10W HID Mag - low brightness after first minute?

[chrisWELD]

Hi all,

recently dug my Silver Legacy 1D HID Mag out of storage, charged up the two Pila 168S Li-ions, and put them in the regulated custom battery holder I bought for it (11.38V).

After the first 30s of warming up to some blinding light it fairly suddenly ramps down to not much more than my Fenix PD3, and stays that way. If I turn it off for 30 seconds and re-start it, it begins to get nice and bright again, but then the same thing happens again - back to lower brightness after the first minute or so.

Could this be the Pilas current regulation kicking in or is there something wrong with the flashlight?

Cheers guys,

Chris

 

[Illum]

I'm inclined to believe your batteries might be getting tired from a heavy current load causing a voltage sag...

Considering its an HID I wouldn't leave the ballast off the table here either. Interesting, hopefully someone who knows HIDs can chime in.

Subscribed:wave:, I'm interested in the answer as well.

 

[chrisWELD]

Thanks Illum

Voltage sag after 30s seems a bit quick to me but then I know next to nothing about HIDs depite owning one. Also the batts are 4 years old even if they've only had maybe 5 cycles in total...

Please experts out there - does anyone any more thoughts on what could be causing this?

If it's the ballast, how would I know?

Thanks all,

Chris

 

[Aircraft800]

Question, doesn't that ballast require more voltage? How does 2 Li-Ion Pillas give you 11.38V? My pack consist of 3 Li-Ion 17670 cells (11.1V). Do you have a power supply to test the ballast? I wonder if it's the regulated custom battery holder not being able to keep up with the boost, it makes more sense than the ballast failing considering it is able to start up OK. Check your pack sag. I believe the ballast is rated for 10.2v, 11.5v max.

 

[yellow]

correct about input voltage

+ batteries can be dead.
Usual lifetime about 5 years, no matter if used or not.

Regulation kicking in would cause no current at all, total stop. So its not the protection.

 

[Patriot]

Two fresh 18650's (boosted) have no trouble whatsoever running that 10W ballast, in fact they should give you over an hour of run-time. If the problem is indeed battery related it's likely due to their age. At least there's an easy way to find out.

 

[chrisWELD]

Aircraft800, Yellow, Patriot - thanks for your replies

The 2 Pilas go into a custom battery holder with a boost regulation circuit so it should be keeping things at 11.38V, but I think it may as you guys say it may just be the age of the Pilas. I had a look through some old threads from when I bought the battery holder and it looks like the ballast is rated for 12.4V(?) max as at least one other buyer asked to have theirs calibrated to this.
Purchase thread here for ref: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=73386

I've got no power supply to test the ballast but I've just remembered that I have a 4xCR123 battery holder somewhere so I guess that'll do to test whether it dims after 30s as per my rechargeable rig.

I've got no spare Pilas but I'll order a pair of 17670's from AW and see what happens too.

Thanks for the advice guys. Will let you know how it turns out

Cheers,

Chris