Fluppeteer
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2016
- Messages
- 21
Hi all. A while back I posted a concern that I seemed to be having trouble getting high power LED flooders to work well: Originally, I couldn't get a ThruNite TN36UT to run in turbo mode at all on two different sets of ThruNite 3400mAh cells, and I also got nothing out of a replacement NiWalker MM15MB. Switching to some higher-current cells (a selection from LG, Samsung, Efest and Panasonic - only the last being protected) the MM15MB gave me a run time of about a minute at turbo and twenty minutes on "high" before turning off, which wasn't really what I signed up for. I posted a thread to ask what was up; this is a follow-up.
Having sourced a replacement TN36UT (now I have cells that I'm more confident in), I got about 10 minutes' run time on turbo before the lights went out - still way below the 80-odd minutes reported in some reviews, more so than I'd expect for the difference between a 3400mAh cell and a 2500mAh cell. I also have some TN30s, because I spotted a special offer and thought I may have some 3400mAh cells that might otherwise go wasting. (Recall: I'm trying to portably light dim locations that have white ceilings with a portable uplighter.) They work, but they're much less floody and bright than their big brother.
I finally have news to report: Out of paranoia, I also sourced a new 18650 charger (a D4 from Nitecore) to supplement my Foxnovo F-4 (the non-S version, without the LCD). On the previous thread, NoNotAgain suggested that I check the cell voltages. Which I didn't get around to doing earlier. Silly me, I thought nobody could mess up making a charger...
So I took a set of "fully-charged" (three solid bars) 18650s off my Foxnovo charger and stuck them on the Nitecore one. Which reported 3.58V, one bar of charging progress, and spent a significant additional time pumping them up to somewhere nearer 4.2V.
With the Nitecore's idea of a fully-charged set of cells, I tried my MM15MB again. Turbo ran for at least five minutes, after which (while the power indicator LED had turned red) it was still running and the flashlight was uncomfortable to touch; this is much closer to the behaviour I expected, and I had to go to work before continuing the experiment. I'm reasonably confident of getting a longer run-time out of the TN36UT as well, and might even discover that my ThruNite 18650s are perfectly capable of running these flashlights after all (and don't need to be relegated to the TN30s). I also got some 18650-based fans to point at them, which has proven to me that everything powered by an 18650 is a bit scary (they would double as hair driers) and will hopefully keep at least the TN36UT (which has fins) reasonably cool.
On the plus side, I seem to have solved my lighting problem. Apart from anything else, pointed at a white ceiling, the TN36UT puts out enough illumination that it makes negligible difference to the room illumination whether or not I have the main room ceiling light turned on; scarily, this is also true in my kitchen, which has a set of six pretty reasonable LED spotlights. I've not run them side by side, but the MM15MB is in the same brightness range, with a bit more of a hotspot.
But I did just spend a lot of money over-fixing a problem caused by a $15 charger. So grr. I'll be posting an unfavourable Amazon review.
Sharing the story so others can learn from my mistakes!
Incidentally, one additional use of a flashlight to add to the pile: I cooked some pancakes on Tuesday, and was going to fire up my laptop to do some work, but happened to play with the TN36UT on turbo first. There was a weird swirling to the air that I couldn't see under my normal dim room lights: the area immediately in front of the flashlight looked like a thrower's beam shot. Turns out, I'd mildly burnt the pancakes. I decided not to suck a load of smoke into my laptop's fan, and delayed until the next day. (The same test now shows my room to be a bit dusty, but no longer full of smoke.) So, my TN36UT is now a smoke detector. Which will entirely justify its purchase to my wife, I'm sure...
Thanks again for everyone's assistance. Especially the one bit I didn't listen to!
Having sourced a replacement TN36UT (now I have cells that I'm more confident in), I got about 10 minutes' run time on turbo before the lights went out - still way below the 80-odd minutes reported in some reviews, more so than I'd expect for the difference between a 3400mAh cell and a 2500mAh cell. I also have some TN30s, because I spotted a special offer and thought I may have some 3400mAh cells that might otherwise go wasting. (Recall: I'm trying to portably light dim locations that have white ceilings with a portable uplighter.) They work, but they're much less floody and bright than their big brother.
I finally have news to report: Out of paranoia, I also sourced a new 18650 charger (a D4 from Nitecore) to supplement my Foxnovo F-4 (the non-S version, without the LCD). On the previous thread, NoNotAgain suggested that I check the cell voltages. Which I didn't get around to doing earlier. Silly me, I thought nobody could mess up making a charger...
So I took a set of "fully-charged" (three solid bars) 18650s off my Foxnovo charger and stuck them on the Nitecore one. Which reported 3.58V, one bar of charging progress, and spent a significant additional time pumping them up to somewhere nearer 4.2V.
With the Nitecore's idea of a fully-charged set of cells, I tried my MM15MB again. Turbo ran for at least five minutes, after which (while the power indicator LED had turned red) it was still running and the flashlight was uncomfortable to touch; this is much closer to the behaviour I expected, and I had to go to work before continuing the experiment. I'm reasonably confident of getting a longer run-time out of the TN36UT as well, and might even discover that my ThruNite 18650s are perfectly capable of running these flashlights after all (and don't need to be relegated to the TN30s). I also got some 18650-based fans to point at them, which has proven to me that everything powered by an 18650 is a bit scary (they would double as hair driers) and will hopefully keep at least the TN36UT (which has fins) reasonably cool.
On the plus side, I seem to have solved my lighting problem. Apart from anything else, pointed at a white ceiling, the TN36UT puts out enough illumination that it makes negligible difference to the room illumination whether or not I have the main room ceiling light turned on; scarily, this is also true in my kitchen, which has a set of six pretty reasonable LED spotlights. I've not run them side by side, but the MM15MB is in the same brightness range, with a bit more of a hotspot.
But I did just spend a lot of money over-fixing a problem caused by a $15 charger. So grr. I'll be posting an unfavourable Amazon review.
Sharing the story so others can learn from my mistakes!
Incidentally, one additional use of a flashlight to add to the pile: I cooked some pancakes on Tuesday, and was going to fire up my laptop to do some work, but happened to play with the TN36UT on turbo first. There was a weird swirling to the air that I couldn't see under my normal dim room lights: the area immediately in front of the flashlight looked like a thrower's beam shot. Turns out, I'd mildly burnt the pancakes. I decided not to suck a load of smoke into my laptop's fan, and delayed until the next day. (The same test now shows my room to be a bit dusty, but no longer full of smoke.) So, my TN36UT is now a smoke detector. Which will entirely justify its purchase to my wife, I'm sure...
Thanks again for everyone's assistance. Especially the one bit I didn't listen to!