Gladius runtime question

treasurydept

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Mar 27, 2006
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I have a few questions regarding the runtimes of the Gladius and I'd appreciate your help. I am only looking for approximate runtimes on a set of good primaries (e.g. Surefire or Duracell).

1. How long is the REGULATED runtime on high?
2. How long is the NON-REGULATED runtime on high?
3. When exactly does the double-blink low battery indicator kick in? Is it at the very end of the REGULATED runtime to indicate that the light is now in NON-REGULATED mode?

Thanks guys.
 

kungfumo

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Oct 1, 2006
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Well I got mine a few weeks ago, and the frist set of 123s that came with it did not last but about a week, although I was using is alot showing it off. I have some SF123s in it now and havent changed them for 2 weeks now. Just to let you know I use my light a few times every day. I used to go through 123s every week in my SF G2. I rarely turn the output down I like it bright.
 

TENMMIKE

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Jan 6, 2006
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puyallup WA.
if i understand you , its like this , the gladius is alway regulated, it stays at max power for about 10 minuts then drops just a bit to conserve batts , this is done on purpose as they figure if your light is on for more then 10 minutes you want run time not max bright , the drop is not very noticable ill tell from expiereamce, however it can be brought back up to max my just tapping the on off button (on off), it also will decrease itself if the led gets to hot , but once again you can overide that the same way , the double flash will kick on when it thinks it cant maintain the brightness level you have picked,and means time to change batts or turn power down, does that help?
treasurydept said:
I have a few questions regarding the runtimes of the Gladius and I'd appreciate your help. I am only looking for approximate runtimes on a set of good primaries (e.g. Surefire or Duracell).

1. How long is the REGULATED runtime on high?
2. How long is the NON-REGULATED runtime on high?
3. When exactly does the double-blink low battery indicator kick in? Is it at the very end of the REGULATED runtime to indicate that the light is now in NON-REGULATED mode?

Thanks guys.
 

treasurydept

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Mar 27, 2006
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Hi guys, I also forgot to mention that I am talking about when I use the light for only 1 or 2 minutes at a time... I'm not talking about leaving the light on for the whole time on full power. I understand the step-down mode as mentioned in flashlightreviews.com, but I am not referring to this type of usage.

As I recall, Night-Ops advertises the Gladius will run on high for a regulated 90 minutes (again, only with intermittent use). After that 90 minutes when the light double-blinks, does this mean that the light is now running in non-regulated mode and will gradually run the batteries down till they're flat? If you picture it as a graph of time vs output, should it look like a flat horizontal line for 90 minutes and then slowly decreasing after that?
 

beezaur

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Apr 15, 2003
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1,234
Not certain, but I think the light is pretty much always regulated. As the batts run out, you gradually lose the bright levels. (How else would you still have constant levels in the lower settings if not for regulation?)

The double blink is supposed to come on at around 10% of battery life. So, if you get 90 minutes on high with a set of batteries, you will start to get the double blink when 9 minutes of runtime remains. But if you turn the brightness down, the blink can go away until the batts are further depleted. I have noticed that Battery Station cells blink a little early, but they still have great runtime.

I generally use my light on bright for a few seconds at a time, so I tend not to notice the blink. I notice decreased output first. When the beam is looking a little dim to me I hold on the bright setting and sure enough, it blinks every 15 seconds.

I have found that, after I lose the high level of brightness, I still have a few hours of the dimmest setting.

Scott
 

treasurydept

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Mar 27, 2006
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Beezaur, so if I used the light until it started to blink (10% battery left), and then continue to use it on high mode, the light would suddenly go from high to completely dead?

Also, how do you know for a fact that it was designed to blink when there's 10% left, or are you just guesstimating?
 

beezaur

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Apr 15, 2003
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If you are using the light intermittently at the brightest setting, it will eventually start to blink every 15 seconds. The light will still be at the brightest setting untill the batts can no longer support the highest setting. Then the light will reduce its "ceiling" by one level, for as long as that level caan be supported by the batts. Them it reduces to the next lowest and so on until you are in the lowest level.

While using depleted batts, all the features that normally are the brightest will operate at the highest level possible. Momentary and strobe will be reduced from what you get with fresh batts, but they will be as bright as the batteries support.

The 10% figure is my recollection of a post made by the light's developer, Ken J. Good. As best as I can recall, he stated that the electronics were calibrated to start blinking when the battery acted like it had 10% remaining. But every brand is different, and (I believe) different loads will cause the same battery to have different amounts of total energy available.

So, 1) you lose light gradually over an hour or so, and 2) the 10% deal is just an approximation.

Scott
 
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