L1D woes(?)

I just got an L1D-CE and was curious if I should be able to notice the difference in brightness between medium and high/turbo. I can't tell, even with a ceiling bounce test ...they seem awfully close. Even aiming at distant objects that are right at the limit of the light's throw capabilities, the difference in the 2 levels are indescernable. I understand that an increase in lumens is not always detectable by the naked eye. Could this be what I'm experiencing? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

BTW, I forgot to mention that when switching from high to turbo ...under the right conditions, there seems to be a very slight spike in output, but It could have been my eyes playing with me, because more often than not, high & turbo look the same.

We've been over this many times...

L1D-CE and L2D-CE both use the same head. A single AA is not able to provide the power that is needed for the upper levels. If you take that same head and put it on a 2AA tube, you will see a difference in the levels.

Try a lithium battery and your results will be better due to the higher voltage.

chrome-addict, have you read this thread? :

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/164412

Hopefully it's the same issue.

I did read that thread, but it seems to be pertaining more to a difference between high & turbo. I was wondering if I should be able to see a difference between med & high.

Maybe I'll take Minjin's advice and run it on an E2.

You *should* see a difference between med and high - what about med and turbo? (while on medium, tighten the head to turbo)

What batteries are you using?

Use a NiMH if you want to keep the low low.
An E2 will cause the low\medium modes to look very similar
(For a while anyway)

The L1 seems to be designeed with NiMH in mind.

There is not much difference at *all* between high and turbo on the L1. It's still useful though, for the fact you can CHOOSE if your L1 starts on low or high

I'm running it on a Sanyo 2500 NiMH. When switching from medium to turbo, it's about the same as switching from medium to high ...I can't really see a difference with my naked eye. There is, however a considerable difference between low and medium.

Have you tried shining it at the roof of a totally dark room and gauging the brightness that way?

If you're talking about the ceiling bounce test, then yes. That's actually the one that got me wondering, because that test usually gives you a good feel for the overall lumens of output. For the life of me, I couldn't see any difference between medium and high.

I can confirm that also in my L1D CE the difference between medium and high is barely noticeable. Same for high/turbo except when using L91 lithium primaries in which case you can see some increase.

Thanks for the feedback ...that's what I needed to hear. I just wanted to be sure that it was my eyes and not the light itself.
I guess I'll just wait for the PD2 body to become available, then I will be able to run a CR123A and actually have a true turbo mode.

I find the difference obvious, but indeed it isn't a very large increase.

It's a subjective thing though isn't it!

I can see the difference between low-medium-high, but I can't see any difference between High-turbo. I *think* I see small increase in brightness, but that is hard to tell. The difference between high and turbo on 1AA should be less than 10 lumen, a human eye can't see such small differences.

The L1D-CE and L2D-CE both have the same guts. If you want more brightness on Turbo
the optional 2AA body tube would be the go

My L1D running on a Duracell 2650 NiMH has a significant increase in brightness from medium to high. I'd guestimate about 25% more as perceived by my eyes.

My L1D is the same way. Tried different batteries, cleaned the contacts and still can barely tell the difference!

I can see a difference between medium and high on my L1D CE. I'm using a Sony NiMH battery (no exploding battery jokes please ).
The difference is not really very apparent sometimes but it's definitely there.

Try the medium to turbo (twist head while in medium). Sometimes the fact that the light blinks causes us to not notice the difference in brightness. Or you could try holding the light close to something and looking at the hotspot. You should see an increase in intensity.

I have a L1D-CE. I can see difference between levels low-med-high, but high and turbo are looking the same.

So, I measured my L1D-CE and the current with turbo is actually less than high. Difference was about 20-30mA IIRC. I did the test with few different NiMHs, one was Ansmann 2700mAh cell. Taking out the measurement error and the error caused by converter I dare to say that high and turbo are quite same. (At least with my L1D-CE and NiMHs.)

BTW, has anyone trier using those 3.6V lithium primaries in a L1D-CE without the magick smoke escaping? Just had a thought that if it will not fry it could give L2D-CE turbo, which is definitely brighter than high on L2D-CE. Could become handy sometimes.

nimhpwr said:

BTW, has anyone trier using those 3.6V lithium primaries in a L1D-CE without the magick smoke escaping? Just had a thought that if it will not fry it could give L2D-CE turbo, which is definitely brighter than high on L2D-CE. Could become handy sometimes.

Click to expand...

I've run my L1Dce for up to a half hour straight on a 14500 lithium rechargeable. Those come off the charger at 4.2 volts or something like that. No magic smoke.

The problem with running L1D/P2D on anything more than 3 volts is that you lose the lower levels. Low, Med, High all look very much like Turbo.

But Turbo is VERY bright. (compared to 1 NIMH anyways).

I'm sure you'd be plenty safe using the batteries in your link, and it will be brighter. Just remember you might lose some lower levels until the battery drops down to around 3 volts.

I can se a clear difference between medium and high on my L1D, also on my L2D(same head, different tubes).

Either it's discrepancies in manufacture or the perception of users.

Who can tell