Anyone else run their KL3 on 2AA??

Cypher

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I have a Gen. 1 KL3 I had Chop mod for me with a TWOH run at around 880 mA that I use on 6P + MC123 and 17500's. It has become my baby for now. I was playing with it tonight and popped a couple AAs in it figuring it would probably work but be fairly dim and to my surprise it was very bright. Maybe not as bright as if it were running in regulation but it seemed pretty close.

Now I know I can't be the first person to have tried this so I thought I'd see who else had tried it and what kind of runtime they got. I am in finals right now so I shouldn't even be on CPF right now and I'm not going to do my own runtime test yet but I'm guessing that it would be fairly short.

I was excited to see that it worked mostly because it gives me one more option, even if it's not a great option, in an emergency situation. 123s get a bad rap sometimes about being expensive or hard to find in pinch. Even if I were in situation where I could only get AA's I'd still have light and that's pretty cool to discover on a whim.
 

Lunal_Tic

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Did you use an adapter to hold the AA batteries? Also do you have a 2 stage switch on it?

I've got a similar setup, Chopped KL3 w/Mc2xx switch, but I've been running it mainly on Pilas. The AA idea is interesting since I could probably get a pretty good runtime on low.

-LT
 

Cypher

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LT,

No adapter, I just threw them in. They don't fit snugly diameter-wise of course but when I shook it they didn't loose contact and blink or anything. Lengthwise they are pretty close. I do not have the two stage and am worried that I never will since they are going out of production. My worst nightmare is coming true. One of the things on CPF I really want and it's disappearing. It may just be worth the wife's wrath.
 

Lunal_Tic

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I didn't know the 2 stage for the C/M series was going out of production. It wasn't part of the Aleph line so I thought it was still going to be around. I may have to track down another one or two.

My Chopped setup is biased about 1.3A with a low that's not to far off a stock Arc LS. The 2 stage switch is in a SW01 on a C3 body. It's a nice walking light with a "reach out and touch someone" high mode. Chop does great work.

I may have to go to the hardware store to see if they've got any PVC that might work for the AA's. I've got an adapter set from Dspeck for the UBH and it works well. Maybe I can work something out like that for this light.

-LT
 

Cypher

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If the "classic" two stage switch was not going out of production that would make me very happy. I had just heard statements that the two stage switches would soon be gone and assumed that applied to the classic kits also. I should probably avoid assumptions like that so I don't start untrue CPF rumors! I actually have emailed the Shoppe asking them what will happen with the kits they offer.

This morning I also tried the 2AA setup with my BOG drop-in. It was definately dimmer than running on 123s or li-ion but it was still very useable. I'd say roughly half the regular output.
 
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