Tatjanamagic
Enlightened
That looks like the cause for the overheating....I never leave "high output" lights at 100% with no extra cooling in warm weather. Many(myself included) have done this with no ill effects, but when lights get really hot their failure rate increases.
I have, however, tested the A9 in candle mode on Medium and left it on my desktop for about 30 minutes. Although it got warm, it wasn't "driver frying" hot.
It look's like it was, unfortunately, an unlucky break for your A9 ...I'm sure most A9's could be left on in a drawer in the summer countless times, get very hot, but not suffer immediate permanent damage.
R U sure? Anybody want to test this theory? I think when U run on rechargeable 123 batteries that have higher voltage than primaries 123 is much greater risk for driver burnout like Mr. MrGman said at a bottom of this thread https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/246243 so please read his post U will C expert opinion...
I will just citate one part that he said in his post:
Some flashlights although they claim they can use the RCR 123 batteries are not fully compatible with them because the higher voltage across the driver circuit makes it get hot. Short time runs are okay, but not full power runs until the batteries die. He probably was not holding the flashlight either and that means it didn't have his hand to help draw away the heat. Meaning it got hotter than it would have in normal hand held use.
By looking at some of the run time plots for Tiablo flashlights I have always seen that they run higher power with the higher voltage batteries which suggests they didn't have the best in regulation from the driver anyway. This is good if you want a little more output but don't run it constantly. Its bad as the results of your friend's flashlight appear to point out, if you want to try and run it for 1.5 hours non stop just for the heck of it.
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