600 lumen headlamp on 3xAAAs....yeah right

Simon Barry · Dec 29, 2011

Ebay item 200687990926

OK...

1) Is it remotely possible that the description is accurate or in any way correct (cos if it is, for £10 I'm having one).

2) On the premise it isnt....how do this seller (and others) get away with describing it thus?

eBay link removed, please do not link directly to EBay items - Norm

Hooked on Fenix · Dec 29, 2011

By the description, it sounds like they are saying it has an R5 bin Cree XP-G. At 1.5 amps, you can get around 500 emitter lumens. You can't get that with 3AAAs. At best, you'll probably get maybe 200 lumens. If the l.e.d. was overdriven, you might get 600 emitter lumens, for about a minute on AAAs before the output drops severely. They probably are using an l.e.d. with the potential of near 600 lumens and you'll get 100 lumens.

Simon Barry · Dec 30, 2011

so...get one, cut the AAA battery box off and wire in a set of somewhat juicier cells? maybe 2x3 AAs in parallelwhich will reduce internal resistance and allow a fair old current?

RedForest UK · Dec 30, 2011

That could work and would push maybe 460 lumens at the emitter max (600 for an XP-G R5 is pure fiction), but you'd see only 200-350 of these OTF of the light as it appears to use an aspheric lense so lots is lost with such a wide emissive angle LED. Also it would probably overheat and kill it quite soon.. The effort really isn't worth it

The light is advertised as using 18650 cells also though, if you got one of those it may be closer to 300 lumens without the need for extensive modification.

Simon Barry · Jan 1, 2012

I had thought that heat dissipation would be a problem - hence not seeing it ever being 600 lumen in the first place. There is a part of me that fancies doing it though...just to see...

In anycase. with that kind of brightness, all I would ever use it for is a quick whats that over there blast.

600 lumen headlamp on 3xAAAs....yeah right

Simon Barry

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Hooked on Fenix

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Simon Barry

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RedForest UK

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Simon Barry

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