Defective p3d or batteries?

Hey everyone.

I got my fenix p3d about a month ago and used it sparingly in turbo mode every night. About a minute per night and maybe a a minute or so in low mode during the day. When I first got my p3d I used brand new streamlight cr123a. Yesterday my batteries died after about one month. I stuck the old batteries into an incandescant and it barely would light up for a second and dimmed out completely.

I am puzzled. Using my light so little I didn't think the batteries would die so quickly. How did my batteries die so fast? What do you guys think. Is there anyway the flashlight is defective and is somehow using more current than a regular p3d? Or is it just a case of bad batteries?

I woud say that the P3D is OK, you just drained the batteries - the runtime on turbo is about 1.8 hours - I think you might have used it that long after one month. I don't know about Streamlight batteries, but some brands have only 50% of the stated capacity... Maybe you could try to buy some Panasonic/Energizer/Surefire batteries and make a continous runtime test (on high mode - it would get quite hot on turbo if you run it constantly 1.8 hours...).

Sorry, double post.
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Put some new batteries in and see if the light works. If it does, your light is OK. The runtime for P3D on 2x CR123As in turbo mode would not be long. Certainly a lot shorter than 1.5 hours when being switched on and off like you did.

You may get better runtime with 1x 17670. I have a P3D CE running on 17670 ans it is running all right.

Cool it works again with new batteries. Didn't know constant switching would shorten battery life so much.

I'll try to do a constant burn test to see if my flashlight lives up to the rated 1.8 hours.

davidt said:

Cool it works again with new batteries. Didn't know constant switching would shorten battery life so much.

I'll try to do a constant burn test to see if my flashlight lives up to the rated 1.8 hours.

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LEDs have no significant burst of power consumption when they are turned on. That's why PWM works as a power-saving and light-level feature.

I think you probably just wound up accumulating more runtime than you think.

Here's a graph by Chevrofreak showing his run time results with a P3D on TURBO:

http://lights.chevrofreak.com/runtimes/Fenix%20P3D/Fenix%20P3D%20-%20max.png

From the various tests he ran it looks like his P3D exceeds the run times quoted by Fenix.

Fenix did have some issues with a batch of switches, actually, the circuit board the switches are mounted on. It allowed some current to bleed through, which caused a constant power drain. If your light ever came on in strobe mode instead of Turbo, or medium instead of low, then you likely have one of the switches with a problem.

I took the switch out of the tailcap and used some electrical contact cleaner (rubbing alcohol also works) and a cotton swab to scrub the contact rings on the spring side of the PCB. There was also some solder that ran a little bit, so I scraped that away with a knife. basically, you're just making sure there is no electrical contact path between the outer ring and the center part where the spring is attatched.

meuge said:

LEDs have no significant burst of power consumption when they are turned on. That's why PWM works as a power-saving and light-level feature.

I think you probably just wound up accumulating more runtime than you think.

Click to expand...

I agree with meuge. Switching it on and off won't decrease battery life and sometimes it's hard to guestimate whether you've used it for one minute or two minutes or more. You might consider using RCRs since it sounds like you use your light a bit. I know that I tend to use my lights even more when they're rechargeable.

Check out this thread:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2150588#

I'll bet that's the problem. :sigh:

I was really disappointed when I found the mentioned thread of fenixs leaking current. I'll have to get my hands on a DMM to test it out.