More MAH means longer runtime, right? Or am I wrong?

Hi people, hope your all doing OK.

I am ordering a flashlight tommorow (Convoy S2+) and I have/use samsung 25R batteries( I Vape, they also use these batteries in MODS) but in the thread I was advised to drive it around 1400MAH, but my samsungs are 2500MAH. I thought the flashlight would draw the power needed, and get longer life with a higher MAH.

I may of misunderstood what was meant though,as I have minor brain damage and forget things and don't grasp things as quick as others, all I want to know is will the samsung 25R be a good battery to use, and does Higher MAH generally mean it can run for longer?

Regards, Conan.

Conan, the short answers are: yes, and yes.

Here are the longer answers to the question that you asked yesterday.

RetroTechie said:

More mAh = more runtime (all else being equal). Btw I thought the point of this light was to go with batteries you already had? :laughing:

Poppy was referring to warmer white LEDs (in general) having lower output than cool white LEDs. That could make you use the higher modes more often, and thus could cut into how long cells last. But this efficiency difference isn't dramatic, the color difference might be though.

Personally I expect you'll use the lower modes more often regardless of LED tint, and a higher drive current usually makes those lower modes go up as well (since those lower modes are often defined / controlled as some % of max). Which isn't always what you want: there's many situations where a few lumens are fine. And if even the lowest mode becomes too bright, the light becomes useless for some jobs it could have been useful for. On the other end, a few hundred lumens is more than enough for 'dog-walking' purposes. Unless you really 'need' all that light, upping the drive current doesn't do anything then, apart from reduce battery life & increase heat issues.

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Poppy said:

Yes... you were correct! Higher capacity batteries will give you longer run-times.

Also, as I stated above, but in other words,- lights can be DRIVEN to use more or less battery power per hour, and that will affect both run-time, heat, and brightness. So... and XML2 driven at 1400ma will deliver about 540lumens and the same light driven at 2800ma will deliver about 960 lumens. It will draw twice the power, but not be twice as bright. AND the battery will run down twice as fast.

A light has an LED for example an XML2 the LED can be had in different tints
the DRIVER controls the power to the LED, and can determine if there are 3 modes, 5 or more. It also determines how much power from the battery it will send to the LED. Drivers are rated at their maximum power output.

You can order convoy lights with drivers at 1050, 1400, 2100, 2800ma. They typically have 3 modes 5% low 60% med and 100% high, and with blinkies or not. So if while you select a low or med level, there will be a correspondingly lower drain of the battery, thusly increasing run-time.

I hope this helps

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conanthewarrior said:

Hi people, hope your all doing OK.

I am ordering a flashlight tommorow (Convoy S2+) and I have/use samsung 25R batteries( I Vape, they also use these batteries in MODS) but in the thread I was advised to drive it around 1400MAH, but my samsungs are 2500MAH. I thought the flashlight would draw the power needed, and get longer life with a higher MAH.

I may of misunderstood what was meant though,as I have minor brain damage and forget things and don't grasp things as quick as others, all I want to know is will the samsung 25R be a good battery to use, and does Higher MAH generally mean it can run for longer?

Regards, Conan.

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Conan,
Sometimes too much information can be more confusing, so again the short answers are:
Yes the batteries that you already have will work fine in that flashlight.
and Yes the MAH capacity of the battery is like the gas tank in a car... the more gas, the longer the car will run.

conanthewarrior said:

Hi people, hope your all doing OK.

I am ordering a flashlight tommorow (Convoy S2+) and I have/use samsung 25R batteries( I Vape, they also use these batteries in MODS) but in the thread I was advised to drive it around 1400MAH, but my samsungs are 2500MAH. I thought the flashlight would draw the power needed, and get longer life with a higher MAH.

I may of misunderstood what was meant though,as I have minor brain damage and forget things and don't grasp things as quick as others, all I want to know is will the samsung 25R be a good battery to use, and does Higher MAH generally mean it can run for longer?

Regards, Conan.

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There is one more misunderstanding here. The advice to drive it around 1400 mA refers to selecting a power level to be the max power level in the controller, and has nothing to do with the battery directly. As Poppy stated in his reply, the driver level selected will have an impact on the run time of a given cell, but that has no relationship to the capacity of that cell. An LED driven at 2800 mA is going to take twice as much power as one driven at 1400 mA, regardless of the capacity of the cell.

Now cell capacities are also given in mAh, which state how much power a given cell contains. For an LED driven at the selected power level of, say, 1400 mA, the higher the mAh rating of the cell, the longer it will provide power to the LED. For any given mode selected for the LED, a higher rated cell will run that LED longer than a lower rated cell would.

So, unless you want to 'light up the world' and/or 'reach out and touch someone', selecting a 1400 mA driver for your light is a good suggestion. It will provide more than adequate amounts of light for a general purpose flashlight, and you will not have the heat problems that a higher drive current can incur. Any 18650 cell will power that light for some period of time, the higher the cell's mAh rating, the longer it will do so.

Ahh I see , its me being a newbie I understand now. If I am honest, I got it from gearbest so have no idea what the controller will be, it just said
[h=1]Convoy S2+ Cree XML U2 - 1B 7135 x 6 8 -[/h]
I have no idea if it is the 1050, 1400, 2100, or 2800MAH I've got, it just said what I have wrote above and said max lumens 940.

Each 7135 chip will deliver 350ma so... 350*6 = 2100ma

That's a good number

Poppy said:

Each 7135 chip will deliver 350ma so... 350*6 = 2100ma

That's a good number

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I notice its not the 1400, does this mean it may be a bit brighter but sacrifice battery life? Which chip was the 1400MAH, just incase I ever need another I will be more versed. I am still glad it was one of the middle powers, and not the minimum and not the maximum .

The 7135 chip is part of the driver circuitry. As Poppy said, each 7135 chip will contribute 350ma to the output of the driver. So to get 1400ma one would need four 7135 chips. A lot of places that sell driver P)rinted C)ircuit B)oards will only tell you the maximum output of the board. Others, like Mountain Electronics will let you configure your own driver PCB, and there you get to specify how many 7135s should be used.

And to answer your other question, yes, the 2100ma output will mean a brighter maximum output, with a corresponding shorter run time.