Malkoff M60:17670 or x2 RCR 123?

HI,

AW cells, which is prefered?

Thanks!

You are not going to get full power from the 17670, go with the AW RCR123

My M60 seams to do quite well with a AW17670. I get around an hour of burntime before the light drops out of regulation. This option gives you some dimming before the PCB kicks in and shuts the battery down at low voltage. If you go with the protected RCR, the light will run at full brightness, and then shut off with no warning after a while.

I have both types of cells, but haven't used the 17670s yet. From what I've read of people actually trying it, they should supply just as much runtime in regulation as 2 R123s, followed by a longer period of gradually dimming output as opposed to the sudden stop when the protection circuit kicks in on 2xR123.
That regulation from a single cell is dependant on the Vf of the emitter, but those seem to be fairly low on the Crees that are common nowadays.

Which actually has more capacity, 17670 or two 16430? Both current AW cells. Got em both right here. Just put an M60 in a C2 with Z58 clicky.

The 17670 will give you more runtime... so the trade-off is more runtime but diminishing output when the voltage drops below 3.8v vs. full regulated output but less runtime and the light will basically go out once the voltage drops below 3.8v.

Running 2xRCR123's with my M60 gives me about 47 minutes of runtime, by comparison, I get over 2.5 hrs with a 17670 (after about an hour, the light drops out of regulation and begins to diminish in output) and even more runtime with an 18650 (approx. 3.5+ hrs). Check out this thread on M60 / M30 runtimes for more info. Btw, some suggest that the output using a 17670 / 18650 is not as bright as using 2xRCR123 - I can't tell which is brighter initially but you do begin to see the light diminishing in output.

So since I have my new Lux meter it was very quick and easy to do this test. I took my M30 module out of my Solarforce host that has an 18650 battery on it and dropped in the M60. Measured the Lux and then replaced the battery with 2 new Eveready CR123's. The output jumped up 30%. The 18650 had a full charge on it and has plenty of capacity to run the M60 but its voltage is of course much lower. the M60 series does not have really flat regulation. You could run it on these batteries for a long time but you are not getting full power output by doing so. That is your real trade off. Which is fine if that is what you want, but don't expect it to be truly as bright as it was. The beauty of not having totally flat regulation is that you don't get a sudden drop out of light output without warning and then realize your batteries are dead, you get some gradual tapering off which gives you time to get your next set of batteries lined up. So this type of behavior is totally normal and expected for this module.

When I have time I will run the M60 on a power supply from 3.7V up to 9V. I thought I had the data but I have only previously tested it from 5.5 to 9V.

In the same vein, which would be the better setup for an M60 in a three cell light, x3 16430 or two 17500? Say in a C3? Same thing?

Bluehinder,

If you use 3 primary 123's that should be ok at 9V,

If you use 3 rechargable 123's, the voltage will be 12.6V off the charger, the M60 is rated at only 9V. You will blow the led.

I myself use 2 AW 17500's in my Surefire D3 Defender with an M60 installed. It works really well. Hope this helps.

Happy Dark Trails

I use 2x18500 with M60.

Bluehinder said:

In the same vein, which would be the better setup for an M60 in a three cell light, x3 16430 or two 17500? Say in a C3? Same thing?

Click to expand...

More stable run times with better overall output using 2X17500. The M60 series Malkoff units are actually not rated for 3 16340 rechargeables because thats up over 12V. They are rated for 9V. 3 primaries under load is 9V or less, 3 RCR123s or 16340 is typically over 11V and should not be used for any M60 series. One guy on here custom ordered one rated for up to 12V and talks about it. All of the normal production units are not rated for that high of a voltage.

2X17500 is the smart and most stable way to go to get long run times. Been doing it for over a year with great results.