Fenix P1D-CE - good 123 drainer?

I was wondering how well the P1D-CE drains it's 123 battery. It seems with having to pass thru HI to get to LOW, it may be a problem. With this in mind, would it be good to have something like a Dorcy super 1 watt to feed used P1D-CE batteries to?

pretty good;

I just measured .410A on medium, 1.6 amps high, .077 A on low.
whether it has any 'left over' power depends on how low the voltage goes as it drains -- which is fairly low if irc.. the lower voltage limit may be mentioned at the Fenix website.

the p1d-ce is not a good battery drainer.

in my experience it will not turn back on when turned off with low battery.

i don't consider this a bad thing.. just not a good battery drainer.

One more reason to hate that it doesn't start on low...

Mike

Agreed, nice light but not the ultimate battery drainer that you are looking for.

I think this is a big thing for the fenix engineers to have overlooked.

I was very disapointed when I was out in the woods the other day and my fenix p1d ce went from regulated to completely dead in about 10 minutes. Once it can't sustain medium mode it shuts off and there is no way to turn it back on short of replacing the battery. By the time you notice it dimming you probably have about 5-10 minutes before it completely dies. This would be the time to manually switch it to low mode.

Ideally, it should detect low battery and automatically turn to a low mode. This is an advantage inherent to LED lights; being able to run at less than full power and use all available power. For any kind of a light I would depend on this is definitely something to be considered.

In my opinion it should be crucial for (quality) lights to not just simply die and leave you in the dark but use all the battery power that is available.

Of course I had a backup, but in the case that you didn't it would really stink knowing you could have a little bit of light to get you out of the situation if you could just get the light to turn on in low mode.

-tibim

Were you using a Rechargeable or a Primary(non-rechargeable) battery? From chevrofreak's charts, it looks like you'd get some warning time with primaries. The Gladius has a warning blink.

I shoulda read this before buying the P1DCE

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=144407

(Chevro's runtimes) (edit: thanks f/ right link Amdrew )

so when Fenix claims "21 hours run time on low" -- it's vaporous as breath?

Ted,
I'm not getting the link to work.

I think Ted was after this one http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=144407

Andrew

I was using a non-rechargable Energizer CR123 cell.

The thing about the graphs vs. the real world is the light may be dimming and you won't notice it for a while, costing you some of this "transition time". I can safely say that in my experience it was less than 10 minutes between when I first noticed the light getting dimmer and complete darkness.

My P1D CE is up on BST now and this is one of the reasons I'm selling it. I really value the low power modes in my LED lights.

I have a "Direct Drive" one cr123 cell light with a old Luxeon in it - runs dim, a couple Lux, but I've been using the same battery for at least a year for middle-of-the-night usage in the house.

I think will pass on the P1D-CE and wait to see how the L1D-CE is received. It is stated that it starts out on low, so shouldn't exhibit this problem. Plus I really feel more comfortable with w AA light. Hopefully, the L1D-CE will be quite versatile - especially if it can work with alternative body tubes and batteries.

...

grapplex said:

Also, the low of the P1D CE is higher than the PT EOS headlamp on HIGH as per quickbeam. If they took it down to the EOS Medium it would last about a day and still be on the bright side. There's something to be said for a real 3 lumen or less/infinite runtime low. Like, I'm out in the woods, I used the light before, and I don't know how much battery is left, the poop has hit the fan...please god let me get through the night with pathwalking/crawling/wound tending light on a third of the battery...and maybe tomorrow night too. That scenario has more relevance to me than, hey Charlie watch me scare Ole Man Dawson's dawg way over yonder, glug glug glug...or I need a hundred pulsing eye shattering lumens for getting the bad guys on the other side of some door I'm gonna bust through on a whim in my business casual clothes with my pocket EDC.

3 lumens for 50 hours seems doable on this light if it does 16 for 12ish hours.

Click to expand...

A good case for getting hold of an HDS U60. You can dim it til you can stare straight at the emitter.. it'll still get you round the house in the dark.