URGENT: MRV Battery Help!

Hello everyone,

I have an Epsilon MRV coming my way, and last night placed an order with batteryjunction.com. I have a "Li-Ion 18650 3.7V 2600mAh rechargeable battery FULLY PROTECTED with PCB Lithium Ion" http://batteryjunction.com/2600pcb-18650.html and a TL-100 Universal Li-Ion Charger for 18650, 17670 & 16340 cells http://batteryjunction.com/tlunlichfor1.html ordered, but they have not yet shipped. What is the difference between the 18650 and RCR123's in the MRV? I'm more concerned with brightness and flat regulation than I am with runtime. If I'm going to try to change the order, or add RCR123's without getting slammed for another $7 shipping, I'd have to get an e-mail/phonecall in ASAP. If going with 123's which one should I go with??
This one looks good and is high capacity: http://batteryjunction.com/rc390reliba.html and this one is higher voltage (3.6v) http://batteryjunction.com/uf16340.html. Can I use that in the MRV? Will it change performance?

Thank you very much!

Please :candle:

The 3.6V are the "standard" RCR123a's, and that's what I would go with. IIRC from recent MRV runtime graphs, the RCRs are going to give you flatter regulation but shorter runtime than with the 18650s... however, the newer MRVs have better regulation than the originals when run on 18650s so what the "right" cell to run is is impossible to say. If you want max output with flattest regulation possible, I'd buy the RCRs...

The MRV will be brighter with rcr123a's, but runtime is about 30 minutes +/-.

Any decent 18650 will give you a couple of hours of runtime, but it will not be as bright as 2xrcr123a's or 123a primaries. 123a primaries will give you about an hour of runtime.

Do a search of MRV runtimes and you will see the graphs. Panasonic, Surefire, Energizer, Duracell all make decent 123a batts.

I received my MRV-SE/Epsilon a couple of weeks ago so I can give you the short and simple answer:

1. Runtimes on RCR123's is dismal at best (in any light) so I have never considered them as an option for any of my lights. The MRV will, however, operate at it's optimum regulated brightest with them.

2. The MRV is significantly less bright when used with an 18650, but you'll get excellent runtimes. If you want the brightest that the MRV will operate, then a single 18650 is NOT the way to go.

3. The MRV works best on CR123's and will give you good runtimes as well. The problem with that is that you have to feed it $$$ primary CR123's.

4. Then here's the part you may not have thought about yet; the M-65 Extension tube is going to be available in the next couple of weeks.
With it, you can use 2x18650's which does two things; it gives you hellacious long runtimes, and better yet, it puts the voltage back up to where the MRV will finally work at it's optimised brightest level with 18650 batteries.
The only downside is that the light becomes longer by the length of the additional 18650, but in my opinion (and for my expected use for the light), it's a no brainer to go with the extension tube and 2x18650's.
(Actually, it does a third thing; it allows you to use the 18650 rechargeables which means you're now down to less than .01 cent per charge use which is way better than $3 per pair of CR123's per set usage.)

That's all I got. Hope it helped.

Thank you very much, everyone. Sadly, my order shipped this morning, so I'm stuck with an 18650 and two CR123s (I'd have like to pick up the RCRs). Zenster, I'll probably pick up the extension tube and another 18650... if it turns out that the light isn't pocketable, the size difference really doesn't matter. yes- my definition of pocketable is different from most people, but I think the MRV will push it....