I can also live with 4xAA, but I think that's the limit.
Should function as a leave-in-the-car light for situations where a lot of light is needed for long period of time.
I'll probably mod it with an XM-L and a 3 or 5 modes 3A driver, so the driver/emitter configuration is not very important.
SAiK SA-305 http://www.dealextreme.com/p/saik-sa-305-cree-q2-wc-3-mode-140lm-white-led-flashlight-3-aa-42672
Here's what you need to this with Solarforce parts:
It will rattle.
Thanks, but I don't think it can hold the XM-L @ 3A for more than a minute... bad heatsinking with this gigantic hole under the led star.
ronparr, LOL, I think I'd rather use Don's duct tape method ;)
[quote=Haggai]
Should function as a leave-in-the-car light for situations where a lot of light is needed for long period of time.
[/quote]
I'm not sure how long of runtime you need, but 3 or 4 aa wont get you any longer of runtime than one 18650, assuming you're planning on driving an xm-l. I always thought the alure of multi-AA lights was the availability of cheap primaries.
Since you're planning on leaving it in the car, how about a 3-4 D size torch? Lot's of possibilities there.
I don't need more than the runtime of an 18650, I just don't want to leave li-ions in the car.
D (and C) cells are very rare around here, so I don't think that's a good option.
4AA........ u can try the solarforce L2 with extension that ronparr suggested, or this 4AA light, or trustfire TR-1200 with a spacer coz i think 3*18650 approximately equals to 4AA in length.
If you're planning on leaving the flashlight in a hot car, you might consider lithium primaries. The temperature inside a car left in the sun can easily hit 60 celsius. Alkaline batteries will tend to self-discharge and can leak in extreme temperatures. Lithium primaries can be stored at up to 60 degrees celsius without major problems.
See figure 5.6.1 here: http://www1.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/others/LithBull-5.pdf
At 60 degrees, Alkalines will lose 100% of the their capacity in a year, while lithium primaries will lose a little over 10%. At 40 degrees, Alkalines will lose 25%/year, while lithiums primaries will lose 2-3%/year.
But lithium primaries cost a fortune compared to Alkalines, don't they? Cheapest I can find locally (web sites, anyway) is about 10$ for a pair of 1.5V AA or about 8$ for one CR123.
And they are not readily available locally. I'm not sure I can count on Chinese supplies for that.
But this is a good idea. Are lithium and Alkalines completely interchangeable? (given same voltage and shape) Or should I worry about larger current?
1.5V AA (actually a bit higher than 1.5V, see below) tend to be expensive because there seems to be a single supplier - everyeady energizer. There's more competition for CR123 batteries and if you buy them in quantity, you can get them at a reasonable price. See, for example, the U.S. made Rayovacs here: http://www.batteryjunction.com/pri-cr123a.html
I guess you'd need to figure out the cost/benefit of going lithium based upon costs in your area, as well as the usable life of the batteries. Because of the high internal resistence of Alkalines, they will fail very quickly in high current applications. Depending upon current draw, a lithium battery could last 2-3X longer than alkaline, justifying a higher cost.
You'd definitely want to avoid no-name CR123 batteries if you are running batteries in series. If you pair a defective one with a good one, the charge running into the defective one from the good one will turn your flashlight into a pipe bomb.
Lithium AA primaries have a nominal voltage of 1.5V, but can actually provide about 1.7 volts and generally maintain higher voltage under load. Generally this works out OK, but there scenarios where you can get into trouble. Suppose, for example, that you have a flashlight that is designed to direct-drive an LED from 3 AA or AAA batteries. 4.5 volts is higher than a typical LED should get, so the driver is actually relying upon the fact that the voltage from alkalines will drop under load so that the LED will actually get something more like 3.5-4.0 volts in practice. In this this scenario, using 3xAA "1.5 volt" lithiums would provide > 4.5 volts to your LED for an extended period of time, possibly damaging the LED.
Thanks for the info.
Do you think that the UltraFire C88 can live with 3xAA lithium? It doesn't state max input.
What about Manafon't XML? It states 4.2V max input.
I think I should stick with the 3xAA or 3xAAA configurations for now, as I don't have a reliable source of cheap Energizer Ultimates.
DX has new ones, pretty cheap - 4xAAA for 4.60$ or 4xAA for 5.50$, but who knows if they're genuine. Maybe I'll try the AAA with my iTP A3 or the AA with my held-in-customes Akoray K-106, they can handle the slightly higher voltage well.
I don't know for sure. I suspect both of these are direct driving the LED in high, which could be a problem for 3xAA lithiums. The Manafont XML should work OK with 2xAA lithiums. One thing I'd worry about though is how well it would hold up as the batteries wear down. I don't know what the minimum voltage requirements are.
If I remember correctly, energizer ultimates are made in the USA. (I can check mine for you later.) If so, it would seem strange to get a better deal on "genuine" ones shipped from China.
Now, this isn't the glitziest light out there, but it's gotten outstanding reviews and seems to meet all your criteria. You won't beat the price either:
Yup. Made in USA.
The one thing that interests me about this light is the fact that the body can be extended because the front threads match the rear threads so if you have an extra light you can steal the body tube from the other as well as the AA adapters and have a twice as long light ....So in my mind if this becomes a possibility for a blf light than I definately want extra / spare adapteres and a an extra body tube as well..A big lego toy without the lithium//or with .
i run my TANK TK 566 with a extension tube and 3 NIMH AAs
Was looking in to this and found Olight are coming out with a new 3 x AA and a 6 x AA http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?255626-New-Baton-Series-S35-and-S65-XM-L-lights-powered-by-AA-batteries Not cheap though. (For 6 x AA there is also the ITP A6 Polestar but it's using a MC-E.)
Ignoring P60 hosts with extensions and spacers, 3 x AA does seem to have rather limited options, particularly if you want a XP-G or XM-L emitter.
S35 is $84.95
S65 is $109.95
Ultrafire should upgrade C88 with a XM-L and sell it at the same price the Q5 version is now $28.5
+1, definitely like to see a C88 with xml at same price, maybe the next BLF edition light.
Gotta plus that. +1