What lights are regulated?

I'm a little confused what lights are current regulated?

So no iTP A series or Olight i series light is regulated correct?

I know the LD01 IS but what about the E05 and E01

What about the Jetbeam BC series and other "budget" lights?

Also if I use a lithium primary in a non-regulated light it will maintain x brightness longer right?

I owned a LD01 years ago...
It is a regulated light but it uses PWM to control the brightness. I also know my iTP A1 EOS uses PWM. It's fairly common actually.
I think if a flashlight were current-regulated to control brightness the manufacturer would tell you.

Lithium primary in a non-regulated light....
generally speaking yes but I have heard of some cases where it actually depletes faster because of lower internal resistance and other factors - at least when compared to alkaline.

ScaryFatKidGT said:

What about the Jetbeam BC series and other "budget" lights?

Click to expand...

Jetbeam uses PWM for their B series lights, so does iTP.

I mean constant output regulated

Led lights are often regulated for two reasons. First all, semiconductor dioes have non-linear V-I curves, once you reach Vf on the diode, the forward resistance drops to almost nothing. the result is that small changes in applied voltage create large changes in current, which can burn out the LED quite easily. The other issue is that Vf tends to vary slightly from batch to batch. The easiest way to insure consistent output is feed the LED with what is essentially a current source. It will produce a certain amount of current (no more, rarely less) regardless of Vf on the Diode, or condition of the battery. Absent regulation, the output of an LED could vary quite dramatically over the life of the battery.

E01: voltage regulated (according to an old E01 reverse engineering thread here on CPF).
Older LD01 (such as R2): PWM (I got one).
Newer LD01 (such as current SS): current-regulated (as advertised).

Most of the LED flashlights which are discussed here are regulated in one way or another, except for (most of the) LED Lenser models and some other direct-drive flashlights. You can even try to "pseudo-regulate" a direct drive flashlight by using NiMH or other battery type with a relatively flat discharge curve.

BTW it's usually easy to tell whether the flashlight is PWM regulated - by performing a fast movement test.

Cheers,

Tam

Regarding the Olight i-series, I think the i3 is pretty neat light and there aren't as many choices for multiple mode single AAA lights. But as far as the i2 goes that's a different story in my opinion. It has to do with its driver circuit and its not as good as other lights. I don't know if its current regulated or PWM but it definitely isn't as flat as other current regulated AA lights nor anywhere near as efficient based on my run time graphs. Needless to say, I ended up selling it after checking it out. I did like the price of it though. (Maybe that was why it was so inexpensive!). The one aspect that was the real eye-opener for me was the medium mode was quite a bit less efficient than the high mode :shakehead. Most of the time the lower modes are more efficient.

As an example in my light box setup which just compares one light to another..........and not actual lumen output: The iTP SA1 which is one of the best current regulated outputs of all my single AA lights on medium put out 2590 lux for 330 minutes. The Olight i2 on medium put out 1250 lux for 365 minutes equating to about 53% as efficient.