Magical ARC AAA

I left a white ARC AAA running for 4-5 hours. When I noticed it, there was a faint glow coming from it's LED. I turned it off. The next day I turned it on to make sure it wasn't my turqouise ARC AAA before I reloaded a fresh AAA.

Boomph! Looks like it has a fresh battery in it.

Tell me if I have this right: The battery chemistry equalized and it "regenerated" itself. The DC/DC step up regulator found enough juice to step up the voltage to a point that powered the light at full brightness again.

Or...it's a magical ARC AAA.

One way or another; that is so cool. Wonder if my BB500 would do the same thing? Thank you ahead of time for your insights.

Icebreak- You got it dead on! (But that doesn't mean they aren't magic ).

Larry

Sure, the BB will do the same thing. Batteries like their rest! If an EV ever runs out of juice, you can save yourself a hike by shutting it down, reading a book for a few minutes, and firing it back up again. Its all magical.

This is one of the reasons a Photon works so well for those "quick shots of light". If you just use a minute or two of light occasionally from the lithium battery in a Photon...it will give really long service and the light will be REALLY BRIGHT over quite a long service time.

ikendu -

Because the battery rests, not because the photon is regulated?

Originally posted by tvodrd:
...dead on! (But that doesn't mean they aren't magic

).

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Originally posted by darell:
Its all magical.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">That's what I thought.

Take a look at ARC's website...Peter describes this phenomenon, and it is a built-in, intentional feature of the "moon mode"

Very cool.

Continuous and intermittent use runtimes can be to very different things. Unfortunately not many testers have the time do an intermittent test.

Batteries are able to do some "regeneration", its very common that a battery voltage will go up after the load is removed; this depends on the battery chemistry and temperature

Just don't count on this feature; batteries are not "magical" they drain when you use them

INRETECH-

Thanks, Mike. A little off topic here: I'm looking forward to your next post about the progress of your public art project.

RonM -

I understand what you mean and will keep it in mind. A light is built and tested out to have a continuous runtime of four hours but real world usage may render a far greater runtime.

merlperl-

I've wondered what the term "moon mode" really meant. If I understand you, when the battery reaches a predicted lower level of forward voltage, a component of the regulator detects it. It then throws the light into a much lower regulation. In this way the light can still be used for a limited number of purposes and the battery is left with a chemistry that will allow it to "regenerate" if it is allowed to rest. After the battery "regenerates", a component of regulator detects adequate forward voltage to allow the DC/DC step up portion of the circuitry to pass enough electrons to the emmiter to produce a light that is almost equal to that of one driven by a new battery.

Amazing. All this in a "pill" (did I get that right?) 1/2 the size of my little finger nail.

All this for twenty bucks.