Interesting find. Alks work in my 3D P7 M@g

[Greg G]

Built a 3D workhorse M@g to use at work a few weeks ago with a Seoul P7 using 3 NiMH's in direct drive. I hadn't charged the batteries since I built it, and I use it some everyday, so I decided to bring the batteries home to throw on the 808M and give them a good charging.

I had some fresh Energizer alks sitting on the desk so I decided to try them out for grins. The light works good! I didn't expect for it to be very bright, but it ain't bad.

It's nice to know this light is versatile enough to use NiMH's and alks. In case of a hurricane with no power for days this feature would be desirable.


I'll put a voltmeter on it and see what's it's seeing and compare it to what the NiMH's provided to it.

 

[JamisonM]

Yep, alkalines will work. I got finished with my own build late last week. While not as bright as I was hoping, it's still as bright as my MT-III. I'm waiting on the AA to D battery adapters I ordered from battery junction to arrive. I expect I'll see a noticeable increase in output.

 

[uluapoundr]

I built a 3D P7 M*g and my roomie didn't want to spring for NiMh, so he's running coppertops and so far, it's been decent. Haven't put it side by side with my NiMh, but for simplicity, it works. Can't remember the readings at the tailcap but I know the 4.5V drops under load.

 

[darkzero]

You're crazy! Alkalines aren't recommended because they can't handle the extreme currect draw of the P7. You'll end up with a big topped with toxic fumes!!!


Just kidding! :nana: I've never ran a P7 direct drive mod on alkies, only P4s & luxeons. I'm curious what kind of readings you'd get with them running direct drive. If you ever take some current measurements, please post them here. :thumbsup:

 

[qip]

i remember when i ran my EL Stunner on alks for a while, it pulled 2amps at the tailcap though im not sure how long it would last but i was impressed the alks held steady at 2a like it was regulated butcould also mean 2a is max discharge rate cuz it never went higher it just locked in at 2amps

 

[Greg G]

You're crazy! Alkalines aren't recommended because they can't handle the extreme currect draw of the P7. You'll end up with a big topped with toxic fumes!!!

A lot of truth is spoken in jest. I would have to let it run a for a while to determine that it's safe. For limited usage it's ok so far.

A few weeks ago I put alks in a Tri Seoul M@g that has 6 Eneloop AA's to see if it would run. It belongs to my GF, and I figured she was going to put alks in it at some point and I wanted to know how it would react. It did fire up and run as expected, but after letting it run for about 15 minutes straight the battery in #1 position must have overheated because it leaked. On short runs it was ok, and I told her that *if* she ever had to put alks in it in an emergency to only use it for short periods.

I don't know if the 3D P7 light will cause the alks to leak or not. I'll let it run a long time today to see.

 

[Al Combs]

You're crazy! Alkalines aren't recommended because they can't handle the extreme currect draw of the P7. You'll end up with a big topped with toxic fumes!!!


Just kidding! :nana: I've never ran a P7 direct drive mod on alkies, only P4s & luxeons. I'm curious what kind of readings you'd get with them running direct drive. If you ever take some current measurements, please post them here. :thumbsup:

I don't know if this will be of any help. I recently built my first Mag 3D-P7. I bought a set of D cell alkaline batteries before going to NiMH. The very first thing I did out of the blister pack was to put a 1 ohm resistor across 3 of them wired up with some neodymium magnets and 18 gauge speaker wire. No load voltage was 4.75 volts. It dropped to 3.35 volts with the 1 ohm load. I didn't have a meter with a 10 amp scale at that time, but ohms law gives 3.35 amps. More than enough to drive a P7.

I ended up with a 0.1 ohm resistor wired in series with my P7. That gives exactly 2.8 amps with NiMH D cells fully charged but rested. My alkalines are a little dead now so they only give 1.9 amps. At the moment they measure 4.44 volts no load. I didn't have a DMM at home when the alkalines were fresh. I don't know what they were drawing when new. Even when they were new, not as good as the NiMH's, but close.

There is a chart in SSC's W724C0.pdf giving a rough estimate of, "Relative Luminous Flux". As best I can estimate from their graph, 1.9 amps vs. 2.8 amps and an assumed 900 lumen full power output gives about 640 lumens on weak alkalines. Honestly to my eye on a wall 30 feet away, I can barely tell the difference between the two types of batteries.

D cell alkalines definitely work in a MagLite 3D-P7. I'd guesstimate I used them for about a half an hour. They don't last very long but in a pinch they do work.

 

[lctorana]

It's similar to using alkalines in your digital camera.

You CAN do it, it's just... ...expensive.

 

[ElectronGuru]

The proud owner of a new darkzero masterpiece, I did some testing yesterday, Alks vs NiMH in a 3C.

Switching back and forth in the same host, the output was so close, it look a while to 'see' any difference between them. Total runtime not withstanding, the practical output from Alkalines is high enough to convince me of the considerable performance and versatility of the P7 + Mag platform.