Does MAH = brighter or longer lasting

Not sure about the 18650 that show 3100, 3400, 3600 mah. What is the difference in the real world? Does this mean longer or brighter?

Mah stands for milli-amp hours. It's a measurement of potential capacity.

Just to keep it simple: It means longer.... (as it indicates the amount of energy that can be stored in the battery)

I do not think a battery can make a torch brighter. I think it is the electronics inside and the led what determines that. More mAh means it holds more energy.

bdogps said:

I do not think a battery can make a torch brighter. I think it is the electronics inside and the led what determines that. More mAh means it holds more energy.

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Actually in some cases batteries differ in voltage output and internal resistance which can affect the brightness of some torches.

bdogps said:

I do not think a battery can make a torch brighter. I think it is the electronics inside and the led what determines that.

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Yes, it can. The type of battery (internal resistance) determines the max. amount of current flow that the battery can handle. If this is the limiting factor in a flashlight, then a battery with less internal resistance will provide more light.

:wave:Lynx Arc beat me to it....

drmaxx said:

Yes, it can. The type of battery (internal resistance) determines the max. amount of current flow that the battery can handle. If this is the limiting factor in a flashlight, then a battery with less internal resistance will provide more light.

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Here's a great example of that on a custom light I have. 1480lm vs 1134lm both with 18650 cells!! Of course the 1134lm (NCR18650B cell) is going to last longer overall (3400mAh vs 2500mAh)

Actually, I think I can tell a slight increase in brightness in my Olight i3s EOS AAA light when I use a 1.5V alkaline rather than a 1.2V NiMH rechargeable. The extra 0.3V is a 25% increase.

LoL, luckily I said that I think.

magellan said:

Actually, I think I can tell a slight increase in brightness in my Olight i3s EOS AAA light when I use a 1.5V alkaline rather than a 1.2V NiMH rechargeable. The extra 0.3V is a 25% increase.

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This is very unlikely that this will last for more then a few seconds. Don't be fooled by the given 1.5V/1.2V specs. My rechargeables come with 1.45 V off the charger. The internal resistance of a alkaline battery is much higher then a NiMH. Additionally, under high load the alkaline battery will have fast a lower working voltage then the rechargeables. NiMH are generally the better batteries then alkalines in terms of overall brightness.

drmaxx said:

This is very unlikely that this will last for more then a few seconds. Don't be fooled by the given 1.5V/1.2V specs. My rechargeables come with 1.45 V off the charger. The internal resistance of a alkaline battery is much higher then a NiMH. Additionally, under high load the alkaline battery will have fast a lower working voltage then the rechargeables. NiMH are generally the better batteries then alkalines in terms of overall brightness.

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Yes, if you check out the discharge curves at lygte-info.dk, for Eneloops vs. Duracell alkalines, you'll see that at 2 amps, the alkalines have a lower working voltage than the Eneloops at all times. The Eneloops hold above 1.2v for most of the run-time, while the alkalines sink to 1.0v and below very quickly.

Okay, that's good information, thanks. I don't use my Eneloops in my Olight though because I replaced all the alkalines in all the remotes and other devices in the house after the last few alkaleaks did their thing. I've been using the alkalines in the Olight and several other cheap devices where I don't care if they leak, since after rounding up all the alkalines, I have over 100 AA and AAA alkalines, most of which are still at 60% or more of capacity.

I'll try one of my Eneloops and see if I can tell a difference. In any case, if the alkalines leak the i3s is only a $20 light and I have plenty of replacements for an AAA light, although they're more expensive.

bdogps said:

LoL, luckily I said that I think.

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Me too!

drmaxx said:

Yes, it can. The type of battery (internal resistance) determines the max. amount of current flow that the battery can handle. If this is the limiting factor in a flashlight, then a battery with less internal resistance will provide more light.

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I have three 18650 batteries. Two of them make my new PD35 TAC brighter than my PD35 original, but when I use the other battery it makes the PD35 TAC very slightly less bright (but just about detectable while quickly alternating them both in turbo mode) which made me wonder what was going on when I very first go the light. My initial thought was the light was bad some how, till I tried one of my other batteries and then it made sense, kind of... In time I might get another battery and keep this other one as a standby battery in case I am ever in that much of a dire need for it.

A LED has an output limit. The short version (I'm not an engineer of anything), volts equal brightness and mAh equals run-time. In my way of thinking, if I need more light, I need a brighter light.

Everybody is welcome to jump in and add to or correct any errors and/or omissions.

Your flashlight's driver limits and controls how bright a LED will get. Too much voltage and

For example a light that supports 6 volts and can do 2 x CR123s or 1 x 18650. Put in 2 RCR123s (for a max voltage of 7.2 volts) and you'll need a new light.

Some super-high output lights (like the Noctigon Meteor M43) have such high voltage requirements that they require low resistance/high output batteries. However if you were to replace the 4x 18650s (14.4 volts) in the M43 with 8x RCR123s (+28 volts) you would overload the driver. Even if the M43 supported 8 RCR123s those batteries only have ~700 mah and so you would run out of energy well before 4 x18650 with 2100+ Mah. You won't get the full voltage for the entire duration while draining the 18650s but you will get a much longer runtime with steadily decreasing output.

Using the example of the Noctigon M43 the output needed to drive the light would also be more than the max output the RCR123s could provide so you'd run the risk of blowing the batteries or tripping their protection circuit even if the M43's drive could support 28 volts.

No problem, my friends.

Milliamp-hours is a combination unit. There is amperage (current flow) and there is time (hours.)

It is quite possible to have very low voltage and very large milliamp-hours. (CPF search: zamboni piles.)

It is quite possible to have high amperage, moderate voltage, and small milliamp-hours. (CPF search: lion nukes.)

It's quite possible to have low amperage, high voltage, moderate milliamp-hours. (Internet search for 9v battery welding.)

It's very difficult (from an engineering standpoint) to do all of things and do them safely. Much of technology is either concealed behind safety or on the razor's edge. What is the razor's edge, you may ask? It's when safety margins are compromised in the name of performance. In short, it's the bane of every flashlight manufacturer engineer and and delight of every void-your-warranty flashlight modder.

more_vampires said:

No problem, my friends.

Milliamp-hours is a combination unit. There is amperage (current flow) and there is time (hours.)

It is quite possible to have very low voltage and very large milliamp-hours. (CPF search: zamboni piles.)

It is quite possible to have high amperage, moderate voltage, and small milliamp-hours. (CPF search: lion nukes.)

It's quite possible to have low amperage, high voltage, moderate milliamp-hours. (Internet search for 9v battery welding.)

It's very difficult (from an engineering standpoint) to do all of things and do them safely. Much of technology is either concealed behind safety or on the razor's edge. What is the razor's edge, you may ask? It's when safety margins are compromised in the name of performance. In short, it's the bane of every flashlight manufacturer engineer and and delight of every void-your-warranty flashlight modder.

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Always With the "safety"... Blah blah blah. Play with blasting caps. Swim after a big meal. Ignore common sense ... Future generations will thank you.
That is all.

FRITZHID said:

Always With the "safety"... Blah blah blah. Play with blasting caps. Swim after a big meal. Ignore common sense ... Future generations will thank you.
That is all.

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I uhh... kinda sorta know how to make blasting caps maybe kinda. I still have both eyes and all fingers (and toes.)

TRUST ME: SAFETY!