Amber Inretech 2AA

The replacement adapter arrived today (quite quickly !). New one's on the right. It's a bit more yellow, the older one a bit more orange. The old one's LED is a bit tilted to one side, the new one's LED is mounted fine but the die is off center. Old one draws about 200mA from a set of full, but not hot off the charger, NiMHs, the new one about 180.

So, both would fry quickly off fresh alkalines...which I _thought_ is what they're supposed to use?

The NiMHs are on the edge. A bit hotter than I'd like to run for more than a minute at a time.

Any opinions which I should keep? Try for another with a flush LED and reasonably centered die?

I'm tired of being a thorn in Inretech's side with this order...but I'm not thrilled with either of these. OTOH, I love the amber light, even if I have to use "dead' batteries.

Are my results at all typical?

When a LED is made, there are variations in color due to the process, and production batch - The LEDs are specified to be XXXnm, but can easily vary 20-40nm due to things out of control of the manufact.

The Off-Center die is clearly a defect, and should have been caught by Lumileds

We do not have a spectrometer to test the color of our parts, we rely on Luxeon to do that; if you are not satisfied with the color - please tell me how I can better select or find one to your liking

Mike

The color's not really an issue for me, just the beam shape and, especially I'd like your opinion about the voltage.

Do the ambers always need to be used with "dead" batteries?

The off-center die is a fairly commom defect that I have seen quite often in "Red family" Luxeons.

I've found that any of the red family luxeons will run safely off of 2AA alkalines. I use lithiums in mine, but please note that my red family mods are NOT drop-ins but rather fully heatsinked permanent mods. I have never seen (in person) an Inretech mod, so I can't state with certainty is there is adequate heatsinking.

I have been performing tests on red family Luxeons using 3AA NiMh cells. This is WAY overdriving them, but none have died as a result (so far). I expect to do a write-up on my red family over-drive torture tests sometime in the future after I've obtained more data (and can speak with greater authority on the subject)..

With a heatsink, as in if this were like a Mr. Bulk LGI but 2 cell, it would be fine. Well, assuming sustained currents of 500mA or a bit more would be "fine" despite the spec sheet.

I have one other amber luxeon, a very early model, with a much bigger die that is also off center.

Just a thought - NiMH have much lower internal resistance than alkalines. AA alkalines, even at 1.5v each, will resist the high draw of the Luxeon while the NiMH will dump as much current into the Luxeon as it wants at the specific voltage delivered. Alkalines should be fine, and in fact, safer. Meter it and see what happens.

I have, NiMH do not seem to act all that different than alkalines at the same voltage. e.g. Alkalines that meter at 1.3V put through too much current. 1.2 are on edge, just like the NiMH.

FWIW, it's the CCrane charger's analyze function I use to test the alkaline voltage under load.

I've asked the question about new alkalines in about 3 threads... has nobody tried this? Has nobody toasted an amber LED? Is there no official Inretech statement about it?

[edit] I hear, back-channel, that you can use fresh batts.. I still don't think I would, though.