Help ! -Need AA light with long runtime on low/moonlight mode

lisa, the Olight S1A Baton claims a 5lm low with runtime of 80 hours using a Lithium Primary AA cell or 75 hours from an Alkaline cell. So, I don’t think your Xtar rating of 3lm for 80 hours is unreasonable. Try a different cell, please, and let us know.

Im fully stocked up on eneloop cells…Ive tried other brands and came back to eneloops . I really did not want to spend extra money on new batteries and my other LED lights perform as rated, on my eneloops. I understand I may get more runtime on the XTAR, with expensive lithium AA battery …but I would be shocked for it to go from 28 hours runtime on AA eneloop to 80 hours on lithium AA .

Once again, there must be a reason why XTAR is selling for $7.50 , and I think over rated run times is the reason. Furthermore, XTAR corp does not state that to get 80 hours runtime on moonlight mode, you must use a expensive lithium AA battery….

That light costs $40…compared to the XTAR that is $7.50

Also, the OLIGHT says 75 hours from normal alkalaine and 80 hours from Lithium….so you only get a 5 hr gain for lithium…

I do not see how the XTAR would go from 28 hours on a eneloop to 80 hours on a lithium…the math does not make sense.

IMHO…a XTAR $7.50 light , will not get near 80 hours runtime on 3 lumen setting. A 2000 mah, fully charged eneloop got 28 hours.

Okay, well, if you’re determined to stick with your Eneloops, then you’re right that you’ll have to get a lower lumen rated moonlight mode. I don’t know of any cheap lights that have a true moonlight mode. I hope you find one and let us know when you do.

Edit: The math does make sense, when you figure the difference in both voltage and current capacity. A decent alkaline cell will beat an Eneloop at low draw. Did you look at the comparator I linked to earlier? It shows real test results from real cells, and you can choose any two to compare to each other. Alkalines almost universally beat Eneloops at low draw. Eneloops are best for medium to high draw applications. But, even there, Lithium primaries will still beat them.

I would be interested to see if anyone here, has tried a lithium in this light, at 3 lumens, to see how long runtime is.

Id be shocked if they got 80 hours, when a eneloop only gives 28 hours. I would expect a lithium may give 35 or maybe 40 hours max , which is till only 50% of factory rated specs….which I feel is unacceptable.

I haven’t tested that light, but I’ve seen alkalines beat even Lithium Ion rechargeables with over 4x runtime in some lights! I’ve seen Lithium primary AA beat Eneloop Pro Black 2450mAH cells by almost double run-time. The difference is real.

Those lithium cells are rated at 3000 Mah…

my eneloops are rated at 2000 Mahs and I only got 28 hours run time. I do not think another 1000 mahs { 50% more capacity then eneloop} would result in going from 28 hour run time, to 80 hour run time . Is my math wrong ?

If you look at the comparator, you’ll see that the voltage of the Energizer Ultimate stays higher than the Eneloop all the way through the test(s). In a LED light, these cells would have to be boosted to a higher voltage to even turn on the LED. So, the higher the cell voltage is, the less strain there is on the cell, and as well, the boost driver will be more efficient. You also have to take into account the cut-off voltage of the boost driver. The Eneloop will reach that point sooner, since it is lower voltage already. So, you get more difference between the cells inside the light than just the rated mAH capacity on the wrapper.

So you believe the lithium AA cell will give 80 hours runtime with the XTAR on 3 lumens?

wouldnt it be less expensive, to just find a LED light that runs on single AA or AAA eneloop , at 3 lumens or less for 3 days or more ?

I own 40 AA/AAA eneloops….so I did not want to change out to lithium energizers, since my eneloops always performed properly in my other LED lights.

Yes, since you already own so many Eneloops, it would be better to find a light that will do what you want. But, then again, you already own several of those lights now too. If you’re not interested in keeping them, you could sell them here in the WTS area, and recoup some of your money.

Lisa, you keep repeating yourself. Others have suggested that you try an alkaline cell to see what happens, pointing out that the low amp performance of alkalines can be far better than Eneloops. Why don’t you give a decent alkaline a try in order to verify this?

Honestly, the price of a flashlight has little relationship to it’s performance, or we’d all own Surefires and BLF would not exist.

If we agree, that the XTAR would get 80 hours runtime on 3 lumen mode , using a rechargeable lithium AA cell { which I still doubt} , can we agree that XTAR corporation should explain that the user must use a AA lithium cell to get those ratings , in their ads ? I did not see that info disclosed in the description of this flashlight. LETS FACE IT , most people are probably using eneloop recharegeables { or nimh} instead of Lithium at the present time .

Try a regular AA alkie.

The WK50 does not take Li cells, either 3V disposables or 4.2V-peak Li-ion cells. It’s strictly a boost converter, with all its inefficiencies at low-loads†.

Comparing it to a light that runs off Li cells is kind of unfair, because all that does is step down the current to the LED.

I’m not sure about eneloops, but NiCd cells would drop like a rock once they’re spent. Full-tilt one minute. completely dead the next. Haven’t used NiMH cells to characterise their end-of-charge behavior.

Alkies, though, just get higher and higher internal impedance as they’re drained, which is why those 7-/9-/15-LED cheapo lights will be “dying” when the cells still have lots of oomf left inside. They’ll drain to sub-volt levels and keep going with a proper boost-converter.

Seriously, try an alkie and see how that goes.

† When you look at lots of switching power supplies, they’ll approach 98% or more at decent loads, but drop to 70% or less at very light loads. Most of the current drawn at that point is for the controller (and its losses), not the load.

I own numerous LED lights , all of which perform at or near factory ratings for runtime, using my eneloops { except this XTAR} .

This is why im shocked at getting 28 hours runtime on a light that was rated 80 hours . I havent used regular throw away batteries for years , due to economics and landfill waste . I was not aware that a normal throwaway alkalaine battery could give 300- 400% longer runtime then a 2000 mah eneloop.

S1A does indeed do a great job in moonlight mode on eneloops. I’ve been using mine as a nightlight for the past 2 months or so. A few recharges in there because when I recharge a bunch of cells I end up recharging everything that gets used frequently.

It hasn’t been a true test because I often grab it and use turbo or low/medium for a minute here and there, but 2-3 weeks under these conditions and it doesn’t run out.

I guess, even if a regular alkalaine gave close to 80 hour runtime on this light, it still would not suit my needs, because I did not want to go back to throwaway batteries , or switch to lithium. I wanted to stick to my eneloops, which have served me well for many years .

TY…it looks like that in order to use my eneloops, and get a long run time on moonlight mode { 3 days or more at about 1.5 lumens } im gonna have to raise my price target from $10 , to $20 . The xtar at $7.50 , seemed to good to be true for my needs/ price range.

I was talking about Lithium Primary AA cells, made to replace alkaline AA’s, not the higher voltage Lithium cells that we all normally think of when “Lithium” is mentioned.

Anyway, now that I’m aware of the 40 Eneloops that need to be used, there is no point in pushing another cell. lisa3070 needs a light that can do several days from a 2000mAH Eneloop.

3 cells per light. Car charger. More expensive light.
Your needs seam extreme.

What are you wanting to light for so long?

If you want only moonlight, that may be your best bet. Find one of those cheapo multi-LED lights that take 3×AAA, load ’em up with eneloops (3.6V), and solder in a small dropping resistor to limit current to a few mA. (Breaking a PC trace in the right place and slapping on a chip-resistor should suffice.)

eneloops won’t have the same internal resistance as regular AAAs (much much less, in fact), so unless you want a bright light, cooking an LED at Vf=3.6V or so, you’ll need that resistor. (Value = trial’n’error depending on the Vf of the specific LED, and the current you want to push through it.)

So with 2000mAH in an eneloop, if you pick a resistor for 10mA total, you’d get 200H of runtime. It should be straight math to figure out runtime vs current depending on the true capacity of the cell. 25mA should get you your 80H target.

Go crazy… :smiley: