Wow things have changed in the last year or so!

[Muppet]

Goodness gracious... the world is *coming down* under the weight of < $20 1xAA, 2sAA, 1xCR123, 30 - 50 - 80 - 100 lumen lights.

It's completely crazy, and very wonderful.

I still haven't found my Perfect Light, but I can see pretty good precursors.

This is real close:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6422

no no, only kidding:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6162

100 lumens of 1xAA. Can't find any information about regulation, but given that it's multi-mode I'm assuming it's regulated. Just amazing.

There are three tweaks I'd want in my "dream light."

1> a 4-ish lumen mode, possibly provided by a second 5mm or surface mount LED (surface mount is nice because of the broad area light it gives.)

2> slightly waterproof (i.e. can survive being dropped in a puddle, rather than "also a dive light.")

3> Option for a well designed diffuser / heat sink package to go on the end for use as an room light.

But I'm just a fussy.

Yeah, I'm really, really pleased with all this new technology coming online.

This stuff is *cool.*

 

[Gunner12]

For $60 if you post now, the NiteCore Defender Infinity might be just what you are looking for. But There are no reviews so I'm not sure exactly how it works.

The MTE Rebel 100 is not a bad light for the price but if you have the money, why not buy something better. Runtime charts here. The Ultrafire C3 5-mode also seems to be close to your criteria, but it does not have a 100 lumen high.

Welcome back!

 

[Muppet]

The NiteCore just brings a tear to my eye. Brightness setting by rotating the bezel... hundreds of hours of run time... *190* lumen maximum output...

Nobody is going to get this grin off my face. Good find, G!

 

[bessiebenny]

See my budget roundup for some ideas about what is available these days. =)

There are still no perfect single AA light imo. But we are getting close!

 

[Muppet]

I looked your great budget roundup before going for something that wasn't on the list, one of these:

http://www.goldengadgets.com/product_info.php?cPath=15&products_id=390

I'll write a review when I have it in hand (probably about 10 days, somebody's sending it to me from the States.) If I'd known about the MTE light I'd probably have gone for that, although frankly 30-ish lumens of a AA is probably a lot more useful in "real life" than 100+ lumens, and being able to drop in the other AA cell to get an 85 lumen AA is probably a pretty good approach...

I still wish that these lights were all *shorter.* A AA cell is 2", and the lights are all coming in around 4" or even longer (occasionally 3.5".) Minimum size is another area where there's room for work. Still, you can't have it all, even if we want it that way

If we could just get people to agree on threading, so we could mix and match...

This is the nice thing about having an interest which is directly on the exponential curve of technical progress. Your smaller dreams come true every two or three years, and the bigger ones maybe once a decade. We're lucky

 

[bessiebenny]

So you bought the Romisen RC-I3 light? That's not a bad AA light at all as it is very well regulated and has very long run times. (Around 5 hours with 2 x AA NiMh's) It may be close to 85 lumens with a single 3.0V CR123A but with 2 x AA, it's about 20% less and with a single AA, it becomes about 1/2 of 2 x AA in brightness. So yes, 30 lumes with a single AA sounds about right. Not bad for choice.

Here's a japanese site's output results with the RC-I3.

CR123A(3.0V) - 1214 Lux/1m
2AA(Ni-MH) - 1014 Lux/1m
1AA(Ni-MH) - 432 Lux/1m

And an output / run time graph using 2 x 1300mAh NiMHs. (20minute increments on bottom)
http://takebeat.asablo.jp/blog/img/2007/10/14/42e2e.jpg

btw, that Romisen is only $15.82 at DX with free shipping. =)

 

[ampdude]

Funny how opinions differ. Muppet wants a shorter light than the current 1AA's, I find the 1AA lights too short to use properly and prefer the extra power and runtime of 2AA. I find though that people want to turn everything into an EDC light.

 

[Muppet]

So you bought the Romisen RC-I3 light? That's not a bad AA light at all as it is very well regulated and has very long run times.

btw, that Romisen is only $15.82 at DX with free shipping. =)

Yeah, the Golden Gadgets "85 lumens!" was a bit misleading - I'd been hoping for that from 1AA. But good regulation is a big win from my perspective. I suspect I've got another order make for xmas presents to DX in a couple of weeks, so I will pick up something for myself when I'm at it

Any idea if it'll run on a 14500? Not much more voltage than a couple of Lithium AA cells, and would make for a pretty bright light for special occasions...

 

[Muppet]

Funny how opinions differ. Muppet wants a shorter light than the current 1AA's, I find the 1AA lights too short to use properly and prefer the extra power and runtime of 2AA. I find though that people want to turn everything into an EDC light.

TOO SMALL?

Yeah, I really want my 1AA light to be 2.5" - 3" max. The battery is 2" long, and everything other than the battery is wasted pocket space. And that's pretty much the only reason for 1AA - a little pocket light.

For bigger lights I'm a big fan of 4AA - like the old Underwater Kinetics lights - two side by side. Doesn't work too easily in aluminum, but it's nice to be able to take a full set of cells off the charger and drop them right in.

The irony is that I now find myself looking at the Infinity Ultra and thinking "100 run time?" - which kind of makes sense for hiking etc. Duplicate function where possible into independent systems.

Right now I'm doing a round of work on infrastructure for refugee camps (my "day job" is http://hexayurt.com/ ) and it's all based around AA cells for moving the electricity from the "electricity well" (a 15 minute battery charger (oh, how I wish the Rayovac IC3 was still commonly available) back home to plug into an area light like the Energizer Double Bright, or a AA-cell fluorescent fixture.

People quite like the idea. Obviously what I'd want to do if we were doing this For Real (right now it's all theory) is get a voltage regulator sorted out which would cut off function before the nimh cells are discharged too deeply, to give them the maximum possible life.

Anyway, that's kind of an aside, but there are all kinds of interesting uses for these kinds of electronics and high efficiency power -> light conversion devices.

 

[bessiebenny]

Any idea if it'll run on a 14500? Not much more voltage than a couple of Lithium AA cells, and would make for a pretty bright light for special occasions...

I think it'll be fine with a 3.0v LifePO4 14500 as it can at least handle a fully charged 3.0v CR123A which ends up being around 3.6v. No idea if it'll be okay with a fully charged 4.2v 14500 though. But I reckon it'll be fine. It would be very good if it did as it'll be much brighter than a single AA. Try it and let us know! =)

btw, I have a Romisen RC-F4 which says it supports 3-8v range.
But I use 2 x RCR123A @ 4.2v which is 8.4v and have no issues. =P