Who tested the real runtimes of Olight S1 S10 S10R S30RII on Olight RCR123 batteries?

[Marfenix]

I love the above mentioned Olight flashlights but I get completely different moonlight runtimes than advertized on the box that come with the flashlights. I have 7 Olight RCR123batteries bought new with the lights and use a Olight charger. I cannot measure Volts. For the Olight S1 I have a runtime of 2-1/2 days on moonlight , both S10 and S10R I have a runtime of 4 days . I checked this with all my RCR123 batteries and get the same result. For the S30RII I have a runtime of 33 days and 17 hours with the Olight 3600mAh. Can anybody shine his light on this?

 

[wjv]

Are the numbers on the box for CR123 OR RCR123?

Big difference in run times between those two batteries!

Also remember, factory run times are the time to 10% of the lights output. Many users will consider the batteries dead and change then out far before this point.

 

[Scourie]

I'll ask a dumb question, you're pressing and holding switch to get moonlight aren't you? Those runtimes look like the low runtimes.

Rob

 

[Scourie]

Double post.

Rob

 

[Marfenix]

Scourie, there is no such thing as a dumb question, it is dumb when you have a question and don't ask! I do know the difference on the moonlight mode and low mode, there is a big difference between them. I did do the test on moonlight mode, but thank you for your response.

 

[Marfenix]

WJV, After taking the "dead" batteries out of the light and putting them in the Olight Omni-dock I can see that the first led is blinking for quite a long time to go to the next led blinking which means the batteries are almost completely drained to the point where the protection is activated to prevent complete drain. The question concerning whether the runtimes are for cr123 or rcr123 ofcourse I refer to the rcr123 batteries because I never buy non-rechargable batteries for any equipment I use. I thought I had the runtimes for rcr123 written down but cannot find them anymore. There is no info whatsover for rcr123 batteries on the box, my bad! The thing I noticed though is that Olight doesn't provide enough information how long their light run on rcr123 which in my opinion should be more clear. Having said all this, it doesn't prevent me for getting an S2 and a S30RII-Javelot because they are wonderful flashlights. Thank you for your response!

 

[Scourie]

I'd say runtimes on rcr's will be approx 50% those of primaries.

How does the runtime stack up on the other levels?

Rob

 

[Marfenix]

I haven't tested the runtimes on other modes, I use moonlight mode 90% of the time. The runtime for S1 on primaries is supposed to be 600 hours, so with 50% on rcr's it should be around 300 hours and not the 60 I got. I don't want to trade this one in for another one because it is an "old version" that starts up with moonlight mode by holding the button for 2 seconds.

 

[coredumped]

The 600 hour runtime appears to be completely bogus.

I just measured my new Ti S1 baton in moonlight mode with a decent multimeter.
It draws 9.5mA.
Your 60 hour mark on an RCR123 is pretty much dead-on with that figure.

My measurements, taken with a Tenergy LiFePo4:
Off: 1.3uA
moonlight: 9.5mA
low: 20mA (comparing this to moonlight, you can see most of moonlight's draw is waste from the driver)
medium: 190mA
turbo: 2.5A (!!!) - I think I may not have had the best connection between my probes and the battery, and some of this was dissipated as heat.

I connected the light to my bench supply and gave it 3.7V on turbo
It drew 2A at 3.7v until it stepped down to high mode which was 1A at 3.7v.

When I dropped the voltage down to 2.8v it was happy to draw 2.5A in turbo mode.

 

[Marfenix]

Coredumped, thank you for for your imput.Most of the measurements you did are abracadabra to me, but your conclusion comes down to this..the promised runtimes are bogus. I want to say this again: I love my Olight flashlights and will keep buying them but what I do not like is to be taken for a ride concerning runtimes! Why promise something that is not true? After all we do find out don't we? I was just wondering why the runtimes I tested were so different than what Olight stated.

 

[tops2]

Maybe another factor is the actual lumen level of the moonlight. Maybe some S1 moonlight level is actually higher than the one quotes in the spec.

 

[wolfgaze]

How do you conduct your testing? How do you monitor the light to know exactly when it turns off when we are talking about a runtime of multiple days?

Thanks!

 

[wolfgaze]

Maybe another factor is the actual lumen level of the moonlight. Maybe some S1 moonlight level is actually higher than the one quotes in the spec.

I feel like the moonlight mode on my S2 is a lower lumen output than the moonlight mode on my S1...

 

[Marfenix]

You simply have to take my word for it. I do not want to give more info for privacy reasons.

 

[coredumped]

How do you conduct your testing? How do you monitor the light to know exactly when it turns off when we are talking about a runtime of multiple days?

Thanks!

In the case of low current draw, simple division of capacity (mAh) by current (mA) can give you a good ballpark figure of hours. There'll be some differences in the real world, such as what voltage the battery manufacturer decided was their capacity cutoff differing from where flashlight's regulation cuts out. A well regulated flashlight will also draw commensurately more current when the voltage drops to equal the same amount of power in output. Either way, it provides a tolerable estimate.

In this case, the ballpark figures are off by about 5x from what Olight says on their website. There's no way to reconcile it.
In order to get 360 hours out of an 650mAh RCR the flashlight would need to draw less than 2mA.

Has anyone ever confirmed a 300+ hour runtime in moonlight mode on an S1 baton? I wonder if there is more than one build and they have significantly different components.

 

[coredumped]

Also, I just tested moonlight mode on my bench supply to see how much lower current draw is at 3.7v than 3v (maybe making up for the 650mAh/360 hours compared to 1500mAh/600 hours claims).

The light is *less* efficient in moonlight mode at 3.7v than at 3v. It draws ~12mA at 3.7, 10mA at 3v, and 9mA at 2.8v. There was no visible difference in light output while rolling the voltage dial.

 

[reppans]

That's pretty bad for a moonlight mode. For example, on a 3.82v 14500, my S15 Ti does 1.7ma @ 0.1lms; S15 Alum 2.7ma @ 0.2lms (note both outputs are way off spec - I have a lightbox); and Quark QK2A 3.7ma @ 0.45lms.

That said, as a AA/14500 moonlight mode collector, I find manufacturers all over the map with their moonlight specs with many grossly overstating ML output, runtime, or both. My worst offenders are my electronic clicky lights - not sure if it's sample variation since I tend not to repurchase from the big exaggerators.

 

[Marfenix]

Also, I just tested moonlight mode on my bench supply to see how much lower current draw is at 3.7v than 3v (maybe making up for the 650mAh/360 hours compared to 1500mAh/600 hours claims).

The light is *less* efficient in moonlight mode at 3.7v than at 3v. It draws ~12mA at 3.7, 10mA at 3v, and 9mA at 2.8v. There was no visible difference in light output while rolling the voltage dial.

Coredumped: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Wet]

Thanks for the tests coredumped. I've wanted to do measurements with different voltages but i don't have a bench supply so i have to deal with whatever voltage the battery outputs.

Here's a runtime test that i did on S1, S10 and S15. The S15 runtime looks more like it should while S1 and S10 drain the battery too soon.

 

[PAV]

Sorry for bumping relatively old thread but I want to share my experience with my Olight S1 runtime. I got this light about a month ago.
This is "older model" with only one O-ring in the retail box and no moonlight memory.

I've tested it with Fenix ARB-L16-700 battery (claimed 650-700 mA*h capacity) and common Olight RCR123A. Runtime is somewhere between 50-58 hrs on Moonlight mode.
My non-professional digital multimeter shows that current draw stays at 10-11 mA in both cases.

Conclusion: there are only 2-2.5d runtime on Moollight mode observed using an late 2015 S1 model with new 3.7V 650-700 mA*h rechargeable cells.