I used just one.......with the dremel set to medium.
Here are better pics of that slot and the split ring and swivel.......darn ss makes it hard to take a pic because of the flash bouncing off the steel. Hey Don, im thinking that the circuit is well regulated because im getting the same brightness using primaries and rcr's.....i just got done putting a 3.2 volt cell in there and the brightness is the same. Darn awesome light indeed. This is a rough look at the slot, they will be cleaned up later, still playing with the light of course. I gave the light full stars because of quality and price.......this light really puts out.
Don your spot on got the 1 mode version of this light it say r2 on the light and compared to my other lights looks like a r2.
The head will also work on the SH-032 and vice versa. Which is nice when you want more runtime.
Don my single mode light runs for 31 minutes then PCB kicks in.
The draw was 1.1 amps.
This light is very bright.
Those are pretty decent RCR cells then - 550mAh out of any RCR is very good.
How do you guys think these would work with a xml installed ? i'm guessing it'll get horrible hot !!
You'd only get a little more out of the light, the driver is only pulling 850-1100mA from the cell so is probably only giving an amp to the LED. You'd need a driver swap as well, then it would probably get fearsomely hot.
How significant will the output difference be on high with a CR123 vs a 16340?
and just to confirm...these tail caps will fit right? I think it would look much nicer with a black tail cap, I dont care for the GITD ones :/
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5742
Edit:
I heard it would tail stand with these tailcaps: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7321
Do they have these in black, I couldnt find any.
Lightbox values:
RCR: 867 lux
CR123: 608 lux
Or about 2/3 of the output with a 16340. But a good CR123 contains 1500mAh and a good 16340 maybe 650mAh (Ignore the capacity claims on all RCR123s, they are all hugely inflated.) so over the life of charge you'll probably get more light on average out of the CR123.
Thanks for the quick response.
I'm not real sure how the light box readings are taken or exactly what those numbers mean and how they translate (aside from I can tell the output is roughly 2/3), so I hope this makes sense. Are those readings taken as soon as the light is turned on? Will it drop marginally after being on for 2-3 minutes? and will that drop be greater for the rcr's than the primary cells?
You got it. The voltage of the two cells is roughly in the ration 3:4 so 2:3 in light output is about what I'd expect. The absolute numbers don't matter much.
Those are turn-on values. They all sag on full power to a greater or lesser extent. This light does 168 lumens at switch-on 154 lumens at 30 seconds and 145 lumens at two minutes. This is fairly typical for a light of that output.
I honestly have no idea if RCRs sag better or worse than primaries - I will try it when I get home. I hardly use primaries as they are very expensive here. But I do have some dirt-cheap ones of low quality knocking around somewhere so I'll run the numbers and see what happens.
A patient wanted to borrow the dog so I had to go home and collect her. Here are some quick numbers.
| Light | Battery |
| Aurora SH-034 High | CR123 |
| Aurora SH-034 High | IMR 16340 |
So the (WF brand cheap rubbish) CR123 sags to 95% of the original value at two minutes and the IMR sags to 86% of its original value. It would seem that even cheap and nasty CR123s sag less (When thy are fresh). But the RCR gives 3/2 on output and the cell doesn't need to b discarded when discharged. I might try this with various other brands of RCR123 just to see what happens.
If that's only after 2 mins...I'd be curious to see at what point the rcr's and cr123's become even and the cr123's take the advantage in output?
I am a little disappointed at the output w/ a primary cell though. I read in one of the reviews that this light is under powered and that any standard 17mm driver would fit in to this light? I REALLLLY like the shape and look of this light, and the fact that it has a nice sized reflector for a "small" light...so I'd really like to get some more output on a primary cell, so how would I go about doing this?
Replacing the driver, what all does that entail? Which one should I get? (I'd like to retain atleast 3 modes, L,M,H) I wouldn't mind spending some money to get this light up to a consistant 160+ lumens on a standard cr123 battery. Is this possible?
I can sacrifice a cheap CR123 to finding out. The crossover point with better CR123s will be in a different place though. Given the local price of Duracell CR123s (Which are the only ones I'd be able to find locally at around $10 each) it will have to be a cheap cell. I don't use primaries for this reason.
$10 EACH?!?! Woooww...that's insane. I guess we're lucky, I can go to the local store and pick up surefure's for about $2 each.
Any ideas on changing out the drivers and how to go about doing it?
Easy enough, extract the pill from the head, dig out the driver, leaving the wires to the LED in place. Find an appropriately sized driver, solder the spring from the old driver to the new driver, solder the wires to the correct points on the new driver board if it doesn't come pre-wired. Put the driver back in and away you go. Actually, for me it works fine the way it is. Runtime graph with a CR123 on high being generated just now.
High - with an RCR123
High with a CR123
Awesome test! Good info to know.
So it's comparable, but with slightly lower light output with the primaries after about 18 minutes, and the rcr's shut off after 33 mins and the primary cell 123's go for apprx another 45.
What kind of output would you expect with this installed with the same r2 led? will it be worth it to learn how to do it as I've never done it before, nor do I have the tools lol.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/17mm-1000ma-5-mode-with-mode-memory-leddriver-circuit-board-for-cree-xr-e-emitters-0-9-4-5v-input-15880
Also, IDK if you've seen this, but I know you have the sh-032 as well
http://fonarik.com/test/indexen.php
-under the "other" lights, it has a beam shot for the sh-032 and has it rated at 250 lumens. Does that beam shot look roughly like what yours does? and How does it compare to the sh-034 in output? Do you have the run times and outputs for that light as well? It looks almost exactly the same as the TK15 @ 147 lumens, but it has a much bigger head.