I loaded my UKE 2AAA eLED with 700 mAH NiMH cells that were fully but not freshly charged (probably 80-90%) about 12 hours or so ago. It ran strong til maybe 1/2 hour ago but has now gotten pretty dim, maybe 1/2 of CMG Infinity level. This is still plenty bright enough for walking around a dark room or finding the can in the dark. Perhaps more importantly, it seems to be holding steady at this brightness. I'll see how long it lasts. The claim of 20 hours on two alkaline AAA's certainly sounds realistic.
I actually don't think total runtime is all that important even for small EDC lights. Much more important is knowing with certainty that you have a reasonable amount of runtime left (say 1 hour). This "moon mode" does a good job of notifying you to change the batteries while still giving enough light to be useable without fuss. My guess is it's basically direct driving the LED at 2 volts or so. The result is a lot better than direct drive with a 1 cell light at 1 volt or so, making a barely perceptable glow. The focusing optic also is helpful here, in giving the light more reach.
So this is another reason to find that the eLED is a nice backup light.
Update: About 1 hour later, the Infinity now swamps the eLED. The eLED is maybe at 1/10th of the Infinity's brightness. Believe it or not, that's still a useful level of light. It's daytime and I'm not dark adapted, but going into a closet and shutting the door, I can still easily find my way around with this light. That's much more than I can do with an Arc AAA in moon mode. I guess I'll toss the NiMH cells back on the charger now.
I actually don't think total runtime is all that important even for small EDC lights. Much more important is knowing with certainty that you have a reasonable amount of runtime left (say 1 hour). This "moon mode" does a good job of notifying you to change the batteries while still giving enough light to be useable without fuss. My guess is it's basically direct driving the LED at 2 volts or so. The result is a lot better than direct drive with a 1 cell light at 1 volt or so, making a barely perceptable glow. The focusing optic also is helpful here, in giving the light more reach.
So this is another reason to find that the eLED is a nice backup light.
Update: About 1 hour later, the Infinity now swamps the eLED. The eLED is maybe at 1/10th of the Infinity's brightness. Believe it or not, that's still a useful level of light. It's daytime and I'm not dark adapted, but going into a closet and shutting the door, I can still easily find my way around with this light. That's much more than I can do with an Arc AAA in moon mode. I guess I'll toss the NiMH cells back on the charger now.