Shockwave LED with 10 AA nimh cells instead of 8 C alkaline cells?

Hi,

I just purchased Shockwave LED. Instead of feeding it 8 C cells all the time, I thought maybe I can do something like what Illumigeek did with his LC100:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/46495

But when I compared the beamshots with fresh 8 C alkalines (each 1.5 V) with 8 nimh AA cells (each 1.2 V), the difference is quite noticable. So I thought what if I put 10 AA nimh cells instead of 8, this voltage will add nicely to 12V like with 8 alkaline cells? The first problem is that I don't know on what voltage the ballast is at, it could be like with LC100 on 10.2 V. And the second problem is how to build such a thing. I think I'm going to use PVC pipes like Illumigeek, and some copper wires (?) and do some soldering. And what if I just overdrive the bulb a little, say the ballast can take some abuse, will the bulb break or shorten it's lifespan (form the 10,000+ hours)?

Anyone has other ideas why it should/shouldn't work?

BTW there are lots of reviews out there about this light:
http://www.lightch.com/princeton/a/shockwave_led.html
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/pt_sw_led.htm
http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/dive_lights/new_generation_dive_lights/

Re: Shockwave LED with 10 AA nimh cells ?

bonklers said:

But when I compared the beamshots with fresh 8 C alkalines (each 1.5 V) with 8 nimh AA cells (each 1.2 V), the difference is quite noticable.

Click to expand...

it´s typical for directdriven flashlights.

Re: Shockwave LED with 10 AA nimh cells ?

So how can I tell if the light is on 8 cells on series (giving 12 V) or two series of 4 cells each (feeding 6 V to the triple 3 watt luxeon leds)? If it works on 8 cells on series then I might try 9 AA cells instead of going 10 to be on the safe side. What worries me the most is when the cells just come off the charger, according to jtr1969 they will have 1.45V. So if I use 10, I get 14.5V and if I use 9 I get 13.1 V .

Re: Shockwave LED with 10 AA nimh cells ?

bonklers said:

So how can I tell if the light is on 8 cells on series (giving 12 V) or two series of 4 cells each (feeding 6 V to the triple 3 watt luxeon leds)? If it works on 8 cells on series then I might try 9 AA cells instead of going 10 to be on the safe side. What worries me the most is when the cells just come off the charger, according to jtr1969 they will have 1.45V. So if I use 10, I get 14.5V and if I use 9 I get 13.1 V .

Click to expand...

key words

Nimh shootout
Alkaline shootout
vf shift (if you ask me thats the schocker of the year especially if you´re not a electrician )
lumiled vs cree vf

current device
constant current
constant voltage bad idea

dropping voltage with resistor i think thats the way you can go.

bonklers said:

Hi,

I just purchased Shockwave LED. Instead of feeding it 8 C cells all the time, I thought maybe I can do something like what Illumigeek did with his LC100:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/46495
The first problem is that I don't know on what voltage the ballast is at, it could be like with LC100 on 10.2 V ... And what if I just overdrive the bulb a little, say the ballast can take some abuse, will the bulb break or shorten it's lifespan (form the 10,000+ hours)?

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that LED's dont have ballasts. That is only with HID lights.
how short the life span is depends on how well the heatsink is designed.
It looks to be directly driven, so you should really only worry about the LEDs.