EA41 with rechargable batteries

Ive just recently got some eneloop 1900mAh batts for my ea41 and Ive noticed that the bat indicator on the ea41 flashes when the batts are almost empty, but the ea41 should start to flash when batts are 50% empty. Is this normal?

I think the eneloops hold their voltage at a much more level discharge rate and then drop off when nearly dead. With alkalines the voltage drops evenly as they lose charge.

If there is anything I can fault most modern flashlights it's that I don't necessarily like flat discharge curves necessarily. Sometimes you'll be using a light and then it just literally stops working completely as the voltage drops so suddenly with eneloops, 18650s, or cr123's. A light like the Fenix E01 sucks every last drop out of a cell--- especially with alkalines and you can see them losing power, but they still won't die suddenly. The LED will stay dim, but continue working a long time.

It's not really a fault with modern cells though. As long as you recharge your lights regularly you get amazing consistency and power out of your lights. Do you have a good charger to go with your eneloops? If not get one that charges each bay/cell individually. I have 2 LaCrosse BC-700 chargers specifically for AA (and AAA) cells because I use so many of them for flashlights and things like photo flashes. If you just want one though for multiple cell types get the Fenix charger with the display or the Nitecore one.

This happens on my Sunwayman D40A, too. I get about 30 seconds warning when the red LED starts to flash, then it drops down to low.

I guess it's hard for manufacturers to know what the right voltage level is to trigger the battery warning. Set it too low, and you get very little warning. Set it too high, and it will give false triggers whenever the output is high and there's some voltage sag due to the load.

I wish it was set a little higher, but at least the light doesn't go dark. Maybe it would give more warning with crap batteries, instead of Eneloops.

I have noticed something similar on my EA41, especially at the lower modes (I like to use the 40 lumen mode to light up the room while I am up at night). After I have been using them for a while the blue led will start slow blinking while the light is on, but I will still get 3 blinks when I do a battery test. Later on, I will be getting an 'I'm dying here' blinker, yet still get 2 blinks on the battery check. But I know I will soon have to recharge at that point.

I went back and looked at some of the dv/dT curves our faithful reviewers have published, and noticed something interesting. On almost all the curves, but especially at low current drains, from the time the cell drops down from its initial voltage until it hits the knee and starts to dive, the voltage measured will only drop by about 0.05 volts. I'm guessing for the rest of this, but I think that the blinker is running off of a dv/dT comparator, and that further, because of the steepness of the curve after the voltage starts to seriously drop, the dT time interval is not very long. That would mean that when the cell is first starting into its final voltage drop dv will change enough to trigger the warning, even if the drop is not that substantial yet. Then with continued use the dv value starts to increase more rapidly as the cell moves down the curve, triggering more urgent warnings, even if the actual voltage may have only changed by 0.1 or 0.2. Of course, this is all (hopefully) intelligent speculation on my part, and I hope one of our resident battery gurus will correct me if I am wrong.

get some Eneloop Pros or Powerex 2700mah AA cells. I have found either one increases runtime in my EA41, D40A etc by roughly 30%