Infinity Task Light...3.6v lithium

[doccjsb]

I just registered and this is my first post. Glad to be here and pick your brains about LED lights. I have a couple of questions about my CMG Infinity Task Light. I read here recently that I can use a 3.6v lithium battery in my Infinity. Is this really true? What, if any damage might occur to the LED? I suppose it will reduce the LED life but I'm not concerned if it isn't too much of a decrease.

Thanks in advance for your answers. I'm looking forward to learning more about LED lights. I've been looking at the ARC AAA and believe it will be my next purchase.

 

[ikendu]

You more likely saw a post that you can use a AA lithium in the Infinity. Those batteries come only from one manufacturer (Eveready) and actually produce 1.7 volts (not 3.6v like other lithium batteries like the 123a).

The availability of these AA lithiums is actually one of the great things about buying an Infinity. You can use your Infinity as a glove box light. The lithium battery chemistry will really resit the baking of a hot car interior (than can really kill the life of an alkaline) and the lithium chemistry will really deliver on cold weather where the cold will seriously degrade the ability of an alkaline to deliver.

So...glove boxes lights often really stress the batteries due to wide climate swings over several years. The Lithium batteries are great for this application. Not all lights will work well with the higher voltage of the lithium AA. Its lucky that the electronics in the Infinity allow it to be tolerant to this wide range of input voltages so you can use alkalines, lithiums and NiMH AAs all in the same light for different uses.

The other neat thing about an Infinity as a glove box light is that since it only has one cell, that cell can't interact with any other cell which can lead to draining of the batteries over time. Also, since the cell is only "in the circuit" when the light is on (otherwise the cell isn't even touching the "case" on both ends of the battery) it also will last longer in storage. I've seen posts that speculate as to why batteries run down when left in the flashlight but will last a long time outside of the flashlight...something about interacting with the metal body of the light and slowly draining away over time.

Sorry...probably more than you wanted to know. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[vcal]

If that 3.6 volt battery is a Tadiran (thionyl chloride), it won't work very well.

The Tadiran (usually has a lavender colored label) 3.6V battery is made more for memory applications, and is for very low drains. <20mA

-That's the 3.6V AA sized cell that I'm familiar with, anyway..

 

[Charles Bradshaw]

The CMG Infinity line (regular and Ultra) are designed for AA only. They will work with NiMH, Alkaline, and Lithium AA (eveready L91). They are not designed to work with 3.6 volt lithiums.

 

[vcal]

[ QUOTE ]
Charles Bradshaw said:
The CMG Infinity line (regular and Ultra) are designed for AA only. They will work with NiMH, Alkaline, and Lithium AA (eveready L91). They are not designed to work with 3.6 volt lithiums.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure he was referring to the AA 3.6v, Not the Li-123, CR-5, CR-2, or any of those-as I mentioned in my post..

That 3.6v physically fits but unlike the well-known L91 Eveready, it is totally unsuitable for the the Infinity.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

The Trek Micra Lithium (now called the Trek Lithium) is a flashlight designed to use those Tadrian 3.6 volt lithium thionyl chloride AA cells (they are easily recognisable because they have a purple and black casing - they also come in a red and white casing with "HAWKER ETERNACELL" on them). I think the flashlight draws around 9mA when the battery is new, and uses 1 white LED.

I don't think you're supposed to use those things (3.6 volt lithiums) in an Infinity or Infinity Ultra. The current draw of the flashlight is too high, which isn't good for the battery; and the voltage is too high, which might let all of the magic smoke out of the flashlight. So that's a double whammy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

 

[External]

Will it work with the Arc AA?
The Arc AAA should be able to work with 2 AAA batteries, so i belive the Arc AA should too.

 

[Roy]

Ok, here are the numbers!

CMG Ultra-G
....1 Alkaline AA = 17.4Fc at 1Ft
....1 Tediran 3.6v= 4.8Fc at 1Ft

ARC AA
....1 Alkaline AA = 28.2Fc at 1Ft
....1 Tediran 3.6v= 8.1Fc at 1Ft

 

[doccjsb]

Thank you for your excellent replies. I really appreciate them. Your responses answered my questions.

I look forward to interacting with all of you in the future. I'm one of those people who believe you can't have too many flashlights.

Thanks again.

 

[Phaserburn]

Roy, how about numbers for the same 2 lights on a lith AA? Ever do a runtime test using that cell? It think there would be great interest vs alk; it's a subject that comes up seemingly constantly.