Maratac AAA on BOOST ! [ 10440 ]

Well , I got me a 10440 the other day and decided it was time to see how the Maratac does on this voltage boost ..

On a Alkaline @ 1.6v

Med 26Lux 0.23A [ 0.37Watt ]
Lo 3Lux 0.03A [ 0.05W ]
Hi 93Lux 0.87A [ 1.4W ]

10440 @ 4.14v

Med 82Lux 0.31A [ 1.27W ]
Lo 7Lux 0.03A [ 0.123W ]
Hi 270Lux [ I checked and rechecked ] 1.2A [ 4.92W ]
Holly power boosted performance Batman !!

To compare , 2 XR-E R2's did 280Lux and 260Lux , a XP-G R5 @ 329Lux and a Akoray K16 with a Q5 @ 0.82A = 169Lux [ 3.4W ]

Now I have to say the little Maratac gets warm mighty fast , but there was no way I thought it was going to suck 1.2A from the little 10440 , thats just freaky , I was expecting maybe 0.5A .

I like the Maratac just fine on a single AAA , and I have no intention of running 10440 batteries in it [ Though I did order some more ]
For some of the cheaper lights out there [ Sub $5 ] throwing in a 10440 seems to really perk them up quite a bit , but the Maratac just seem to go nuts on the 10440 , a virtual pocket rocket thats able to give much larger lights a run for there money .

It would be interesting to know how many out there run 10440 in there Maratac and the hours achieved so far .

Lucky for me (or unlucky!), I don't have any 10440's.

Are your cells protected? Just wondering if there was any fitting issues.

stangster said:

Lucky for me (or unlucky!), I don't have any 10440's.

Are your cells protected? Just wondering if there was any fitting issues.

Click to expand...

I purchased 2 Protected Ultrafires , they will not fit as there too long ..
So I removed the PTC from one , so its no longer protected , so I could do some testing ... I ordered some more - unprotected cells - as the protected ones are way out of AAA spec . Only one AAA light in my possession will take the protected cells , the Black Cat AAA from DX/KD .

Lighthound had AW unprotected 10440's in stock a couple weeks ago.

And, yeah the Maratac / ITP AAA's are nuts on them. :thumbsup:

O 45/70, where did you find the protected cells (if you recall)?

bc tested it at over 200L on a cold start. it quickly starts to warm and drops to ~150L at the 3 minute mark.

kramer5150 said:

bc tested it at over 200L on a cold start. it quickly starts to warm and drops to ~150L at the 3 minute mark.

Click to expand...

Yep , heat will be an issue ..
Protected Ultrafires are on Ebay and also DX , mine came from DX .

Maratac 10440 High



Maratac 10440 Medium



Maratac AAA High

kramer5150 said:

bc tested it at over 200L on a cold start. it quickly starts to warm and drops to ~150L at the 3 minute mark.

Click to expand...

Thanks for putting the numbers up, I hadn't seen he tested it already with the 10440's in them.

I've never run one that long on high, I would think it would have been very warm by the time he turned it off.


Thanks for the link Old4570.
Thought I was done with dx, but may try a couple of the protected ones.

I just tried the same thing last night in one of my Maratac AAA's with some new protected Trustfires I bought. It worked, but I had to tighten the head down a lot more than with conventional batteries. The output was simply amazing.

I have a question: I know that running these batteries is not recommended, and my understanding is because of the insane "high." But is running the light on "medium" with these batteries any more harmful than running the light on "high" with conventional batteries, since the output is approximately the same?

DuckhunterInTN said:

I just tried the same thing last night in one of my Maratac AAA's with some new protected Trustfires I bought. It worked, but I had to tighten the head down a lot more than with conventional batteries. The output was simply amazing.

I have a question: I know that running these batteries is not recommended, and my understanding is because of the insane "high." But is running the light on "medium" with these batteries any more harmful than running the light on "high" with conventional batteries, since the output is approximately the same?

Click to expand...

The emitter should be safe, and based on the pics above it looks like it even runs at a slightly lower current. So 10440 on medium might actually be safer for the LED than NiMH on HI. Actually, thinking about the UI... this is a NICE little UI upgrade being that it starts out on MED every time. Many find the NiMH MED to low, and getting to hi is a twist-hastle. Starting out with a cooler running ~65 Lumens off the bat will appeal to many (myself included). IMHO you could have two different lights, different cell types, and it would be almost like having 2 completely different lights. Outstanding.

Curious... whats the runtime with 10440 on MED?

I think the big question is the robust-ness of the DC-DC circuit. How close does the 10440 push the Vin to the limits of the lowest/weakest SMT component?

I get about 50mins on a blue Trustfire 10440 cell from dx on med mode which is actually slightly brighter than on high with Ni-mh I think. On high it draws 1.15A, I did do a runtime test once with breaks to cool after every minute and I got roughly 13 or 14 minutes I think before the cell was down to 3.5v.

I have always run mine on a 10440 cell. Gets around 10mins on high.

kramer5150 said:

The emitter should be safe, and based on the pics above it looks like it even runs at a slightly lower current. So 10440 on medium might actually be safer for the LED than NiMH on HI. Actually, thinking about the UI... this is a NICE little UI upgrade being that it starts out on MED every time. Many find the NiMH MED to low, and getting to hi is a twist-hastle. Starting out with a cooler running ~65 Lumens off the bat will appeal to many (myself included). IMHO you could have two different lights, different cell types, and it would be almost like having 2 completely different lights. Outstanding.

Curious... whats the runtime with 10440 on MED?

I think the big question is the robust-ness of the DC-DC circuit. How close does the 10440 push the Vin to the limits of the lowest/weakest SMT component?

Click to expand...

That is what I was thinking....I really like the single mode ITP AAA because it was so bright with one twist...but I do miss the low at times. If running the 10440 so it pushes the light no harder than a conventional battery (i.e., if medium does no harm) then this would be like having the single mode ITP, with a low, and then a bonus "crazy bright" mode if you really needed it.

First time I used a 10440 in my gfs ITP A3 i was blown away...
Darn this thing is way brighter than my liteflux! And much smaller too!
Crazy how much a thing this size puts out...

Been running them since the high polish stainless came out.
Gotta love the 10440 maratac combo. :twothumbs
People are in shock when they see the light coming from such a small package.

I too like the 10440. With the 10440 it's like having the light start out on high, but with an even brighter high (turbo?) in reserve. I rarely keep the light on for more than about 30 seconds at a time (just based on my lighting needs) so it makes a super EDC. Glad to see these numbers.

Re: Med 10440 runtimes

DuckhunterInTN said:

I just tried the same thing last night in one of my Maratac AAA's with some new protected Trustfires I bought. It worked, but I had to tighten the head down a lot more than with conventional batteries. The output was simply amazing.

I have a question: I know that running these batteries is not recommended, and my understanding is because of the insane "high." But is running the light on "medium" with these batteries any more harmful than running the light on "high" with conventional batteries, since the output is approximately the same?

Click to expand...

Kramer & a bunch of us are wondering so I'll do a runtime check tonight with a couple of them set to medium on AW unprotected 10440's.

Both lights will be new A3 aluminum, batteries same batch (less than 4 cycles each). Need to go top them off right now.

We can at least get some rough numbers for those of us that use these mostly on med & don't want to overtax the unprotected cells.

Will update later.

Edit:

The first cell came off the charger @ 4.15v and was removed after one hour on medium. Ending charge was 3.67.

Fell asleep for the second round, but I would not want to push them much more than a hour of steady use on medium.
I'm sure these little liion's must drop pretty rapidly once below 3.8v under any kind of load but low.
No problems with over heating & output did not drop too much over the hour.

I'll check tonight at 30 min intervals.

I've been running 10440s in AAA's since the original Fenix LOD - (pre CE). Naturally, the first battery that I ever put into the Maratac was also a 10440. I run them exclusively on the 10440, other than for testing, and the original aluminum light is still going strong. In fact, it still posts slightly higher lux numbers than subsequent SS and Copper lights that I've since acquired. The LED's seem to be ridiculously robust and the weak link in the formula is certainly the battery if you had to pick one. With that said, I've experienced very few battery problems and have only had one cell go completely bad over the last several years.

As far has run hours are concerned, I couldn't even guess, other that to just say, "a lot." Perhaps 500-1000 partial or full battery charges on my various AAA Maratacs.

wow, were talking about that little $25 light? i love them, i didnt know we could run 10440 in them. i guess we can do the same with the aa version?

old4570 said:

Only one AAA light in my possession will take the protected cells , the Black Cat AAA from DX/KD .

Click to expand...

@old4570: the Black Cat works with 10440?, OK 10440 fits nice inside the battery tube, but, it works with that extra voltage? it does not burn? the light power is more?

Thanks