3 volt green Photon!?

I've had a green Photon II on my keychain for years and years and it's pretty dim, though still useable. I decided to finally get around to changing the cells. I scrounged a pair of 2016's out of a white Countycomm light whose LED had gone dead (odd, I'll make another post about that) and opened up the Photon II. To my surprise, instead of a pair of 2016's there was a 2032 inside. It's been running on 3 volts all along. I don't remember for sure if it's always been dim. I don't have a decent way to test the 2032. I'll have some more Countycomm lights soon so may swap in another 2032.

Anyone know what's going on here? Is there such thing as a low Vf green LED? I do think I've seen some spec'd at 2.4 volts or so, but they were low intensity. Did LRI (Photon) switch to using two 2016's for the green sometime along the way? Did they switch LED's as well?

I do have some vague recollection of this from the dim past. When I first bought my Photons I bought a green one and a white one, and I now sort of remember that the green one was supposed to have much longer battery life. In fact the white one crapped out rather early--the things switch on and off by the springiness of the LED lead, and the lead lost its springiness so the white light got stuck "on" and drained its cells. It's sort of a lame design. If I buy any more high class coin cell lights I'll probably try Inova Microlights or CMG O-4's.

Followup: checking on the LRI user forum (www.photonlights.com) Photon switched over to shipping the green Photon II with two 2016's instead of a 2032 some years ago. I put the 2032 back in and now am pretty impressed that the light is useable. I put my two 2016's into the white one and it works fine now too. I would estimate the 2032 is at around half of CMG Infinity brightness. I just don't remember if it was brighter when I first got it years ago. Based on calculations of Infinity battery life I'm guesstimating my green Photon is running around 5 mA right now. If it runs that dim on a fresh 2032, it should last 40+ hours without getting all that much dimmer!

With your expertise, Paulr, you just answered your own question. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Running a 2032 in a 2x2016 light does produce enough usable light, with a longer runtime. My white Inova Microlight is enjoying its 2032.

When the green Photons first shipped they were 3 volt lights rated for 200 hours of usable light.

I also have one of the original green Photon's. It was rated at 7 days of dim, but useable, light. That is why I bought it. 7 days on?? Cool!!
Then someone put 2 batteries in it, and it became the super-bright-green Photon light. That's when Photon started shipping them with 2 batteries. I'll stick with my 7 days of light instead. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif



Blades

Sorry for my clumsy question, but does this mean that either (1) 2032 or (2) 2016's can be used in ANY of the different Photon lights?

Can one of you give me a VERY dumb'ed down exlaination of the different options?

I currently have a couple of White Photon II's and I have a a couple of Yellow and Red Photon I's on the way.

What are my options with these three diferent lights with regard to what batteries can be used in them and how performance would be effected in each (brightness & expected runtime)?

Thanks,

-John

You should not use two cells with the yellow, orange, or red LED's. Those color leds expect lower voltage and using too much can damage them.

With the green, blue, or white ones, you can use either one or two cells. Two cells will be much brighter but have much less runtime. Runtime might be around 1-2 hours on two cells, 30+ hours on one cell. But they will be pretty dim on one cell.

The red, orange, and yellow leds will give good brightness on one cell, and have runtime in the middle somewhere, maybe 5-10 hours.

The LED Museum has a runtime graph for the Photon 3:

http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/pho3.htm

I don't know of anyone who's done graphs for the different colors and cell combinations for the Photon II. It's worth doing, in my opinion. I may do it someday if I get the equipment.

That was very helpful. Thanks Paul.

-John

FYI, driving the white, green, blue, etc. colored leds in the Photons with 2 2016 (6V) is overdriving them. That is why these little lights are so bright. The led life will suffer as a result.
Although the battery can't deliver enough current to truly damage the led's right away, these led's are being overdriven. You will notice that they are not as bright after a while, even with fresh batteries.

I think the red or orange led's paired with the single 3V 2032 is a better match....better for the led, and longer run time. These led's have a lower Vf...somewhere around mid 2 volts...

It's too bad that nobody makes a 3.6V lithium coin cell battery...for the white and blue and turquoise colors...

[ QUOTE ]
JollyRoger said:
It's too bad that nobody makes a 3.6V lithium coin cell battery...for the white and blue and turquoise colors...

[/ QUOTE ]
Just FYI, a typical Nichia white LED direct-driven from a new Tadrian 3.6 volt AA cell consumes 9.6mA.
So it's not blindingly bright, but it's not terribly dim either. Just FYI.

Green Photon II with one 2032 works fine, especially when you're dark adapted. I'll guess it's drawing around 5 mA. Subjective brightness is about 1/2 of a CMG Infinity, which is plenty for just seeing what you're doing in the dark.

BTW, I just got a pile of the Countycomm $1.00 lights and will post a review pretty soon. Right now I'm in the process of swapping a single 2032 battery into one of the white ones to see if it's useable that way.

The white Nichia on the 3.6V Tadiran AA cell is probably what the Tektite Trek Lithium (formerly Micro-lith) amounts to. That's the light reviewed on your site, that ran for 12 days straight with no significant dimming! Batterystation had a closeout on some outdated cells of that type for $1.00 each, and I thought about making a Microlith-like light from one of those Dorcy 1AA 50 cent throwaway lights, but didn't bother.

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
The white Nichia on the 3.6V Tadiran AA cell is probably what the Tektite Trek Lithium (formerly Micro-lith) amounts to. That's the light reviewed on your site, that ran for 12 days straight with no significant dimming!

[/ QUOTE ]
That's exactly what the Trek Lithium (formerly Micra Lithium) light uses. A Tadrian (or Hawker Eternacell or equivalent) cell and a white Nichia LED in a faceted reflector. I believe it runs for around 10 days before it starts noticeably dimming; I ended the test after 12 days when it became obvious the battery was finally pooping out. :O
That's 240 hours of steady light; 288 hours or so if you add in those last two days. And maybe 300+ hours if you just run it into the ground. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif