AA voltage determination

I am trying to determine a voltage range for a battery pack. I want to use a fatman driver, it has a max input voltage of 12V.

I have built an 8xAA battery pack, it fits in an unbored 2D maglight.

Regular duracells have a volatage of about 1.5, sometime a little more right out of the box. Total V for 8 is always a little over 12v.

My eneloops come off of the charger at about 1.6 V. This is deffinately over the 12V.

I see most people using number of of around 1.2 to 1.4V when doing the total V math. Is this due to the fact that V will settle down, a bit lower, as soon as a load is applied?

Thanks for assistance
mr45acp2u

You're eneloops are 1.6v off the charger??? That's a bit high, as they should terminate at 1.42v ish. If they really are terminating charge at 1.6, you're killing them.

1.6 V seems remarkably high. I have just a moment ago taken some Eneloops off the charger and they are reading 1.43 V. I find that as soon as I put any load on them, the voltage will drop quite rapidly to around 1.3 V and then slowly decrease from there. For most of the period of discharge I find Eneloops have a voltage under load between 1.15 V and 1.2 V (depending on the size of the load, of course; this is for moderate loads).