12LED Ghost II (LiON)

A few months ago I bought one of those 12LED lights on eBay upon recommendation that it was the brightest 1AA LED. I think it was jtice but not sure.

Anyway, I popped a AA version LiON battery and fired that sucker up. It was so impressive that I went and ordered a few more. Unfortunately the other ones where unable to handle the power of the LiON and subsequently blew out the low mode ability of running it with a regular AA Alkaline. So the money was basically wasted on those three extra lights because I blew 'em all out.

So, the good news is I ordered the Ghost AND the Ghost mini from Emilion to see if his would take the higher voltage LiON. Well, all I can say is that I can run both of these lights using either a primary AA battery or a rechargable AA LiON. AW has protected versions of these LiON batteries which make this light output a lot of light for under $10 or under $50 for that matter.
[EDIT] After longer testing the mini did blow the lo mode so forget that idea but the regular Ghost II is still going strong on either battery

http://emilionworkshop.com:3072/osc...21_40&osCsid=c7ad1f1a45378388319a57f97061e8cd

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

Were the original ones the Ghost or Ghost II? I was thinking about ordering a bunch for gifts and wanted to put Lithium batteries (non rechargable) in them...

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

Geologist said:

Were the original ones the Ghost or Ghost II? I was thinking about ordering a bunch for gifts and wanted to put Lithium batteries (non rechargable) in them...

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The original ones on ebay were not listed as either ghost or ghost II, just 12LED Flashlight. The ghost names came up after these were on ebay for a while. The thread that started this procurement for me was called, something like... What is the brightest single AA LED... or something like that.

(ADDITIONAL NOTE -- the LiON totaly blew the 8LED version)

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

What is the voltage on the LiON? The voltage on the Lithium AA (from batterystation) is about 1.9 volts.

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

Geologist said:

What is the voltage on the LiON? The voltage on the Lithium AA (from batterystation) is about 1.9 volts.

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NOT To be confused for SAFETY sake....

The NON rechargable Lithium battery, also referred to as a primary is about 1.5V to 1.7V

The RECHARGABLE Lithium ion battery is anywhere from 3.7V off the charger to even 4.5V!!!

Imagine the difference in output on the GHOST!!

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

Oh - sorry my mistake. Well at least it is clear that I can use primary lithiums in the Ghost Lights.

But I bet it was screaming when you were hitting it with over 3.5 volts. Maybe you could add some resistance to the spring and drop the by about a volt and then they would run hard but not too much. maybe the older models had more resistance is them to begin with and the newer "improved" models had less resistance to improve performance but allowed too much juice when using the LiON.

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

What is your opinion about build quality on these lights? I have ordered a pair (not arrived yet), and am thinking these will be the xmas present this year for co-workers and friends.

Re: 12LED Ghost miniR (LiON)

Bummer news. I did a longer test on both lights and blew out the lo level on the Ghost mini but the Ghost II is still going strong.

As to the build. I think it's great. It's anodize a nice blue or silver but not HA3. It has O-rings and is waterproof. And the ones I have are pretty consistant in machining. Quality of the beam is fair. My silver 'ghost' has a lot of blue tint but my blue ghost has much less blue tint and pretty nice when used on it's own.

Use a primary it has a 20hr reputed runtime. That sounds great to me but the output level is not going impress anyone as much as the nice blue anodizing. But pop in a LiON and it won't impress people if you show them your bright lights but will impress on it's own in a dark setting.

Just now, I put it up against my LiON Jil DD and Q3R and original Fenix L1P 1W all excellent light but only the Fenix on primary non LiON battery. Of course the Jil, Q3R and Fenix had more throw and nicer colored beams. But as far as output is was close on the JiL DD and Q3R but they had more output and it total crushed the Fenix L1P in output.

There ya go

The 3.7 V of a lithium ion cell is way higher than the 1.5 V the light is designed for. You risk frying the boost circuit and/or the LEDs. At 3.7 V, you don't need a boost circuit at all.

If you're keen on having small and cheap light that runs on a lithium ion cell, you might think about replacing the boost circuit with just a resistor. Also, Dae sells some small and cheap luxeon clone lights that can run off of a lithium ion 123 cell. He also has a 19-LED light that takes two CR123s. It migh work with lithium ion 123s, or maybe it needs to be modified (with a different resistor) to do that.

I'm amazed that the body didn't burn your hand. I tried using R123A cells in my 2x123A MEK (21 LEDs). After 10 minutes, it was too hot to hold.

I think you may be buying the wrong light.

I purchased both the 12 LED, and the 8 LED (old models from a few months ago).

They were OK, but the lights were about equal in output to a three, or four LED light(as in Arc, Infinity)

The NEW 8 LED model as sold at Lighthound.com has upgraded LEDs, and/or a more efficient circuit.

They are screamers, MUCH brighter than the old models (ONLY the 8 LED model). Nearly all of mine have been very white, and about double the output of the old one.

You can tell the new one because the (-) and (+) poles have been reversed. That is the positive battery nipple goes against the tailcap.

They run fine with alkalines, or an Energizer Lithium. NOT the 3.5+ volt one.

I recall a thread a while back that we were discussing these,
that may have been where my recommendation was from.

But now, the Fenix is the best 1AA light.

Anyway, I also ran mine on a Li-Ion cell a good bit,
I also have a UV version that I also ran with the Li-Ion,
but I didnt do any real long runtimes with them.

Mine are still going strong,
but I am probably damaging them :green:

~John

I got a new one from DAE and put a 3.7 in it. Only ran it for a minute or two and it was definately brighter. Put regular AA back in with no problem. It has + towards the tail cap.

JohnK said:

I think you may be buying the wrong light.

I purchased both the 12 LED, and the 8 LED (old models from a few months ago).

They were OK, but the lights were about equal in output to a three, or four LED light(as in Arc, Infinity)

The NEW 8 LED model as sold at Lighthound.com has upgraded LEDs, and/or a more efficient circuit.

They are screamers, MUCH brighter than the old models (ONLY the 8 LED model). Nearly all of mine have been very white, and about double the output of the old one.

You can tell the new one because the (-) and (+) poles have been reversed. That is the positive battery nipple goes against the tailcap.

They run fine with alkalines, or an Energizer Lithium. NOT the 3.5+ volt one.

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LOL Yup, I've blow about 5 of them now. Including the Ghost II IIRC but some of them blowing each LED slowly over time. Poor little guys, ehehehh. I definately blow the 8LED models. AFAIC these 12LED models that actually work with both primary and LiON batt's are excellent lights because of how much usable light they put on a subject/area.

CromagNet said:

LOL Yup, I've blow about 5 of them now. Including the Ghost II IIRC but some of them blowing each LED slowly over time. Poor little guys, ehehehh. I definately blow the 8LED models. AFAIC these 12LED models that actually work with both primary and LiON batt's are excellent lights because of how much usable light they put on a subject/area.

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In brief, because I don't see it very clear, do the 12 LED Ghost II support LiIon batt reliably in the long term or not?
That's the question

glire said:

In brief, because I don't see it very clear, do the 12 LED Ghost II support LiIon batt reliably in the long term or not?
That's the question

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I'd say NOT, to be on the safe side but I have three, one of which I have used for a few months now and it's running strong on both primary and LiON. So, for the $10 the choice is yours.

PS I keep these in my three Earthquake kits/Bug-out bags for use with L91 batteries.

I dont have any LiON batt but I do have SONY NiMH 2500ma rechargeable (i dont know much about batt). Will these be safe in the Ghost?

I thinks it's basically luck of the draw when overdriving those cheap Chinese lights. I have 3 same model 24 LED lights that came with a 3xAAA holder.

I'm running all 3 with 2xC123. The first one has the most time on it and is still fine. The second one has 6 blown LEDs, but the rest seem to be holding their own. The 3rd one was real bright for about 15 seconds, but then became totally nonfunctional.

GhostReaction said:

I dont have any LiON batt but I do have SONY NiMH 2500ma rechargeable (i dont know much about batt). Will these be safe in the Ghost?

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Most definately will be ok but the Voltage probably peaks out at 1.4v so you wont get the kick of say the Non rechargable Energizer L91 Lithium AA which is 1.7v plus. Maybe 1.9V even. Also they will sit there without losing much capacity for 10 years.

The rechargable batteries that we are referencing are Lithium Ion and they get charged upto 4.2V or more even. It's like using 3 of those NiMHs so you get a lot of output.

I don't know why people think the lithium primary cells produce 1.7 or 1.9 V. Under load they are nowhere close to that.