Can a P7 and MC-E on Direct Drive run off NiMH cells??????

Hi,
I have a Malkoff MC-E P60 and a Nailbender made P60 P7. I wanted to run 3 NiMH cells 18650 size for longer runtime. The added lengh is okay for me. These are the cells I was planning on purchasing along with ? charger.
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2260

I know if it was a Malkoff M30 I could run 4 NiMH and it would operate fine, but what about the Direct Drive quad emitters???

Go with 3X4/3A. 4X will be deliver too much current and will not sag quickly to a safe level. You have plenty of horsepower with 3X. Not sure about charger except some of the hobby chargers out there such as Triton, Ice. Do a google for hobby chargers.

Bill

bigchelis said:

Hi,
I have a Malkoff MC-E P60 and a Nailbender made P60 P7. I wanted to run 3 NiMH cells 18650 size for longer runtime. The added lengh is okay for me. These are the cells I was planning on purchasing along with ? charger.
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2260

Click to expand...

3x 4/3A F NiMH should be fine; people run DD off 3x D NiMH all the time in Mags. Just check the current draw on hot cells, make sure it's not over 2.8A (datasheet spec) or that if it is, you're comfortable with the amount of overdrive. (The emitter can take over 5A with no , if the heatsinking is good enough.)

For a charger, I'd go with a NiMH D charger; the cells are not much longer than a D cell, and my charger (a Vanson), at least, can take an 18650 with room to spare.

Many people have successfully run SSC-P7 modified M@gs with 3*NiMH.

WARNING
Some MC-Es have a too low Vf for direct drive operation with 3*NiMH. Elektrolumens had to repair a number of his MC-E drop-ins that has gone . He is now adding dropping resistors.

Thank you all. I just purchased the cells you folks highlighted here along with the "D" size charger Venson brand.

With these NiMH cells offering so much capacity and the low voltage allows the user to use P7 dd, MC-E dd, and Malkoff M30. It would be long and skinny light, but for long trips where size is not as relevant this would seem like a great build.

Are any of you running NiMH with M30, Dereelight 4.2v, or any DX low voltage applications?????

bigchelis said:

Are any of you running NiMH with M30, Dereelight 4.2v, or any DX low voltage applications?????

Click to expand...

Being interested in efficiency, I used my M30 with 2xAA NiMH for quite a while, it worked ok, the runtimes really surprised me.

I ran the same M30 in my FM 2xC c-body and two Alkaline C's, I got the ~130 lumens for ~3 hrs 15 min, with another ~3 hours decline to roughly 15 lumens before I turned it off. Worked great.

Now I'm using the same 2xC (still alkaline C's until I get some NiMH) with a SF turbohead, a low-voltage LED tower (BB NG 1000 driver) and a P4 emitter.

Here's the neat part: ~200 lumens, but a brighter spot (~1.5x the lux) than my M60 w/2x17500. I should get a semi-regulated runtime of ~3 hours once I get the NiMH C's. It's an amazing setup, very very efficient, and one heck of a thrower, especially for the wattage:

Calculated wattage of this low-voltage P4 configuration: 2.4 W
Wattage of the Malkoff M60: 4.5 W