Inova's 20 hour burn time?

Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

Well,been using my tatical light for a few months now with great sucess,till now. How do they clame 20 hours of light? I used mine intermintantly for a total of one hour. After that, poof! The light output was totally useless. At that battery rate, i might as well go for incandesant. I shipped it back to make sure that there was no abnormal high current draw. It was the later model, so i doubt that the batteries were compromised by the shelf life (lithiums). What is your average burn time for those that own one? Ill keep you all posted on what they find

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

Did you try other batteries? You might have come across a dud battery. I bought a Duracell Ultra once for my Arc LS as an emergency/backup battery. When i got home to try it out, it lasted for about 5 seconds until the Arc LS dropped down to moon mode. I was disappointed because i just wasted 4 dollars.

Anyway, from what i've heard about the X5, you should get at least 10 hours of full or nearly full brightness.

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

i didnt try new ones because I need to buy them by the dozen to get a tastey price, so i wanted to make sure there wasnt a problem with the light itself.

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

If your takling about the Inova X5T, the light output does drop off rather quickly. Mine drops noticibly in under an hour and after a couple of hours it's pretty much useless like you said. It starts to turn greenish and becomes a shamefully dull. As SF puts it: "Lies, Damn Lies"

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

Hmmm...maybe i'm confusing my understanding with a different light. (there are SO many that i've heard discussed on this forum) I may have been mistaken then. Sorry.

If the Inova X5T, realistically, only supplies an hour of "useable" brightness (by CPF standards), then i guess you would be better off using an incandesent.

The Inova uses TWO lithium baterries right? Whew....i could see how that could get expensive REAL quick. YOu might as well use an E2 or some other xenon based light. Heck, even the Arc LS running on 1 123 battery would last for at least 2 hours before substantially dropping off in brightness.

Really though, the Inova X5T only uses 5 5mm LEDs. What could possibly drain those batteries so quickly?

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

Led agent, yes, thats what i would like to know. If one hour is it for the lighting, it really isnt worth using. I'll see what they say, and do a timed burn when i get it back

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

That's weird. I suspect the batteries. I have a well-worn pair of 123a's that I've been circulating around to different lights and I threw them in the x5t and just let it burn to see if they were close to dying... It went easily 2 hours before I quit without a really noticable decrease in brightnes.

Remember, no matter how you cut it, you are only working with 5 nichia LEDs and you aren't going to have a lot of light no matter what.

Mathematically, if you have 1300 mAh capacity in a 123a and if each LED draws 40mA (this is a guess and they would be very badly overdriven so it's probably less), that's 200mA. You should get at least 4 hours if not 6 hours out of a set of batteries, providing completely flat output (which doesn't really happen - hence why you could get 20 hours...).

For the LEDs to only burn an hour on 123a's they would have to draw almost 260mA EACH! They'd fry in less than a second...

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

Sounds like either your X5T has some problems or you got some bum batteries. I have had the X5T in white and green and was pleased by the runtime, but never awed by the brightness.

I have a couple of X5s that I use for bumping around the house at night that are on the same batteries that came with them and have been run off and on for many months.

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

I have an X5 and an X5T and I get well over 8hrs at near full brightness from both. I use them extensivly and the run time is consistant if the batteries are good. Three times now I've gotten bad batteries - put them in and 2-3 minutes later everything fades out - had the same thine happen just lastweek on my Arc LS - new battery - 30 seconds of light. I really hate that - there's no way ever to get a refund either!.

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

Ahavemann and Ledagent, what brand of 123 cell did you see the had a "bum cell"?

Peter

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

I usually get 10 hours of good light from my Inova X5 on a set of batteries, so I guess you had bad luck and got some
almost dead batteries. I've tested how long it takes until the batteries are fully drained... It takes over 14 days until the 5 nichia LEDs stop emmiting light. I've compared the runtime of my Inova X5 to the runtime of an Inova X5T
(from a freind of mine) and it seems that the Inova X5 runs longer than the Inova X5T. Also the Inova X5T seems to be a bit brighter than Inova X5. What do you think ? Is the Inova X5T brighter than the Inova X5 and hence has a shorter
runtime ?

Kaneda

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

wow, seems you folks had much better luck than me. But you rarely here of bad alakline batteries from duracell or enegizer, i wonder why some 123 are flubbs right out of the package? especially with the shelf life of lithiums

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

I used to think the same thing, that the X5t lasted a long time. Until I compared it side by side with one with new batteries. I think the light depletes so slowly that your eyes get used to it. Try the light at 4 hours, then put in new batteries. You'll see the big difference.

Then again, I swap out batteries in my SF lights after about 5-10 minutes because it loses the initial brightness.

Re: Inova\'s 20 hour burn time?

The Inova X5 (original) is generally considered to get 5-6 hours of good light followed by X hours of significantly dimmer light. The output is remarkably steady for an unregulated light and drops only 7% after 3 hours of steady burn. (See Brock's charts)

The form factor is among the sleekest and most EDC adapted of any of the small bright nichia lights. It was the brightest small LED light until the Luxeons arrived and it is still one of the brightest and longest-burning LED lights of its size. When the XT came out some of the original advantages were sacrificed and the light became bigger, heavier and bulkier, if slightly brighter but with a shortened runtime.

The justification for this was a tailcap switch, but those of us who put a thin strip of skateboard tape or similar material on the unusually smooth-turning bezel found it much more convenient than the tail switch. Since this light is commonly used as a utility light, rather than as a true tactical light, conventional arm-down flashlight hold is desirable and comfortable. This type of hold works best with a body switch or an easy-turning/easy-grip bezel switch.

I somewhat reluctantly retired my X5 after I got my first ARC LS 2AA.

Brightnorm