Did my 10440 damage my LD01?

[NotSoBrightBob]

I hope this belongs in this forum because I think it's battery related.

I recently jumped into the rechargeables market and got my first 10440 cell. Charged it up and before putting it into my Fenix LD01 I took some lux meter reading from my cheapie meter to compare the output on two batteries. I found something strange I would like some guidance on.

The LD01 with a fresh eneloop read 254 lux
I inserted the freshly charged 10440 and got 770 lux (Great news!)
I removed the 10440 and reinserted the eneloop and got (155)

I thought to myself no way so rechaceked my distances from the meter, light settings, etc and all points to the same differences.

Did that burst of 3.7+ volts put the LED in some type of protection mode that would reduce the output regardless of voltage?

I'm confused.

Thanks for any education

Bob

 

[VidPro]

no it would probably be the burst of about 4.2V the charged voltage of the battery that did you in.
if i remember right, the LDO1 is a lightly driven smaller light, runs about 80lumens with a nice drive current on normal bats like a alkie at 1.5 volts or a lithium primary at about 1.7v, then slams up to some 230+lumens on a direct drive overdrive , pulverising the onboard driver , and overheating in mere minutes, at higher voltages.

while the weakness of such a small cell should have saved you, it probably only saved the led itself and knocked the tiny driver .

does it still change levels? can you still see the PWM strobe? are you SURE its not in one of the lower modes?
is the output relative to your input? meaning did you check to see if your now butting up against huge losses of power, or just now have a lower running light?

if your positive its dead, then rip out the driver, wire up the led direct or almost direct, and enjoy the first 230lumen LDO out there :thumbsup:
when you turn it into lemons, just make the lemonade.

this is consistant with what happens often when you have a Boost driver, that (basically) MUST have a lower battery input voltage, than the Leds voltage, the input voltage is cranked up to the led voltage. when the voltage goes over the voltage of the led, the "boost" curcuit is no longer doing its thing, and instead power is going through the boost curcuit direct to the led, of course not needing boost, but bursting.

you can do this with many of the 1aaa 1AA or 2AA and 2aaa lights , and EVEN many of the 123 3v primary lights. some can take the overdrive, and some cant. and some people will SAY it can, and it May or may not, and you take a risk, and it can burn out slowly or it can go quick, and some lights cope with it for a long time, and there are lights out there that will never fail comppletly that are doing the same "wrong" thing. also if your really carefull sometimes, keeping the heat down you can get away with it longer.

does the light have in it a magic fusing curcuit that knocks the drive down permenentally when you shove 3times the voltage in that is ever listed in the instructions? well that would be nice wouldnt it. you could find that out by recharging the 10400 and take it for another spin, if it quits completly the answer would be a definate no

if it does keep working, then your all set. :twothumbs

i am just bugging ya, if the output just dropped , and there is no other losses YET, like it using power that you get no light for, then you still have a key light that works, but chances are good that it is now, not only low in input but bad in efficency. and it might keep getting worse as you use it, when the electrons slow down through the leftover carbon ash piles.

mabey you just didnt read it right to begin with, but now you will always wonder . .. and of course i am not any help.

 

[EngrPaul]

Take a look at the following information:

http://www.philipslumileds.com/technology/lumenmaintenance.cfm

The chart on the bottom shows how temperature and current are enemies to the life of an emitter. The life of the emitter is based on it's diminishing output.

You're probably pushing 1A to the LED, and the junction temperature is unknown. You could be off the chart, especially if it's a stainless steel model, or if your LED wasn't epoxied well (too thick of layer, epoxy that can't handle the heat, etc).

I recommend sticking with the manufacturer's recommendation for power source and/or input voltage.

 

[Black Rose]

4sevens had a great post on here in the past where I believe he indicated that these AAA lights were not designed to handle the voltage of the 10440 and they could be damaged by using those cells.

Looks like an expensive lesson....

EDIT: Here is the post I was talking about.