Princeton Tec Eos on Sanyo HR-4U 900mAh Ni-MH

I may do a low beam runtime too, but that could take as long as 3 days :sick2:

Nice graph. Thanks Chevro! That is an interesting spike right before it drops out of regulation. Would you happen to know what the Vf of you led? I have a RWOJ in mine, but I have a RWOH I could put in if it would be worthwhile.

I havent taken mine apart yet, but I probably will. Maybe even tonight, if so I'll report back

Just took it apart, its an RX0H! :huh:

chevrofreak said:

Just took it apart, its an RX0H! :huh:

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Jackpot! :rock:

Do you think switching the star from an H to a J would make any noticeable difference in output or runtime? Wouldn't the life of the LED be shortened?

BTW, thanks for the graph. That's good to know. Looks like I'm going to have to buy some of those Sanyos. And congrats on winning the Luxeon lottery! RXOH :wow:

Going from an H Vf to a J Vf will actually lower the efficiency/brightness, going the other way will make it more efficient and brighter.

Is it a Luxeon I or III? How can one tell? R flux for a Lux 3 is nothing special.

paulr said:

Is it a Luxeon I or III? How can one tell? R flux for a Lux 3 is nothing special.

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No such thing as an R bin LuxIII

Hello Chevrofreak,

Nice graphs...

I have been running my EOS on lithium cells (check this thread out), and seem to be getting slightly better run times. The lithium cells are rated 320 mAh, so I guess I have slightly more capacity than you do with the NiMh cells.

Tom

I'm considering putting a jack or wire lead in the side of the light so it can be hooked to an external power source if needed. On a single 18650 at 2400mAh that thing would run an incredibly long time.

The heatsinking in the light is nonexistant though, theres a plastic post the center of the star sits on, thats protruding up through the PCB, and the top of the PCB under the star has what looks like a gold foil on it. Atleast it seems to have a temp probe that contacts the star so it can scale the current back to keep damage from happening. I'd still prefer better heatsinking.....

Hello Chevrofreak,

An 18650 mod would be excellent. I share your concern about the heat sinking, however, most of my use has been in cooler temperatures and I have not noticed the light getting hot at all, even when on high. I usually use medium or low, but I ran a set of batteries through on high, while working the other night, and was surprised that the light was barely warm.

Tom

Does anyone know what current the EOS is running the led at high medium and low levels?

I just got a response to a question I sent to PT a couple days ago

Hello,
You can use lithium batteries with the Eos light. We have seen
the circuitry handle as much as 7 volts, however if the board is exposed
to anything more than 4.5 the warranty will be void. If you have any
other questions or comments, please feel free to contact me again.

Regards

Jay Harrington
Corporate Sales Rep.

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Excellent, and not many MFG's would volunteer info like that.

Jarzaa said:

Does anyone know what current the EOS is running the led at high medium and low levels?

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307mA high
110mA med
33mA low

running 3xAAA Duracel NiMH 900mAh's (which I've heard are just rewrapped sanyo's...?? ... w/ LuxI RYAH it has a slight purple hue to it... it brothers me a little but I'll most likely change it once i get something WO or something...

oh and I almost forgot!

Thanks to the author of this thread for these runtime charts!

this might seem like a really stupid question but can you switch out a luxIII for a luxI or would you run into all sorts of heating issues?

once i get my solar cel i'll do a lithium e2 test for us... any solar cells you guys recomend? Thanks

Jared

my personal battery choice I think will be to stick with NiMH 900mAh Duracells for general purpose usage... and then I will keep in my truck and sometimes on my carry a set of lithium e2's... due to it being winter I'm a little more apt to keep a set of lithium's handy...

the silverfox's li-ion solution is a great solution... i think his idea really shines when you use your headlamp EVERYDAY for a long period of time... like he does... since I only use it a few nights a week for 1-3 hour periods at a time... i can get away with the NiMH's and using primary lithiums for coldweather/better runtimes...

personally I really don't see a need for any other headlamp for me.. i'm in the army and even then I dont' see the need for the the differnet style of headlamp where you have the light source and the battery as a two piece unit like the apex or the Corona... the single unit's are bright enough for almost all tasks and is so light weight... usally if i have my headlamp I have a good thrower flashlight with me... the headlamp just acts as path illuminator... (my eye's of the night)... and the thrower is my bionoculars of the night.. ;-)

jar3ds said:

this might seem like a really stupid question but can you switch out a luxIII for a luxI or would you run into all sorts of heating issues?

Jared

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Going from a LuxI R flux H Vf to a T flux H Vf LuxIII would result in decreased output due to the current regulation, so there would be less heat as well.

so your saying adding a luxIII to the EOS will make it better?

jar3ds said:

so your saying adding a luxIII to the EOS will make it better?

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Typically a T flux will make less light driven at the same levels as an R flux, and its color will also shift more toward the yellow side.

The Eos uses a sensor under the star to measure the temperature, and scales back the current accordingly, so its really hard to know for sure how it would react to a LuxIII over a LuxI. The LuxIII has a thicker star which would add more heatsinking since the Eos has pretty much no heatsinking at all. That could change how much heat makes it to the sensor, causing current not to be scaled back as much, or something.