pt attitude w/ lithiums

hey guys just wondering can i use my attitude with liths?
i think it should work since it would be like an surefire a2 (sort of) but did not want to ruin my little pt

I emailed PT a while back on this topic. Their answer was the light was engineered for alkalines only. Is that a stock CYA answer? Will lithiums blow the module?
I don't know for sure, but I decided not to test it.

I really like this little light and any gain from lithiums is not worth blowing it IMO.

That said I'll bet some CPFer has tried it and might give us a report.

Mark

I'd like to hear from those who may have tried it as well. The Attitude would be extremely light with lithiums. It is already one of my favorite camping lights, lithiums would make it that much better.

i wonder if it would float with liths?

Not sure if it would float on it's own, but if you added one of the boating keychains that make your keys float to the split ring I bet it would. Hmmmmm... I saw those cheap in the boating section at WalMart.

I bet if you put 3 lithiums and a light spacer for the fourth it would work but dimmer. You could also take apart the light module and replace the resistor(s) with more suitable ones for the different voltage. I don't think even with a spacer of a piece of stiff wire the removal of one cell would allow for floating but if you attached one of those floating keychain bobbers it may make it close enough to boyant to float it with 3 lithium cells. Get the bathtub ready and test it I say.

i dont really care if it floats what i want to know is if it will work with 4 lithiums?

Ok, I took an ammeter with a 25ohm variable resistor on max (25ohm) and 4 new E2 lithiums and dialed it down to 0 ohms on the 400ma and 10A scales and got 120ma on the 400ma scale and about 141ma on the 10A scale so I would say with the variability and quality of LEDs and Vf thereof it should be overdriving them hard but if you don't mind the risk and are up to replacing them if fried it should work. Nichias from what I have gleened can take 50ma easily so 141ma/3LEDs would be if they use high quality LEDs. Cheaper LEDs may or may not take well to that hard of an overdrive in the long run. My guess is they may be a *nichia* quality LED and those replacing with nichias should be *ok*.

This doesn't account for added resistance in the battery holder and the mess of test leads so actual current is probably slightly higher IMO.

It was a pain in the gluteous maximus to test.

Hope this helps.

wow thanks i will have to at least try it after all that work you put into that little expiriment if it blows i will put the rage bulb in and have a attirage

mossyoak-

Remember, you are doing it for science. Good Luck.

Let us know.

Mark

If it wasn't for the tight tolerance of the batteries someone could make a AAA sized resistor *disc* to slip inbetween batteries to reduce current allowing for lithium use. I haven't measured current off nimh or alkaline but am thinking of changing the LED for new nichias or 26k LEDs and putting in an appropriate resistor in place of the factory one.

What would be interesting is to remove the resistor, and use only two lithiums with two AAA *blanks* and there is a possibility it may even float. You could fit a AAA sized boost circuit in place of one removed battery also.

that would be one trick attitude

According to an email I sent PT early last month, the Attitude uses Nichias. I wish I still had that email. It went something like this:

Me: Will the Attitude be updated with newer brighter LEDs anytime soon, like the new Nichias?

PT: We currently use Nichias, no updates.

If it uses nichias it guess it should do well on lithiums if the Vf of the 3LEDs doesn't differ very much. Mine worked with lithiums on a bench test with the batteries in a seperate holder hooked up with an ammeter by clipleads to the head.
It was very bright for sure, I would tend to lean towards thinking about changing the resistor(s) in the light myself to increase runtime as from the little I have read you get diminishing returns about 25-30ma on nichias.

I just had an idea... take the resistor out of the head use a PT blast (2AAA body) and lithiums direct drive. It may require changing the LEDs for newer ones but would be a sweet little 3LED light, competition for the UK2AAA eled.