How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc LS?

I have a few 14500 rechargable LiIon cells, that are about 4.1V fully charged. (not under load)

How many of you have tried these cells in your Arc LSs?

I have a Rev1 Arc LS that has been running just fine on one of these, but I am afrid to go sticking them in all teh Arc LSs I have.
I have one LS that I modded to about 680mA, but I cant remember what BIN led I put in it. I am wanting to use one of these cells in it.

~John

Re: How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc L

Yep,

Using it with an original arc-ls board modded at 500mA TXOJ it's one the brightest arc I got. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Jtice, be carefull charging these cells. fried one by letting it sit in my homebrew charger too long, I believe 2 hours is the max 1.5 hrs to be safe and don't let the voltage drop below 1.7volts.

check it out!

pic1

pic2

pic3

Hey, Jtice! Nice 1-AA clickie huh? Want one? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif

Re: How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc L

[ QUOTE ]
cgpeanut said:

Hey, Jtice! Nice 1-AA clickie huh? Want one? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, I have plenty of them laying around here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Yea, I think this will work out well, its pushing the board real hard, but it seems to be ok.
Makes a GREAT combo.

I was drainning a 14500 cell in my rev1 Arc the other night, to test it in my charger, well I ah, forgot about it!!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

When I got back to my desk, the Arc LS was strobing fast, took the cell out, and it read 1.6V /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
After about 10 minutes it bounced back to about 2.3V I charged it, and it seems to be fine now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

~John

Re: How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc L

Just got back online after new drive and OS install. much fun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I've used 14500 on several versions of ARC LS with no problems (your results may veri). The trick is to find the ultra hard to find ARC AA twisty.

My favorite is ARC LS first run .9 from the original run of 100 with NS-01 optic. with the rare AA twisty. driven with 14500 .9 first run is bright as any 3watt light. totally turbo charges ARC LS's.

running a bare single cell seems to be safe if you check for any dead short dangers first. Dangers occurs when you run li-ion in series. Don't use 14500 in ARC 2x AA tailpack. unless one cell is a dummy cell.

Yank cell at first sign of dimming. don't go below 2.5V or permenant damage to cell will occur. cell may charge backup, but capacity will be less.

Re: How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc L

cy,

Yea, those AA teisties are a rare breed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Dont have one myself, but I am making due with the 1AA clickie /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I figure that cell I drained too far is not happy with me, but we will see, its in my Rev1 LS, I use it at night for trips to the restroom etc. So it gets under 10 minutes a night of use, so it lasts a long time.
I havent had a chance to do any runtimes with them yet.

Re: How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc L

Jtice,

Since the circuit in the Arc LS is a boost converter, it will happily drive the li-ion battery voltage well below the 2.5 - 2.7V recommended minimum and in typical use you will not even notice until it is well below that.

Of course, when fully charged, the battery will overdrive the LED without regulation - only the forward voltage drop of the boost converter's Schottky diode (0.35 to 0.4V typical) and the LED's forward voltage drop (3.27 to 3.51V for J bin) to keep things in check. The final results will very depending on the actual LED in your light.

Henry.

Re: How many have tried a 14500 cell in your Arc L

objective goals of running li-ion is different from using primary lithium. li-ion requires leaving X reserve in cell to prevent damage VS primary lithium is to drain cell totally to maximize energy use.

an ARC LS first run board will happily run below 1.5v for 1x AA applications.

as Henery noted above, when voltage exceeds vf plus burden luxeon will be in direct drive.

current draw will be aprox. 1amp depending upon vf in direct drive.