difference in 3.6 vs 3 Volt in light performance?

Is it possible to use CR123A 3.6V rechargeable batteries in either SF or Gladius instead of 3.0v? Will the higher voltage cause the LED light of Gladius or SF to explode or electronics to fry?? I am not a electronic wizard. please someone educate me. JS Burley sells 3.0V CR123 batteries while batteryspace.com sells 3.6V CR123A batteries. The CR123A can only accept 500 recharge. Does this mean the 3.0 V of Burley can accept 1000 charges??? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I will try to answer part of your question.

The R123 cells (depending on brand and charge method) can be as high as 4.2 volts fully charaged. If you are putting these in a 1 cell flashlight designed for a single CR123 (primary cell), then there is a good chance it will not work properly. I am not sure if or how quickly damage would occur.

The reason, is that the circuit is "probably" a BOOST circuit, so it is expecting the battery voltage to be lower than the LED Vf (approx 3.5 volts). There are a few circuits that can handle this, but not that many, so you need to be very specific about the light.

In case you are curious, Silverfox posted some very nice runtime charts of various 123 cells. At the normal current levels expected from SF or Gladius type lights, a CR123 (primary cell) will drop to approx 2.5 volts fairly quickly, while the R123 cells will hold above the 3.5 volts under load.

If your light is a 2 x 123 cell setup, then you will need to look more closely at the Vbat max on the flashlight datasheet.