Minimag Upgrades

missionaryman

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Oct 20, 2005
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I want to do some tinkering with my Minimags and need some help.
Originally I was just going to get the Terralux 1W 40 lumen drop in but I saw some sandwich kits at the sandwich shoppe which got me interested.

Can anyone explain these kits to me and possibly what their outputs are in Lumens?
I don't care about run times I just want it to go really bright & to retain the standard 2AA power supply whether alkaline or NIMH but not lithium as it's too pricey.

Thanks
 

cratz2

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I've had a couple of the Lambda pills which were pretty nice. Also, the most recent of the TLE-5 modules are very nice for the price but I'd probably suggest getting a brand new one to guarantee you get the recent R-binned version. It will give a lot better runtime than the brighter Lux IIIs running at 700 ma or higher.

I think a lot of them are designed to be run off NiMH cells and Lithiums aren't suggested a lot of times. The NiMHs will usually give better current supply than alkalines but alkies work in a pinch.
 

Paper Lawyer

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Neg2LED

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'straya, mate!
Well the batts usually come off the charger at ~4.2v but quickly drop.

Most of the boost converters would just run direct-drive, same with the bucks, as a Luxeon voltage bin is usually about the same as the li-on.

To make it work with a single Li-On, you need a lower voltage cell, such as JSBurly's 3.0v cells. However, i am not aware of any AA-form-factor 3.0v cells....

Anyone else got some info? i would like a 3.0v lion aa.....

--neg
 

bwaites

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There are 3V Li AA cells. They are used for portable phones, among other things and RadioShack stocks them. The problem is cost. They usually run $4-5 cell.

I THINK BatteryStation.com sells them as well and they should be quite a bit cheaper there.

Bill
 

AuroraLite

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Hi, Missionaryman.

Just chiming in, and Neg2led and Bwaites have already covered most of the ground...

Don't know whether you are planning to run your sammie in the miniminimag format, if so, then those 4.2v rechargable li-ion batteries might be your battery solution to your sammie. Many of the shoppe's 'boost' sammie should be ok to use with li-ion 4.2v rechargable. But do double check before using them. There are a few sammies that do run on single nimh or alkaline, such as MM series in Shoppe of Lambda's minipro.

If you are planning to run the sammie in Minimag format, and planning to use li-ion disposable batteries. Then do feel free to check out those the engerizer AA li-ion 1.5v batteries. They are more expensive than normal alkaline, but definitely performs better in cold weather and ligther in weight.

However, one word of caution--some sammie will drain the battery to a really low voltage, and one will have to be extremely cautious about using unprotected li-ion AA with it due to safety reason.

Personally, I love using the sammies with 2 nimh batteries in a minimag, and that basically covers all my guilt free lumens need. :)
 

missionaryman

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thanks - so I think I've had it pretty wrong so far, it sounds like these are all designed to run on two alaklines - 3v, will they be as bright with NIMH @ 2.4v?
 

AuroraLite

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Missionaryman,

I don't think it is necessary right or wrong, just personal preferences. :)

Given the sammie that you will choose has current regulation(basically means constant output of the lux over the lifespan of batt), then there should be no real difference between Nimh, Alkaline or even li-ion.

So to your quesion, for most sammie, yes, Nimh should perform just as well.

One fact I recommend to beware of is that when the current/drive level to a lux III is getting up to 750ma, alkaline will not perform that well at all(meaning much shorter runtime than it supposed to), and Nimh or li-ion rechargable(best) will do much better.
 
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