Surefire Titan - How efficient??

[regulator]

I was curious as to how efficient the Titan circuit is. Does anyone know anything about how it achieves the variable output? I would hope that it is not a simple variable resistor "pot" which waists energy as heat. I wonder if having the variable control is offset by loss of efficiency. One thing in its favor would be that it is designed to run at a more narrow voltage range since it is not recommended with rechargable lithium cells.

Since only the titanium model is out, does anyone have input as to how well the Titan makes use of its battery. Comparisons could be difficult since the titanium Titan uses a CR2 cell and is kinda rare. But from general observations and knowing the capacity of the CR2, does it seem pretty efficient even at lower levels? Thanks.

 

[Illumination]

great question...

 

[regulator]

I know there are always trade-offs when designing a circuit. I just never heard anything about the Titan and efficiency. I did see a runtime on high and it looked pretty decent, but nothing on how it runs at a medium to low output.

I know a variable output circuit can be made well and have good efficiency. I have a Nitecore D10 that runs very well at medium output levels and even on a typical alkaline at the lower medium output levels. I am hopeful that Surefire did a good job with the Titan variable ouput circuit.

 

[AvidHiker]

AFAIK, the Titan uses PWM. Haven't seen runtimes for low either, but if the Surefire specs are to be believed, it can run 80 hours on low. The low on my Titan is extremely low (think there still is no lower low available on a high power LED light), but still sufficient to navigate a dark room.
There is a thread where it was disassembled, can't recall specifics but people were speculating as to how it works. There is a fairly large toroidal inductor inside IIRC.

 

[regulator]

Thanks AvidHiker. I searched and found that thread. Looks like pretty cool stuff inside. Glad to here more info from owners about medium and lower output runtime performance. I think the Titan CR123 is going to be awsome.

 

[AvidHiker]

Sure, love my Titan in Ti. If it is in fact PWM (guess its pretty much an accepted fact), it's definitely very high frequency PWM, no detectable flicker (and I seem to be sensitive to that). Been wanting to do a runtime test myself, maybe one of these days...

I use mine with an AW RCR2, no problems. Several others use rechargables as well, no reported problems so far. Not sure if there is a significant diameter difference between CR2 primaries and the RCR2, but the rechargable cell fits with room to spare unlike other Surefires that only fit primaries very tightly.

For other interested folks, here is the link to disassembly.