Costco Luxeon run time

I'm getting impressed by this 2xAA light. Beam color is a nice white, pattern is OK (I'd prefer a little brighter corona but good hot spot) and very, very solidly made. I tried a run time test with 2000 mah nimhs (generic Fry's Lenmar AAs) fresh from the charger.

Surprise, 3 hours 25 minutes to half brightness. Wow. Maybe I was just lucky but this suggests the internal circuitry is pretty efficient.

I also found that if you stretch an O ring to fill that little groove on the body near the tail cap, it provides a little rubber ridge which makes holding the light and working the switch more ergonomic.

that's pretty impressive but i wonder the runtime for alkalines are...just bought two of these luxeon flashlight recently and one is drawing about 560 ma and the other 796 ma, the 796 ma one has farther throw and have a greenish true color to it,i like this one much better because it brings out more color for me in the dark. The other costco one is the color of the 5mm white led ones, i don't like this as much although it has a wide beam,i have to squint my eyes just to look at the reflected object. oddly when i put one aa in the ones drawing 560 ma, it jumped to 660 and goes up and down from 620 to 665 ma, weird.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

I threw a set of Duracells in that had been laying around for a while. The test strip on them wouldnt even light up, and a multimeter showed them at 1.2x volts each. I tossed them in my favorite of my Costco lights and got yet another hour of useful light. (more than a Dorcy single AAA LED job)

Quite impressed.

Has anyone done a run time plot of the Costco's using fresh alkalines yet?

Just want to clarify something. Long run time does not mean the circuit is efficient. Efficiency has nothing to do with runtime.
Still, that is a pretty impressive long running light !!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I changed one of mine to LD, so to give my most beloved circular beam (but with dreaded orings around it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif )

Wow. I never would have expected such good runtimes! My friend just got a 2-pack for his birthday. He loves 'em!

What's the initial Lux reading?

I did my run time with the light very close to my light meter, so I didn't have absolute lux readings, just relative so as to determine when light dropped to 50%.

Costco Luxeons vary somewhat sample to sample. When I did try to measure absolute brightness, I think a good one would measure a little over 400 cd at beam center. After I replaced the optic with a 27 mm reflector and a mineral glass protector, the center reading jumped to over 700 cd, although it was for a smaller hot spot. In general, the reflector/mineral glass replacement was a worthwhile upgrade to this light.

Note: I got 4 of these. 3 had good brightness, one was off by maybe a third (I gave that one away, and Dad really likes it...).

nerdgineer,

Could you please let me know the source for the 27 mm frefelcctor glass lens? How much is involved in the swap out. Many thanks.

Dat2zip posted this in an earlier thread . The reflector is here . The lens is here . Shipping was not expensive as I recall. Total price for two sets was $17 or $18.

It was easy to install. I used some pointed tip scissors to unscrew the retaining ring in the bezel. I used nail clippers to cut off the legs of the reflector, and everything just dropped in place.

nerdgineer, many thanks kind sir.

You're very welcome. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Re: Costco Luxeon run time GRAPHED

Thought I would throw in my 2¢ for this one, since I just got a datalogging light meter so I can add runtime plots to every new review on my site. I picked up a pair and tested out the new meter and here is the plot:



That's right - 4 hours 47 minutes to 50% output on the included duracells! Sweet! Pretty flat output curve too.

Re: Costco Luxeon run time GRAPHED

That curve is really great. Did your light really put out 1000+ CD on fresh cells? That's a lot more than even the brightest one I got which might have got near 500 cd at beam center with the original optic.

If it did, maybe I'll find my Costco enabled friend again and get some more to try to find one like that.

Re: Costco Luxeon run time GRAPHED

I wish! - the output is not lux at one meter like the rest of the readings on the site - the lux readings are just for reference.

I may just remove the Y axis readings... That'll clear it up and I won't have to figure out how to rig it with exactly 1 meter between the sensor and light every time.

There - all fixed - no values on the Y axis, no confusion.

Re: Costco Luxeon run time GRAPHED

Thanks for the clarification, and BTW, thanks for ALL the work you (and Roy and Craig and Sasha et al) have done for the rest of us.

Your collective work has provided invaluable precise information that allows economic justice (i.e. reward the righteous, punish the iniquitous) to prevail in our little marketplace here.

Wish it were like that everywhere...