:



I have more lights. To be honest, these don't get a ton of carry anyways.

nbp,

My questioning of using older cells was only because it seems to be introducing 2 variables into your test. Testing the low runtime of these lights is interesting (how long will they really run for?). Testing a 9 year old SF cell is also interesting (how much capacity has it retained after 9 years :thinking. It's just that when they are combined, I think that it lessens what we learn.