Brightest LED-light on 14500 batteries

F-r-e-d-r-i-k

Newly Enlightened
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Sep 3, 2007
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I happen to be in the Army now (norwegian borderpatrol near Russia that is). I was picking up some gear in the storage room yesterday, and guess what I found, a ton of 14500 3.6 volt lithium-batteries.

Now I need some help to find a flashlight that is at least as bright as UltraFire C2, but that uses these batteries.
 
That's pretty cool. I wonder what the heck they have those for?

Know of any equipment they are used in?

*sorry don't mean to take the thread off topic*
 
How about the Candle-Power 14500 5-Mode(review, estimated 140 lumen on high), it could be even brighter if you modify it with a Cree Q5. The light can use 1xAA, 2xAA or similar sized battery up to 4.2v.

Are those batteries primary or rechargeable?

Welcome to CPF!
 
Hi. Thank's for quick response.
The batteries are not rechargeable, primary. They are imported from France, and we use them as "memory-batteries" in our old-school GPS-units. Probably kinda expensive, but the army has big budgets ;) .

The Candle-Power light looks great, but for 40$ I might go for the Dexlight instead. What do you think?

Patriot36: The batteries in the C2 are serial-connected right? Doesn't that mean that the LED only gets 3.6 volt? Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
I have all the lights mentioned and think that the Jet Beam MKIIx is the brightest and best made. It's $50 but worth it.
 
The Dexlight X.I is similar to the Jetbeam MKIIx with better knurling and a lower price(I also have an unused token to lower the price to $40). It is a bit dimmer then the Jetbeam but still bright enough and I prefer it's knurling to the Jetbeam's smooth body.
 
Hi. Thank's for quick response.
The batteries are not rechargeable, primary. They are imported from France, and we use them as "memory-batteries" in our old-school GPS-units. Probably kinda expensive, but the army has big budgets ;) .

The Candle-Power light looks great, but for 40$ I might go for the Dexlight instead. What do you think?

Patriot36: The batteries in the C2 are serial-connected right? Doesn't that mean that the LED only gets 3.6 volt? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Sorry Fredrik, I lost track of this tread.....

As for the 3.6 non-rechargeable, I didn't even know they existed. That said, the light that you picked should work fine with them. You could purchase a couple of protected li-ions and charger also if you wanted. After the intial purchase it's very inexpensive to run li-ion.

To answer your question the C2 has a voltage range from 3.7 to 9.0 volts...

It will run a 3.7 volts (4.2 volts fully charged) on a single 18650 Li-ion
http://batteryjunction.com/2600pcb-18650.html

or at 6.0 volts on 2 standard 3.0v CR123 lithiums
http://batteryjunction.com/1pcsofcrteli.html

or at 6.0 volts on 2 3.0v RCR123 li-ions (rechargeable)
http://batteryjunction.com/rc390reliba.html

or at 7.2 volts(8.4v fully charged) on 2 3.6v RCR123A (4.2v x 2 fully charged)
http://batteryjunction.com/uf16340.html

Hope that isn't too confusing.
 
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Nake: That is exactly the ones we use.

selfbuilt: Great review. I see your'e point with runtimes, but in tactical use output is all that matters, so the Dexlight is the one for me, since the Jetbeam is kinda hard to get.

Thank's everyone.
 
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