Re: Bightest 2C M@g option?
So, a 123 powered light would be a good glove box light then. Sounds like I have a power source. A good driver and a P4 or P7 with heatsink and I should be good to go.
Lets look at this, I have built P4, P7 and 5761 lights in various configurations and I will tell you somethings from experience.
AW C cells are the best protected lithium Ion cells, 55 mm long at 3.3 Ah and 3.6 Volts; they fit in a light without enlarging the bore.
Emoli Cs, are 70 mm long, 2.95 Ah and 3.7 volts, safe lithium unprotected batteries, the mag must be bored with a brake hone to accept these.
A123, not 123A, are C that are safe lithium unprotected batteries too, 65 mm long and 3.3 volts and 2.3 Ah. A123 lights must be bored too.
The LEDS are catagorized by a bin code consisting of three bins run together and it means something like this: luminosity (one letter), color (3 letters), voltage (one letter),
for this discussion I will skip the center bin and write of luminosity and Voltage. Usually the center bin is represented for P7 by three letters, 5 letters is the entire bin code.
P7 available in C bin is 700-800 lumens are voltage bin, I bin or 3.5 Volts which is the voltage required for max output, called forward voltage Vf.
P7 available in D bin 800-900 lumens are voltage bin, J bin or to say they take 3.75 volts to put out maximum luminosity, a higher voltage bin.
P4 are 3.5 Vf. and a max output about 225 lumen, about 1/4 of a P7 D bin in light output.
If you run any of these LEDs direct drive on A123 cells direct drive it will work but you will have dimmer outputs than what you want becaue the voltage will be 3.3 volts and even less due to the volts lost to internal resistance and the natural run down when the battery is turned on. It could be calculated but I do not have time to do that. It will be too dim and defeat your purpose and that is avoidable.
All three LEDs do well at 3.6 volts, the AW cells, (18650s will also fit with a pvc spacer inside a c cell but it is way less run time of the AW c-cell).
Only the P7 D bin, J bin runs well on the 3.7 volt emoli. The emoli is too much voltage for the other two LEDs and direct drive will cook them. The D bin, J bin on the emoli is the brightest direct drive LED battery combination, I get over 3.0 Amp running at the LED. It is not that significantly brighter however than the C bin, I bin on AW cells, you need to see them side by side to notice it. The P7 I posted above in the 2C is a D bin , J bin on an emoli and it looks and test by light meter a little brighter than other combinations I tried.
For a little incan discussion:
A 5761 in a 3c-cell with two A123 cells will run with out a soft start very reliably and bightly as the bulb voltage will likely start at 6.9 volts. The bulb is rated over 600 lumens at 6 volts! This is an excellent combination. I built a few of them and I know it is a favorite of Jim Jones too because it is so simple and reliable and bright. Using a complicated setup with emoli batteries, resistors and NTC and even combinig an AW driver you can get about 80 more lumens out of it but it is likely to instaflash.
To summarize about you quest:
The LED on Lithium is the way to go. Long run time, Long shelf life. The easiest to throw together and to charge up later is the AW C-cells. Those run any of the 3 LEDs written about here very well and all three LEDs will drop onto several of the heat sinks, I like the plain H22A heat sync.
Hope this helps, I cannot anticipate all the questions you may want to ask me, if any at all but I would be happy to express my opinionon the stuff I have played with and remember the forum is full of opinions and they are have worth. Together we are a thinking group that plays well with others!
The best light is the one you are happy with, it fits your needs and wants.
Parts to build a simple P7 in a Mag C likely will run about $110. From DX and KD you can get several 52mm head P7, they all have the good LOP reflector made for the P7, with on/off mode or fancy with 5 or more modes for around $60. They run on protected 18650 batteries. Two of the 2500 mAh batteris will get you 3/4 the run time of the AW cells. Two sets of batteries, a charger and light can be had for under $80. I got a MTE 5 mode and it is almost as bright and definately has the same throw as my custom P7 rechargeable mod. It broke my heart as the price was very reasonable and the product was perfect. It is an excellent glove box light with strobe, sos, three brightness levels. You can read inside with the low and see 200 meters with the high. They click on and off and a short depress changes modes. They remember the last mode used.
