I’m looking at the Astrolux MF01 Mini, and wondering if it does the more advanced electronics trick where they draw more current to make up for a lower cell voltage by using a boost circuit, thereby maintaining turbo level brightness even if the cell isn’t at peak voltage. I hate the idea of keeping a cell at 4.2V just to get turbo. Especially 26650 cells since I don’t think I’ll have very many of them.
I’m looking at other lights like the Armytek which reviews seem to suggest that it’s able to boost voltage to maintain turbo level illumination.
Edit: To explain my usecase, I recently had an incident where I used my I used one of my 18650 flashlights to scare away some bad guys up to no good. I’d like to keep a light around if something like that happens again (I don’t really think I have any need for a 5000 lumen flashlight other than this very specific situation). So I understand that it can’t keep 5k lumens for more than a minute, but hopefully I only need a couple ten seconds at turbo. I’d rather not have to maintain this light, I just need it to be reliable and can pump out the lumens if the situation arises. I wanted to go with something a lot more than the 1k lumen my current 18650 light is capable of. So I’ll buy a high drain 26650 to keep in the Astrolux, but I’m hoping to not have to think about / manage the light very much.
No, most of these hot rod type lights are direct (FET) driven on turbo so the output will go down as the battery drains. You would have to step up to a more expensive light with a much lower total output to get the regulation you are looking for. Besides that, most FET lights are not meant to stay in turbo very long anyways due to heat build up.
I’m sure other users could recommend a light if you explain your use case. Brands like Armytek, Zebralight, EagTac commonly use boost though as you seem to have found out.
FT03S can with a 40T or P42A. Don’t know about this light but I’ve heard the shockli and 4300mah cells have a similar performance in this light so I’m guessing if you use a high drain cell you could get close to max at 3.9v. I’ve ordered this light and will test it when i get it but it’s not in stock so it could take over a month.