IsaacHayes
Flashlight Enthusiast
I noticed this year at the end of summer at night, that my SL Jr I keep in my car would turn on, but when turned off and back on again briefly, like when signaling, it would not light!! At first I though oh great it broke!! But then 4 secs later it came on. I was puzzled a bit until I realized that it was alkalines (fresh mind you) that were too cold to operate at enough (voltage? current?) to start up the boost circuit.
I took some NiMH 1800 durcells that were ran down decently from my 5W green, popped them in, and even at a lower voltage (2.4), the light came on every tiem! Even now at 10 degrees F in winter the same batteries start up without a hick-up. I haven't charged them at all in probably 5 months.
Now in DD lights you don't have this problem of the light not starting, but the light won't be super bright until the batteries warm up, but that shouldn't take long, so it's not much of an issue.
But for any of you running boosted lights (circuits) that don't run on lithiums, NiMH is a very good alternative. Alkalines aren't recommeded by me, especially in a tactical enviroment. You don't want a delay for your light to come on!!
Now I'm thinking about getting NiMH D's for my upcoming tri-luxIII flashlight. Alks cause the light output to drop too fast for me. Plus it will power it at a full 3amps! For instance, my 6AA 5W Green, using alks will be bright for maybe 5-10mins before it looses it's "insanely" brightness. On NiMH, it stays that way or pretty close to it for 5x at least as long. Also take note it is resistored and only pulls 700ma from NiMH or Alks, so the Alk's aren't being stressed too much, and both batteries have the same draw. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Can anyone recommend a cheap source (S/H accounted for) to get 3 decent NiMH D's and a cheap charger? And what capcity do you recommend? I don't need top of the line...
I took some NiMH 1800 durcells that were ran down decently from my 5W green, popped them in, and even at a lower voltage (2.4), the light came on every tiem! Even now at 10 degrees F in winter the same batteries start up without a hick-up. I haven't charged them at all in probably 5 months.
Now in DD lights you don't have this problem of the light not starting, but the light won't be super bright until the batteries warm up, but that shouldn't take long, so it's not much of an issue.
But for any of you running boosted lights (circuits) that don't run on lithiums, NiMH is a very good alternative. Alkalines aren't recommeded by me, especially in a tactical enviroment. You don't want a delay for your light to come on!!
Now I'm thinking about getting NiMH D's for my upcoming tri-luxIII flashlight. Alks cause the light output to drop too fast for me. Plus it will power it at a full 3amps! For instance, my 6AA 5W Green, using alks will be bright for maybe 5-10mins before it looses it's "insanely" brightness. On NiMH, it stays that way or pretty close to it for 5x at least as long. Also take note it is resistored and only pulls 700ma from NiMH or Alks, so the Alk's aren't being stressed too much, and both batteries have the same draw. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Can anyone recommend a cheap source (S/H accounted for) to get 3 decent NiMH D's and a cheap charger? And what capcity do you recommend? I don't need top of the line...
