USB vs Battery and how to determine low battery on LED (Penlights)

Hi All,
I am new here and as is my personality, I have questions that I don't have answers to. In my limited experience, LED lights are brighter than incandescent. I would like a penlight with about 1000 lumens max (my wife will get this one) with optional lower power settings. The 1000 lumens could be used to hit any potential attacker in the eyes to buy time. Now I have tools where when the battery wears down, the light simply extinguishes. I think that's a feature of LED's. Correct me if I am wrong. So I think that when I buy my wife's penlight, it would be nice to know that the battery is running low, whether it is USB charged or AAA (OR AA) batteries, giving me the opportunity to re-charge or replace batteries. So, are there any relatively slim penlights out there that will give me the lumens I seek and allow me to see if the battery is running low. Imagine someone menacing my wife and she points a light in his eyes that doesn't turn on. In NY mace is not permitted. (I HATE this state). So what do you experts recommend that will give me the maximum light output in the smallest penlight package, either battery or USB charge that will meet my expectations. Should I use a different technology than LED? In looking at penlights lots of the ads say that when you are charging there is a red LED and it's green when charged but I have not found one that shows the charge level. I would rather not spend more than $50.00 but if I have to I will.
I bet there will be lots of suggestions!
Thanks to you all
Ray

I am surprised....no one seems to have anything to suggest!

nitecapt said:

I am surprised....no one seems to have anything to suggest!

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Nothing to suggest. A penlight the size of AAA batteries isn't out there in the 1000 lumen range that I know of about 500 lumens is the highest and that is off lithium ion batteries off nimh AAAs the best is around 300 lumens and that is 2AAA, a single AAA light is about 120 lumens for nimh and in the 300-500 range for lithium ion. Likely in order to get 1000 lumens you are going to have to go with lithium ion and probably 18650 and that just isn't penlight sized. There may be penlight sized closer to 1000 lumens but I seriously doubt $50 would get you one because they are likely custom built. I had a 2AAA 200 lumen light and it get plenty hot fast on the 200 lumen mode and devoured alkaleaks quickly at that output level.
the 18650 market should do most everything you've asked for although it is larger than a AA battery, smaller than a C cell, and taller than a D cell lights over 2000 lumens are out there and $50 should easily get you over 1000 lumens some offerings come with a battery also.
I have a Sofirn SP32 that does 1200 lumens on turbo and about 600 on high, came with an 18650 (3000mah) and a cheap charger (I've not used). It has a weird strobe too. There are many offerings/brands out there.

Lynx_Arc said:

Nothing to suggest. A penlight the size of AAA batteries isn't out there in the 1000 lumen range that I know of about 500 lumens is the highest and that is off lithium ion batteries off nimh AAAs the best is around 300 lumens and that is 2AAA, a single AAA light is about 120 lumens for nimh and in the 300-500 range for lithium ion. Likely in order to get 1000 lumens you are going to have to go with lithium ion and probably 18650 and that just isn't penlight sized. There may be penlight sized closer to 1000 lumens but I seriously doubt $50 would get you one because they are likely custom built. I had a 2AAA 200 lumen light and it get plenty hot fast on the 200 lumen mode and devoured alkaleaks quickly at that output level.
the 18650 market should do most everything you've asked for although it is larger than a AA battery, smaller than a C cell, and taller than a D cell lights over 2000 lumens are out there and $50 should easily get you over 1000 lumens some offerings come with a battery also.
I have a Sofirn SP32 that does 1200 lumens on turbo and about 600 on high, came with an 18650 (3000mah) and a cheap charger (I've not used). It has a weird strobe too. There are many offerings/brands out there.

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Thank you for your reply. I may not be making too much sense here.
In my original posting I did not limit it to AAA batteries, in fact I mentioned AA and/orUSB charge.
I understand what you are saying but in reality, regardless of how many lumens I can get out of a aa or USB light, how can I get an idea of the level of power remaining in the battery? Most of the newer battery operated tools I have including my 20v max Dewalt light, just shut off and that's that. Never an idea when power is running low although some batteries have an LED push button readout. I would guess something like this
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HQTXSWF/?tag=cpf0b6-20 will only last moments at full power or they are misrepresenting the power of the light which I think is quite possible.
SO I am kind of back to the question of however many lumens I can get, how can I tell if a battery is running low?

nitecapt said:

Thank you for your reply. I may not be making too much sense here.
In my original posting I did not limit it to AAA batteries, in fact I mentioned AA and/orUSB charge.
I understand what you are saying but in reality, regardless of how many lumens I can get out of a aa or USB light, how can I get an idea of the level of power remaining in the battery? Most of the newer battery operated tools I have including my 20v max Dewalt light, just shut off and that's that. Never an idea when power is running low although some batteries have an LED push button readout. I would guess something like this
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HQTXSWF/?tag=cpf0b6-20 will only last moments at full power or they are misrepresenting the power of the light which I think is quite possible.
SO I am kind of back to the question of however many lumens I can get, how can I tell if a battery is running low?

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While I'm not totally up on the latest AA light that use 14500s (3.7v lithium ion) likely you are looking at 500-600 lumens I'm guessing. Most of the cheaper lights don't have any charge testing in them you likely have to go above your $50 mark
Those Amazon lights are pretty much disposable junk with cheap Chinese LEDs I got one similar to it and it puts out about 80-100 lumens if even that. You can buy a AAA LED light for a little over half the price that likely is a little brighter at 120 lumens Your dewalt 20v tool flashlight is considerably brighter than they are at about 150 lumens. The nice thing about rechargeable lights is quality brands list runtimes at the modes it has using a defined battery so you can estimate how long you can run it and no worries about rechargings it whenever you want to. In other words if you need a lot of runtime then use lower modes and when you use it over a little bit then top the battery off and then you can know pretty close how long it will run. Personally I use 18650 lights and when I don't use the high and turbo modes much I don't have to recharge it for days using it over an hour at night on the low and medium modes and it has a moonlight mode. The problem with AAA sized lights is the high modes on them are so high they can make the light uncomfortable to hold and runtime is something like 15-30 minutes while the middle mode would be several hours and low you be 2-3 times that amount perhaps. I don't know of any serious lights that have a LED readout some do flash pulses to count the voltage. Likely for the price of one with a voltage detecting mode you would must buy 2 lights and when one poops out use the other one and recharge the first.

Unfortunately a flashlight, particularly a penlight sized one, is not going to do what you want it to do. A flashlight's role in self defense is primarily to see and avoid potential trouble when you have time and distance to avoid it. Some flashlights may have some limited utility in close contact self defense if you have a lot of training, but again it is limited.

And forget lumens, what counts as far as light output is candela. Unfortunately you generally need a large reflector to get high candela.

I think something like the Streamlight 1L-1AA either the straight version or the 90 degree head version should be good choice for utility in that price and size range.

Some police issue pepper spray (not the cheap little key ring stuff) is pretty good as it gives you a little distance. I think you can get some in NY state (sold at gun shops).

nitecapt said:

Hi All,
The 1000 lumens could be used to hit any potential attacker in the eyes to buy time.

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While this is a much-celebrated claim, its efficacy in reality is questionable at best and not something I would recommend. For every story an OEM published about blinding a would-be assailant some greater number of people have likely seen a bad situation turn far worse when they focused on using a flashlight rather than other more effective means of securing their safety.

nitecapt said:

Now I have tools where when the battery wears down, the light simply extinguishes. I think that's a feature of LED's. Correct me if I am wrong.

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Depends on the driver. Some will gracefully step down to a LOWER level that the partially-drained cell can sustain while others will simply extinguish.

nitecapt said:

So I think that when I buy my wife's penlight, it would be nice to know that the battery is running low, whether it is USB charged or AAA (OR AA) batteries, giving me the opportunity to re-charge or replace batteries.

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Some lights will implement this as a battery check function within the UI or with a secondary indicator such as a backlit switch. I've found the former to be more complex while the latter tends to offer less information. I'm also not sure I'd recommend most micro-controller UI flashlights (i.e. Anduril software, HDS) for a casual user.

nitecapt said:

Imagine someone menacing my wife and she points a light in his eyes that doesn't turn on.

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It's good to test cells periodically or simply swap them regularly. On lights fueled by rechargeable cells:

• Lights with microcontroller UIs I check cell voltage routinely
• All other lights I tend to swap cells during my semi-annual recharge-palooza whether they need it or not

It's important to do this routinely at a time of your choosing.

nitecapt said:

Should I use a different technology than LED?

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There's nothing else out there in a compact size that can compare with LED. Running through alternative technologies...

• LEP maybe, but those are generally larger than EDC-sized LED since they're optimized for throw
• Incandescent won't be as bright nor as small as LED; high-performance bulbs can have short lifespans and will positively eat cells
• HID is impractically large and has nontrivial warm-up time
• XSA can be switched on and off quickly, but like HID will be impractically large
• Fluorescent is wrong is just about every way for this use case: low-intensity, warm-up time, large form-factors
• OLED has some of LED's advantages, but is generally being built in panel formfactors and thus is more suitable to wider-area lighting
• EL is dim and has lifespan problems

I have an idea for you to check out, the acebeam W30 lep. Only 500 lumens but very intense beam. It has a secondary light that turns from green to red as the battery gets low, and it is compact.
Yes, New York is not the friendliest state out there for self defense. Unfortunately most of the good tools are on the wrong side of the ledger with the law. Living in central New York for 50 plus years has taught me that.

A reminder that laser and LEP are not to be intentionally shined at eyes, and no discussion of intentional injury or blinding is permitted on CPF.

There are other forums better suited to self-defense topics elsewhere, so please limit the focus here to the use of flashlights as tools for illumination and identification.

Thanks for your understanding.