280+ Lumens out of a Preon on a 10440.

OK, so I built a homemade light box and measured all my lights. I plotted this on a graph against their manufacturer rated outputs and I came up with a reasonably straight line. All the 240 lumen lights read about 70 ( units ) on the meter, the 120l read about 35, the 80l read around 23 etc.. All multiples of about 3.4. This line is nice and consistent from 70 lumens up to 600. Using this I can extrapolate the 'rated' lumens for lights I don't have a manufacturer rating for.
I put a 90% charged 10440 into all three of my Preons and got readings of around 85. That's over 280 lumens !!! Outperformed my RRT-0 on a CR123R. Not bad for something the size of my middle finger.

For 10440 fans, some of the other readings I got were.
Liteflux LF2XT R2 130 l ( But much longer runtime.)
Fenix LD01 SS 250 l
Maratac AAA 220 l


And yes, Four Sevens advise against using 10440 cells in their lights as do Maratac, Fenix, etc… Only the Liteflux LF2XT is designed for it. Lets not start down that road as it's been covered a hundred times over. I just wanted to post my readings.

Thanks for sharing. Which 10440 did you use?

That is what I got too. I borowed 3 of these from local person for testing with a cheap no-name 10440. They all make 300ish OTF and all get pretty toasty at 3 minutes too.


Here are my results for 2 of them...Ignore the M60LF readings.

damn_hammer said:

Which 10440 did you use?

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I think it's an AW one but I'm not sure. Wasn't one of my DX Ultrafire ones and not one of the protected ones as they don't fit in the Preons.

Got to say that one of the Preons outpreformed the others by around 12% so that's my favorite now. Didn't include it in the results as it's out there on it's own.

Bigchelis,
What, results like that and you only borrowed the Preons !!!!!! Glad to see your results are on a par with mine on a part used cell. Quite impresive output eh !

I haven't tried that with my Preon yet... I guess the price tag. But a Maratac AAA for about $25, oh yeah, a 10440 is too much fun not to use. I only want high for short bursts anyway.

How much current can you safely draw out of a tiny 10440? It seems like that'd be pushing close to 3C, is that ok?

Is the circuit just direct driving the LED at that high of a Vin?

kramer5150 said:

Is the circuit just direct driving the LED at that high of a Vin?

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Yes

What's the useful run time on the 10440? If it gets so hot after 3 mins that you can't use it on high without letting it cool down, then it's really only good for short high bursts of light and the "wow" factor.

HarveyRich said:

What's the useful run time on the 10440? If it gets so hot after 3 mins that you can't use it on high without letting it cool down

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Haven't timed it properly but I'm guessing it's up to 10 min on high. You have to grip the light fairly tight to get that heat away through your hand though and I must confess, I think I've only done it in outside in cold weather.

HarveyRich said:

then it's really only good for short high bursts of light and the "wow" factor.

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Often that what you want it for. Especially when someone says " Is that a Maglight" and I reach into my draw, pull out a Solitare and show them the difference between a Solitare 2 or 3 lumens against a 4sevens 300.

fugleebeast said:

How much current can you safely draw out of a tiny 10440? It seems like that'd be pushing close to 3C, is that ok?

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Technically/theoretically, probably not.

In real life, never had a problem so far and I've been running 10440's for years. Never seen a post about a problem with a 10440 either.

fugleebeast said:

How much current can you safely draw out of a tiny 10440? It seems like that'd be pushing close to 3C, is that ok?

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Only vaguely related, but I was looking at the Team Orion website and they're selling "molecular LiPo" batteries for remote-control car usage that are rated up to 45C discharge. Safely. (they claim) oo:

Jay R said:

Technically/theoretically, probably not.

In real life, never had a problem so far and I've been running 10440's for years. Never seen a post about a problem with a 10440 either.

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That's good to know. I use a 10440 in my Liteflux but was just playing with it in the Preon last night. I was also wanting to use the unprotected RCR2s in my CR2 Mini that's on its way. I understand about the heat issue while running rechargeables but I hadn't thought much about the whether the cells could handle the draw.

i'd like to use protected cells but i heard most r longer and won't fit in the preon. anybody know any protected 10440s that will fit?

There aren't any. All the protected cells so far just take a normal size 10440 and place a board on the end.

I guess if you place another o ring on the swith end it may make it long enough. I'll go and see.

Tried it.

I unscrewed the switch, placed a Trustfire protected cell in and did the switch up. It worked fine but the switch was only held in by one turn of the thread. Same amount without the switch and using the blank 'twisty' end.
So, kind of works but I wouldn't trust the light staying together with only one turn of the thread.

I still think that the preon would be a super boss if in the future when 4sevens gets those xm leds. they should put them in there and then make it a 3 AAA light cause that would only be like a cm bigger then a pen (cause the 2 AAA preons are shorter than a pen). that would be the best pen light out there giving off about 300 lumens at a very high efficiency in a super floody beam.

I got my AW 10440's yesterday. I can absolutely confirm that the Preon 1 is *astonishing* on high and the overall beam is very loud and white and makes the RRT-0 S2 look almost anemic in comparison. The Preon's entire beam is HUGE, much larger than the RRT-0 (W/ CR123). The hotspot of the RRT-0 S2 is able to overwhelm the preon's hotspot with 10440 when overlaid, but that's just the hotspot. This isn't a completely fair comparison. The RRT-0 has a smooth reflector and is intended to be a bit of a thrower, the Preon not. It would take a series of comparisons other than some up close white wall hunting to fully quantify this but I was surely surprised.

The teeny finger sized preon beats hell out of the 5D Maglight (stock) as well.

I put a 90% charged 10440 into all three of my Preons and got readings of around 85. That's over 280 lumens !!! Outperformed my RRT-0 on a CR123R. Not bad for something the size of my middle finger.

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