He's saying the battery has no real current capacity. They're designed for things like CMOS memory backup, not proper power draws.
Taking apart a recalcitrant 3 D cell Maglite
- Thread starter TD-Horne
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Sjvalleydave
Newly Enlightened
What kind of CDR do you need in the flashlights. I saw that the CDR is low, but a big capacity 19Ah...
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
What is "CDR?"
Sjvalleydave
Newly Enlightened
Continous Discharge Rate
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
"Continuous discharge rate" is arbitrary and variable, calculated by dividing a cell's capacity in Ah by the hours it takes to deplete it. CDR, as you say, is whatever current load that is put on a cell, which can be literally anything, 0.2A, 0.5A, 1A, 3A, etc. The attachment you posted used "nominal discharge current," which is not a standard term. What marketing meant (I assumed) and what matters, because it tells us the amp rating of the cell, is known as maximum continuous discharge current. But it is possible, I suppose, that "nominal discharge current" is the current the manufacturer used to calculate the advertised capacity (which would indeed be CDR in that case). The smaller the current, the larger the capacity, so it is a trick used by a lot of cell labels to claim high capacity when, in fact, at the currents used by flashlights, that published capacity is a gross exaggeration if not outright deception.
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TD-Horne
Newly Enlightened
What those cells cannot do, according to previous answers to my own questions, is to produce enough current for the LED to function. The 4 mA is not enough.
Tom Horne
We use lithium thionyl chloride batteries extensively at work for PLC memory retention, and that’s where they’re best to stay.
I’ve used 3AA-D parallel adapters in my D cell alarm system and I can say a good Procell Constant cell with near on 20k mAh capacity lasts well over twice as long as 3AA as you would expect. Where adapters work well is in series - in my vehicle’s 2D Mags, I use them with 6x L91 and high power drop ins. Get around 10v in a lightweight, no leak package. Store D cells in a case incase long runtime is required.
I’ve used 3AA-D parallel adapters in my D cell alarm system and I can say a good Procell Constant cell with near on 20k mAh capacity lasts well over twice as long as 3AA as you would expect. Where adapters work well is in series - in my vehicle’s 2D Mags, I use them with 6x L91 and high power drop ins. Get around 10v in a lightweight, no leak package. Store D cells in a case incase long runtime is required.
That’s interesting as my L91s measure 1.7-1.8v but haven’t ever flashed my minimag bulbs, just give a nice white light.
I run an edc ML25LT exclusively on them. It’s perfectly safe as Maglite themselves now sell a mag charger powerbank li-ion 18650 battery for use with the ML series 2 cell (4.2v max)
Did you ever get the light apart TD?
That's just painful to look at.☹️
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