Disposable 14500...

foxtrot29 said:

I'm wondering how well it'll work in my L1D CE (old version, not the new Q5)...

Click to expand...

foxtrot29 said:

Mostly just curious. If I do go with a 14500 for that light, I'll get the AW, I'm on the fence still as I've spoken with people at Fenix about it, and they've told me the maximum voltage the circuitry will handle is 3.2v, after that it's a crapshoot as to whether or not the light will die. Although I've heard numerous people post on here as to how they've used the 14500 AW in that light... But at 4.2v off the charger, that's pushing it 1v to high.

Click to expand...

mdocod said:

it's going to depend on the Vf of the LED in the light, 99% of the boost circuits I have seen in LED lights will just go into "direct drive" mode when the battery voltage rises above drive voltage from the regulator.

If you have a high Vf LED, then it will work fine, The 4.2V will sag under the load and meet the LED somewhere around 4.0V 1A give or take, if you have a really low Vf LED, Then the cell and the LED may meet at more like 3.8V 2.5+ amp and fry the LED pretty quick.

Click to expand...

Darkpower said:

$11.69 sure is expensive. If the light goes its going to cost even more.

Click to expand...

foxtrot29 said:

Yeah, I'm sure it'll run fine on the LiFe batteries, but the AW 14500 might be pushing it too far.... Be glad to hear from anyone else that's running the older model L1D CE with an AW 14500.

Click to expand...

Al Combs said:

I bought an L2D just about a year ago now. When they were selling them with P4 binned emitters. That has the same head as the L1D and the P2D. I had it running for quite a while on AW's 16340's. That's after I bought a P2D body and tail cap. Don't know about blowing it up with 4.2 volts, but you loose the lower levels using Li-Ion's. People say everything is Turbo mode but that's not quite true. With an RCR123A fresh off the charger, Turbo mode draws 735 ma. In primary mode, low, medium and high all use 431 ma. That's what they mean by loosing different modes. That's higher than high would be in primary mode off a 3 volt lithium, but not quite Turbo mode.

It's possible like mdocod said I just got lucky with my LED not frying. But here's an interesting fact. On another occasion I measured current in Turbo mode of a Li-Ion that only had about 3.8 volts in it. I didn't realize till later it was drawing slightly more than 750 ma. That's more current at a lower voltage. If it was 100% direct drive, you would expect just the opposite. There is some sort of regulation going on here.

I also used AW's LiFePO4's in this light for a while. Medium and high work in primary mode like normal but low is the same as medium. I used that as my battery indicator. Whenever I had low mode, I knew the battery was almost dead. There's no danger of an LiFePO4 venting with flames. But there is a danger of killing the battery since it has no protection circuit.

Using 2 NiMH batts in the L2D Tube, Turbo mode draws 1,409 Ma. Again using 2xNiMH in Primary mode, low draws 52 ma, medium 203 ma and high is 526 ma. I didn't measure the voltage of these batteries, but if you assume 2.4 volts is 3.38 watts. About 10% more power than the Li-Ion uses.

BTW, that 14500 Lithium battery in the first post, it's not rechargeable. Maybe that was obvious to everybody, but since no one else mentioned it...

Click to expand...