Single vs Double Click

tomcat017

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 16, 2007
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301
Location
NY, USA
Hey Everyone,

I've been reading through lots of threads, and in a few places noticed people mentioned single- or double- click. From what I can tell by searching, that refers tot he number of times you have to click the tailcap, and it has to do with underpowering the lamp. Is that correct? I just wanted to ask why that occurs, and if there is any way to predict (maybe mathematically--I'm still trying to learn about amp-hours, battery capacities, etc) when it will happen, and when it wont. Thanks! -mike
 
It's because of the overcurrent/short circuit protection in in protected cells. The first click will allow a bit of juice to go through, just enough to warm up the filament of the bulb enough that its resistance increases and it is then not detected as a short circuit on the second click.

As metal heats up the resistance increases, which means less current will flow. In that split second it takes to make the filament glow it is often drawing several times as much current as it does once the filament is hot.

AW's new high current RCR123's are the only protected RCR123's I've come across that will light my 12v lamp with a single click.
 
Last edited:
Hi there,

Sometimes the second click is to put the light into a lower power mode
so you get longer run time. I have considered doing this to a few of
my lights using a uC chip. The basic idea though is that sometimes
you want to use the light but you dont need full power or you wont
be able to charge the light up for a while so you want to get longer
run time out of it.
 

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