Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

[Spypro]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

My AA battery vampire is a North49 2 x AA with six 5mm LED. I made a little mod to put only one battery in it when I want to drain only one cell.

 

[Omega Man]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

AA- CMG/Gerber Infinity or Infinity Ultra. LED color doesn't matter too much, my Ultra white gets fed used Discman cells and works well on them to read for a week or 2.
AA-SMJLED or Wah Wang LED(both the bi-pin bare LEDs) in a host of your choice. I have one in a Mini Mag and one in a Ray-O-Vac Swivel Light. The output is dim but runs for weeks.
CR123- Inova 24/7
9v- Pak Lites, Sea Pals, Safe Lights, and all their incarnations. My Sea Pal is still running it's "Find Me" light after over 2 years constant on.
The older Luxeon and 5mm LED lights are going to be pretty much your best or only bet with draining cells now.

 

[angelofwar]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Oh, and 1Xcr123's get drained on my 24/7's as well...

 

[Tempest UK]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Another vote for a red Inova X5 for draining CR123a. It just keeps on going Excellent light to keep by the bedside.

Regards,
Tempest

 

[greenLED]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

AA: CMG Task Light
AAA: ArcAAA
123: Inova X5, ArcLS, or SF L1 (Lux)

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

I have a Streamlite Twin Task 1L that has the tail drilled and tapped and a Kroll in it. The Incandescent beam ain't worth spit no matter WHAT shape the battery is in. But the 3 LEDs work pretty good down to LOW battery.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

The ELEKTRO LUMENS Blaster 1-D (one MicroPuck) will drain D cells that won't light anything else. It'll run for a week straight on a new D cell.

 

[RoyJ]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Here's what we should all do - use nothing but 6D Mags.

This way, when the battery drops to 1.25V, switch to a 5cell bulb. When the battery goes down to 1V, switch to a 4cell bulb. 3cell bulb @ 0.75V, 2cell bulbs @ 0.5V, and finally, solitair bulb at 0.25V.

Who says you can't have perfect regulation on a stock Incan Mag?

 

[LED_Thrift]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Underwater Kinetics 4 AA eLED for used AA cells.
PAL Light Safe Light for 9v cells.

One problem I've been running into with using worn down AA cells is that they leak more often. I need a light that is easy to clean out after a leak.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

I've been having good luck running a CR123 below 1.65 volts with my Surefire E-Series MicroTower (E-MT) F1 LED drop in. The F1 uses a modified voltage regulated circuit.

Bill

 

[Crenshaw]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

I got my ARC a few days ago, and it runs TOO well on speant batteries... i have a whole bag full of AAAs that i used to power higher draw stuff such as speakers, Jetbeam-U, etc,and the ARC refuses to die so that i can use up that bag and finally put in a Lithium!...

Crenshaw

 

[Gimpy00Wang]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Don't forget about the Milky candles. They can run on 1-2 123's and seem to keep going and going and going. I hang on to partially/"completely" depleated cells just in case there's an extended power outage. I have around 20 exhausted 123's that are just begging for the power to go out. When all my other lights are no longer pumping out the lumens at least I can snuggle up to my trusty Milky candle.

- Chris

 

[Big_Ed]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

The one thing I worry about when trying to drain a cell all the way down is it might leak (alkalines, that is).

I'd like to have a light fixture made of a few LED's that would have a completely separate battery holder or holders for various sizes of batteries. (Separate so if a battery leaks, it would only get on the holder.) The batteries would be put in parrallel, so different voltages wouldn't affect it. Put some sort of a boost circuit in it, and it would make a good light to put over the toilet for midnight trips to the bathroom.

Does such a light fixture/setup exist?

 

[Crenshaw]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Don't forget about the Milky candles. They can run on 1-2 123's and seem to keep going and going and going. I hang on to partially/"completely" depleated cells just in case there's an extended power outage. I have around 20 exhausted 123's that are just begging for the power to go out. When all my other lights are no longer pumping out the lumens at least I can snuggle up to my trusty Milky candle.

- Chris

Yes, but i was going for stock, un-modified stuff, commercial kind of thing, maybe i should have a category for specifically custom built stuff...hmmm

Big_ed, i would actually like to make one too, i started with this (scroll down)
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2314123#post2314123

looking to improve it, but im trying to find a circuit that will only push at 100ish mah cos i originally inteded it for a long running light, hence the D batteries
Crenshaw

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

The one thing I worry about when trying to drain a cell all the way down is it might leak (alkalines, that is)...

I feel pretty safe running down weak alkys in single cell lights. While a leak is always possible at least there is no chance of reversing polarity in a one cell light -- which in my reality map would seem to greatly decrease the probability of an alkaline leaking.

EDIT: That reminds me of another light that's good for draining alkys: the Pak-Lite. We've always run them on old pulled smoke alarm batteries and batteries that have already powered a wireless body mic for a show and can't be trusted for another go. (I don't think I've ever run a Pak-Lite on a new battery -- I pull the ones they come with for a six month tour of smoke alarm duty.) There used to be a great testimonial letter on the Pak-Lite site by a guy from South America who's power went out a lot who stated that he got 125 hours in his Pak-Lite from each used smoke alarm battery (with an average use of 3-4 hours at a time). I believe him.

Anyway, in the powerless six week aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans we ran my Original Pak-Lite (in tourquois) so much that we actually used up about four used 9v coppertops. The Pak-Lites must have drawn them down pretty far because half of them terminated with a POP, causing the individual AAAA cells within to extend various lengths out through the cardboard bottoms of the batteries. In all cases none of the AAAA cells completely left the 9v battery case. There was also no leakage -- no mess -- although we did throw them away right away and didn't keep them around to observe.

 

[Toohotruk]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

I feel pretty safe running down weak alkys in single cell lights. While a leak is always possible at least there is no chance of reversing polarity on a one cell -- which in my reality map would seem to greatly decrease the probability of an alkaline leaking.

I've had them leak in single cell situations too, in fact, I've seen them leak just sitting on a dresser all by themselves.

Still probably less likely than in multiple cell devices though.

 

[pbs357]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

Cool thread!

What other 1x23 lights are out there? I have a pile of cells that my x5 will light on, but I'd like a smaller version (3mm or 5mm LED) style light, in fear of the dreaded 2x123 venting situation :sick2:

 

[swxb12]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

nm

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

I've had them leak in single cell situations too, in fact, I've seen them leak just sitting on a dresser all by themselves...

Yes. With thinner and thinner separators and skins any damage incurred in transit or storage can cause them to leak -- even though there may be no visible damage. If a case or whole pallet of new cells is dropped before it gets to the user they may leak.

I recall a post by a CPFer who worked in a retail store and reported seeing new cells leaking on display in their blister-packs.

This has caused me to look at rechargeables slightly differently. With alkalines I know nothing about them when I open a new pack. With rechargeables that I've used myself and charged a few times I'm quite a bit more confident that there is no hidden damage within the cell waiting to fail in a messy way out of nowhere..

 

[Toohotruk]

Re: Battery Vampires - Lights that you can feed your "dead" cells to, listing..

I'm gradually heading in the direction of rechargeables. Now that NiMHs have evolved into great performers and Lithium-ion (I have yet to try some of those) has become more user-friendly, there's less and less reason to stick with leaky alkalines.