they should be ok with lithium but not lithium ion. at $1.50/light (if you get them at $2.97/pack) the battery would cost as much or more than the light
Home Depot 1AA Lights (pair)
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turbosteve
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they should be ok with lithium but not lithium ion. at $1.50/light (if you get them at $2.97/pack) the battery would cost as much or more than the light
Why would these not be good for use with L-ION? I've put one in there and ran it for about 30 minutes and yanked it back out yesterday. I was hoping there would be a noticable brightness increase from the voltage but sadly nothing noticable.
Steve
because the circuit isn't designed to put out much, the LED cannot take too much either. It is a waste of time to try to power any LED under a watt with a lithium ion IMO.
I run both my E01 and Microstream on lithium primaries...mainly for the extended runtime...and the reduced weight.
Do you have a Streamlight Nano by any chance? The Nano and the E01 are both 10 lumen lights. I wonder how they compare in brightness and throw. I have and love the Nano for quick, up-close tasks. I will head to Lighthound soon and might pick up the E01 for $12, if it's brighter and throws longer than the Nano. Thanks.
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Sorry, I don't have the Nano. I suspect that since the E01 is a AAA light and the Nano runs on LR41 cells, the E01 will run much longer than the Nano.
The E01 is essentially the Fenix version of the Arc, IMO.
Many folks have compared the E01 to fauxtons, etc, saying they have about equal brightness...at first...but then the E01 outlasts them, having 10-20 hr runtime. For $12, I'd say go for the E01, and get a couple of e2 Energizer lithiums for it.
If you want more throw and brightness, at a cheap price, I'd say you should look at the Streamlight Microstream. It's a "big flashlight in a small package", with throw and brightness suitable for EDC, forward momentary and clickie, and only about 3/4" longer than the E01.
$16 at BrightGuy and Lighthound.
I retired my old Coast 1.25 watt 1AA light for the Microstream, and am happy with the change. The E01 stays on my keychain, and the Microstream in my pocket. BUT, if I had to pick only one small bright, cheap light...I go with the Microstream.
lithium ion are rechargables..... not primaries. I agree lithium primaries are worth using on all but throwaway and giveaway lights that can handle them properly. I would have lithiums (not lithium ion) in a lot of my stuff if I didn't mind the extra cost over finding alkalines on sale for 25 cents each or less vs $1-$2 for lithiums. Until I get a good income I will use alkalines in a few things lithiums in very select things and nimh in everything else I can use them in.
Photon Joe
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I made one of mine all flood by grinding the tube on the back of the reflector down untill it was almost gone.
Then sanded the reflector surface with 400 grit sand paper until it no longer reflected much,if any,
and placed an O-ring in front of the lens to take up some of the space made from grinding the tube part down so that the battery could make contact with the springs again.
This allows the LED to protrude farther into the reflector and sans reflection it is now all smooth flood.
Maybe some extra water resistance due to the O-ring between lens and housing ?
Then sanded the reflector surface with 400 grit sand paper until it no longer reflected much,if any,
and placed an O-ring in front of the lens to take up some of the space made from grinding the tube part down so that the battery could make contact with the springs again.
This allows the LED to protrude farther into the reflector and sans reflection it is now all smooth flood.
Maybe some extra water resistance due to the O-ring between lens and housing ?
no problemo.... but I do think it is funny that putting a $2 battery in a $1.50 light is a good thing :ironic:Right, Lynx...I misread your post as meaning Li primaries...my bad.
I have ground down a reflector to fit a luxeon LED but have been trying to mod the circuit to get enough power out of it to drive the lux brighter than the stock LED which I put in a 9v light that had a red LED.
LightObsession
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The use of the lithium battery in the cheap light is to allow it to stay in the car in very cold weather and still function. Alkalines would be dead at 0 F.
I asked the question, because in the headlamp thread, it had been inferred that unregulated lights (Black Diamond Spot) don't handle the higher voltage of the lithiums very well, maybe this only applies to 3 AAA headlamps and not to 1AA hand lights.
turbosteve
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I second this, I opened one of mine yesterday to breadboard and play around and found no cap on the main board and a tiny smd component on the LED board. I going to go try another one here soon and see if its the style everyone else is seeing.
Steve
turbosteve
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One other quick comment about this LED, a couple of weeks ago I bought a 4 pack of Brinkmann GO-LEDs from RadioShack for $2 and harvested the LEDs and parts for other projects (minimag retro) and when I disassembled the Husky light yesterday I see that the LED looks pretty much identical and it was not a great LED for boosting up it was unappreciative with my mods (limited knowledge here mind you).
Steve
Steve
I am not sure alkalines would be dead at 0F but probably would be unable to put out much till you warmed the light up some. The 3AAA lights are sometimes direct drive or resistored lights and their poorer design depends on the internal resistance of alkalines to reduce the current to the LEDs preventing excessive overdrive. At times manufacturers recommend not to drive lights with rechargables because the overdrive can heat up things and a short in the circuits could cause things to melt and lawsuits have become more frivolous on everything. Some lights that recommend you not to use rechargables have been said to work just fine with them. I have a conspiracy theory that since they came with *free* batteries putting the disclaimer encourages people to buy more batteries like the ones it came with
Mr Happy
Flashlight Enthusiast
I believe these particular 1AA lights are regulated, and so should be OK with the higher lithium voltage. They are cheap enough anyway that if something should go wrong there is not much lost.
bobo383
Newly Enlightened
A couple weeks ago, the Beaumont Home Depot still had piles of these lights and I bought a few pair. After reading of the price drop (on this great site), I went out to get some more. There were none left on Saturday.
Bummer, they're kind of cool and definitely low-buck.
Bummer, they're kind of cool and definitely low-buck.
Tiff
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They had boxes of the Husky 1xAA lights and on sale for $2.97 per pkg! That's pretty cheap! So we bought a bunch. Then we went back and bought some more. They say about 1 in every 3 lights is defective. So we just opened them in Home Depot and returned all the ones that didn't work right then and there.
The light has a purplish tint, but ok for some uses like a nightlight. Of all teh ones we have they all have a purple tint.
Maybe they are Husky Golden Dragons?
The light has a purplish tint, but ok for some uses like a nightlight. Of all teh ones we have they all have a purple tint.
Maybe they are Husky Golden Dragons?
Woods Walker
The Wood is cut, The Bacon is cooked, Now it’s tim
I hate you all. Said I would not get any of these but for under 3 bucks got 2 sets. Of the first set one worked for a few clicks before the clicky went DOA. The other is good so far. Got the 2nd set for a stocking stuffer so don't know.
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