Fenix L0D on LiIon: Great!

Well, I got my Fenix L0D and it has replaced my beloved L0P SE. I'm running the L0D with a 10440 LiIon battery. All the various light modes work and the light is much brighter in all modes than the L0P SE. I don't know what the runtimes are though. Maybe Chevro will fix us up here soon.

Does the LOD blow away a stock LOP in brightness?

I've been wating for a review before I purchase one.

ernsanada said:

Does the LOD blow away a stock LOP in brightness?

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I only have a L0P SE and a L0D. Using a regular lithium primary battery in both, the two lights are really about the same in brightness. The L0D is much brighter when it is powered by a 10440 LiIon battery. Hence, the L0D's ability to use a LiIon battery is what I think sets it apart and it's the higher voltage LiIon battery that is responsible for the difference in brightness. If you don't intend to use a LiIon in L0D, then I don't think you will find it any brighter than the L0P SE.

I would run the LOD with a 10440 Lithium Battery.

ernsanada said:

I would run the LOD with a 10440 Lithium Battery.

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Then I think you will be pleased with the L0D's brightness. It does get hot pretty quickly on the high setting.

Where did you get the li-Ion battery from and what do you use to charge it? I am expecting an LOD soon and was wanting to go lithium-ion as well but was having a hard time finding a battery/charger....

Fifthunit

Ultra Fire 10440 14500 Ac Charger BUKTA $8.75 (dual channel)
Ultra Fire 10440 3.6V 500mAh LISTA $4.99 for TWO
$19.79 shipped

Or you can check out AW on here, his price is usually slightly higher than Fifthunit or qualitychinagoods, but AW has excellet service and response, plus fastest shipping.

Edit: AW has a single channel Nano charger for only $7 if you want to go for that route, see post below.

Strauss said:

Where did you get the li-Ion battery from and what do you use to charge it? I am expecting an LOD soon and was wanting to go lithium-ion as well but was having a hard time finding a battery/charger....

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I got my two 10440 LiIon batteries and Nano charger from AW; total cost to include shipping was $15. AW has a thread in the Dealers Corner with all the info. I think AW is probably the dealer most CPFers go to for rechargable LiIon batteries.

You can get 10440's here also.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2598

Interested to see runtimes on high with the 10440 Li-ion.

Of course, the L0P-SE-cree would be about the same brightness, from a standard AAA cell, with none of this lithium nonsense.
I'm strongly considering modding my L0P-SE, when my P4 LEDs arrive.

As I understand it, the starting brightness will end up similar to the brightest current, the dim will be similar to the default brightness, and the bright will be really quite bright indeed.

SpeedEvil said:

Of course, the L0P-SE-cree would be about the same brightness, from a standard AAA cell, with none of this lithium nonsense.
I'm strongly considering modding my L0P-SE, when my P4 LEDs arrive.

As I understand it, the starting brightness will end up similar to the brightest current, the dim will be similar to the default brightness, and the bright will be really quite bright indeed.

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I think you may be being a bit too optimistic regarding the low and medium brightness increases based on only a LED swap, at least with respect to a L0D running on a LiIon rechargable battery.

Yet, I'm pretty sure Fenix will soon have one of these new LEDs in their single AAA series. I'm also pretty sure I will buy one when they do.

From various threads, I don't think the LED in the L0P-SE is underdriven.
Assuming this is the case, and that the brightnesses of 12, 4.5, 30lm are true.
And assuming that the Cree I have makes its 80lm/W minimum bin rating, I make that 33/12/80lm.

Which isn't bad at all.

The only review I can find of the L0D on li-ion says 80lm, so it's comparable.
But, runtime on high is around 40 minutes, and as I understand it, with Li-Ion, this will be around 20 minutes.
Then there is the fact that running on high at 3W will burn your fingers

Oh - you mention that you think low/medium brightnesses may be different...
Unfortunately, due to a moderate bug in the L0P/L0D series, the LED current stays constant, it's just turned on and off at 60Hz or so.
This means that unfortunately, you don't get the boost in efficiency that occurs at lower current for a constantly on LED.
I don't have figures for the luxeon, but for cree.

If the figures for PWM are 33, 12, 80lm, then the average current is around 144/52/350mA.
Looking at the LED output graph, at 144/52, it's around 120%, and 140% as efficient at those currents as at 350mA.

Which would equal an output of 40/17/80lm, compared to 33/12/80, for no extra power consumption at all.

In fact, it's likely to use less power, as less will be lost in the power converter, and gain from less losses in the battery too, especially with moderately discharged alkaline batteries.

Is the difference of brightness at the end of discharge much noticeable? Overdischarge? (I know it can overdischarge since the cells are not protected) What is the runtime with Li-Ion?

Thanks

My LOD is great on li-ion but it will turn hot real fast.
But on alkalines it will dim and flickered,i think it's a contact issue.
Not sure it is the head or the spring issue.
Already emailed to 7777's but he will only be back on 28th of January.

Good to know, I just ordered an L0P SE

BrightGal said:

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"I'm going to get a L0D CE!"

Or you could always just run a L0P SE on the 3.7v LiIon as many of us have. Ok, you may cut the LED life from 10,000 hours to 1,000 but so what ? I'm betting that nobody here has had a keychain light so long that they had to replace the cells 1,000 times.

I tried my L0P SE, L0Ti and L0D all on Lithiums and they are all close in max brightness but with different tints. You just don't get the strobe on the SE. The SE and L0D got hot at about the same rate too. The L0Ti got hot quicker but that's just down to the better material for heatsinking.

Jay R said:

Or you could always just run a L0P SE on the 3.7v LiIon as many of us have. Ok, you may cut the LED life from 10,000 hours to 1,000 but so what ? I'm betting that nobody here has had a keychain light so long that they had to replace the cells 1,000 times.

I tried my L0P SE, L0Ti and L0D all on Lithiums and they are all close in max brightness but with different tints. You just don't get the strobe on the SE. The SE and L0D got hot at about the same rate too. The L0Ti got hot quicker but that's just down to the better material for heatsinking.

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my concern is more with the electronics handling the extra voltage... .not the LED

jar3ds said:

my concern is more with the electronics handling the extra voltage... .not the LED

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Mine is fine and I've seen many posts from others saying the same. I didn't hear of one yet that was fried on 3.7v. ( Just hot.)