m30 drive?

chewy78

Enlightened
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Feb 2, 2008
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Is it direct drive, or is there a buck/boost circuit? I plan to use it with a 6p clone with either a 17670 or a 18650 lithium ion cell.
 
As far as I know it is boost only, hence the reason 2 cells will kill it in short order.

But I AM NOT GENE so take it with a grain of salt!

That said 1 17650 or 1 18650 is just what you need! DO IT! Be sure you get the M30W.
 
It's a boost circuit, if it were direct drive there's no way you'd get over 40 lumens off a single CR123. IIRC the M30 gets around 160 off of a single 123, and the M30w gets 120. It's not 100% output regulated, so lower voltage batteries put out a bit less light, but it does boost down to around 1 volt. With a 3.7v lithium ion it's tossing out more light than the equivalent M60 model.
 
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Yep, since my M60 operates direct drive on a single cr123a, and it's doing maybe 20-30?? A bit dimmer than a 30 lumen single AA energizer light from target. I guess if it's a really low Vf sample it might get like 60, but 130? Not even close. Not saying it's impossible to do on an LED but I don't think you're gonna see it from current gen XREs.

*edit: Oh, and when i called gene the other day with some questions about running the M30 in a G2, he confirmed it was a boost circuit, :)
 
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I have one coming and we will know soon after the new year exactly what it measures on 1 X 18650. :grin2:
 
Cool stuff, is it the warm or normal version? Doing the math guestimate the at 1.2*3.8v it's around 4.56 watts for the M30, and .75*6v for 4.5 watts with the m60. I'm not sure how much the Lithium ions and lithium primaries dip under load but the M30 should be a bit brighter on a fresh battery if the circuits have similar efficiency.
 
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