Photon 3 battery life??

[caver]

I have been carrying my Photon 3 on my key ring for a little over a month, and I am on my third set of batteries! I rarely use it and only for a few seconds when I do. I have pulled it out twice to find it on and not on the setting that I left it (auto-off after a minute).

Anyone else having a problem with this light coming on in your pocket?

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I haven't bought a Photon 3, the interface sounds like a pain. But, you can buy the 2016 batteries for .50 each at http://www.sunnbattery.com/item.jhtml?UCIDs=559844%7C559915&PRID=269906

It doesn't really solve your problem, but it's better than paying $2-$3 a battery while working the problem out.

By the way, taking a look at http://www.uwgb.edu/nevermab/battery.htm
it's clear that the Arc AAA wins out over the Photon 3 when talking about buying batteries at retail.

But if you give a few points towards the Photon lights because of their reduced size and weight, and you figure a new set of batteries are only $1 (vs. 52 cents for an AAA battery at Costco), the Photon is interesting once again. Especially since it gives over three more hours of semi-usable life.

I guess the only thing to do is carry both. I'm waiting for a special edition Arc to be made and delivered. Although I might have to cancel and get the special CPF version.

Brock, was that the special edition Arc AAA you used in your chart or the regular one?

Anyway, I really like my Photon 2, but wish that I could get access to the batteries easier. Now that I have a radio shack battery tester, I like to test the batteries of all the devices I take on a day hike before leaving (lights, GPS)...but I obviously don't do that with the Photon...it would take too much time to mess with the screws.

Once you start buying your batteries in bulk though, the extra battery life given by the Photon III low power modes gets less interesting (imho). At $1 a change of batteries their cheap enough that you can replace them whenever...

 

[Brock]

My guess would be the Photon 3 is turning on in your pocket and running the batteries almost dead. Then when you go to turn it on again the batteries have recovered enough to work and the chip is reset itself. I had this same problem and switched back to the Photon II for that reason.

Magic, I tested the "standard" Arc gen 2, but all three of the Arc AAA's I have are very close in light output. The first "prototype" unit does consume much more power, but that problem was fixed in the production run.

 

[Coherence]

I posted this to another thread:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> Here is my review of the Photon 3

When you first get it, you *have* to read the manual, to get it to work correctly you have to remove a plastic piece inside the light. Then you should learn the sequence of modes so you know when to stop holding down the back button to leave it in the desired mode.

On the plus side the P3 is approx. the same size as the P2 and has a lot of functionality -
bright
medium
low
fast blink
etc.

a cool way to understand pulse width modulation, put the P3 in high mode and swing it around with a string. You should see a circle of light, as the duty cycle is 100% (always on).

Now switch to medium mode, swing it around and you see on/off pattern like a dashed circle, you can estimate the duty cycle by comparing the on and off distances.
Go to low mode and see the ratio change.

All that said, I am dissappointed in the P3. Maybe I got a bad batch but it has never been stable (it 'crashed') requiring the batteries to be removed to reset it. And it takes several minutes of no power to reset it. I know because I have had to do it more than once.

So on my keychain is an Arc AAA, and a Photon 2. Neither has ever 'crashed', and I recommend them both. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Update: I just pulled it out again, doesn't work at all. Tested the batteries, sure enough they are dead. I have not been carrying it in my pocket, it was just sitting in a knapsack on the floor.

I would wholeheartedly recommend a Photon 2, but avoid the Photon 3.

 

[MY]

My P3 has worked as advertised. I have carried it on my keychain for sporadic use for the last 3-4 months on the same batteries. Granted, I only use the light for <30 seconds at a time but the it is still bright. All the functions still work, even the very silly three second wait for ever to change brightness function.

I have all the small keychain lights and I think that the P3 is the best compromise.

I was wondering, because I only use the light for such short duration (30 seconds once or twice a day), will the batteries "refresh" themselves to the point of working for a lot longer than advertised? I wonder what the total run time is on this intermintent type of use?