The cut off voltage is 2.5V. Just tested another EBLCL bulb on a variable power supply. At 2.6V - just a little bit of light - at 2.5V, nothing. I've used that bulb in about six other vintage lights, no problems.
Ohhh. I’m sure I don’t need to warn you of this but I’ll just throw it out there… be careful with that cutoff. With your cells in series, each one could get down to 1.25V
I’d be curious to see if the light is equally bright with only one cell (or with them in parallel for extra runtime). That way low voltage isn’t a concern. With such a wide voltage range and flat runtime graph, I’m curious if there’s a small stepdown circuit inside. In which case, running cells in series (higher voltage) actually might not increase brightness.
Just did an experiment with a power supply and the Texas Ace Tube. At 3.7V (approx one cell), output drops significantly (from two in series at approx 7.4V). Would only get worse as the single battery level drops a bit.
Thank you, the fw3a’s have a lexel boards in them. I made the one currently in the E01 from a Banggood lighted tail switch (cut it down, drilled the hole for the led, sanded the bottom down really thin).
I have a new design ordered from oshpark using a ring of 6 led’s with 2 additional red led’s that come on when voltage is low (main led’s go off and red come on at 3.08v) using a MAX809 voltage reset monitor. I only put that 2 led hacked up board in it today cause I had the driver out and wanted to go ahead and wire the aux leds up now for when my boards do come.
1.25 is best case scenario if the batteries are perfectly balanced, if not you could have one drop below that while the other is running fine at 3.6v for example. In series you’ll need to keep an eye on both batteries separately.
As you have the space and obv the modding skills you could maybe add a couple of protection circuits for an easier life.
Nice mod though! I’m a big fan of sleepers.