Battery question from a newbe.

[Chidwack]

About a month ago I decided to get into the tactical LED flashlight market and found this site. There is a wealth of information here and it's almost intimidating to a novice trying to learn.

After a little research I ordered and received an Olight M20s Warrior. I am blown away with the brightness of this little light. Problem is, it's addicting and I'm becoming a lightaholic. I'm researching and reading about other lights and I can't wait to order them.

I wish I would have found this site at the beginning as it would have saved me the trouble of buying cheap crappy batteries. I ordered 6 Ultrafire 3000 mAh 18650 batteries thinking they would hold a longer charge only to find that I couldn't get even half the burn time from my M20 that I was supposed to get. After calling Olight and talking to the owner who told me that he had stopped using Ultrafire batteries because of poor QC, I took the recommendation of some here on this site and bought a couple of AW 2900 mAh batteries. This solved my burn time problem.

Now I'm wanting a light that takes AA batteries as I have quite a few NiMh batteries and I ordered a 4Sevens AA2 Tactical. I hope it's a good light. I was planning to buy a few 14500 Li/Io batteries only to learn that I can't use them in this light because the light will only take 4.2 volts. I am thinking about buying a AA body for this light so I can put one 14500 battery in it. Here is my question.

Will this light be as bright and have as long a throw using one 14500 battery as it does when using 2 AA NiMh batteries? I know that the answer to this question is probably somewhere on this site but I can't find it. I called 4 sevens and the lady couldn't answer my question. Thanks in advance for any replys.

 

[Aquanaut]

The Quark AA2 tactical has five current regulated output levels. Since the voltage range is 0.9V ~ 4.2V, this means that the light current must be regulated in order to output constant levels of light.

I recommend that you should stick with two AAs for power over one 14500, since the watt hours is higher with the two AAs thus: 2 X 1.2V X 2.000ah is more than 3.7V X .750ah, which is the respective watt hours contained in the two sources.

 

[moderator007]

It should be close to the same if not slightly brighter. This probably has a boost circuit that boost up the voltage. With the li-ion it probably bucks the voltage down until the forward voltage of the led is met with the battery voltage. Then it becomes either direct drive or it boost again. Usual a buck circuit is more efficient than a boost. But yes it should be as bright with less run time. If it does have a boost circuit. I would use only protected cells. As the boost circuit will continue to drain the li-ion down past the recommended voltage of 3v. The boost circuit doesnt know where to stop. Maybe some body here knows the exact specs on this circuit?