I have thought of making up two heavy/short leads for this. I understand the principle of larger wire/less resistance for amperage. Black to the battery (or holder, etc.) Red to a bare aluminum spot on the body. I will make sure. I believe I did that, but I hasve slept since then, so all bets are off. I will double check.
I will check out everything when I get home, (at work now) and see what I get. I have one light that I can test right now and I will see what I get with it. (with the stock cables untill I get heavier ones). It's just Direct Drive light, so it should read close to the 3a range for an XM-L. - should......
I do have some 14ga solid copper wire at home, I could use two short lengths of that, (say romex).
Glad it helped. Been there, been confused by that.
This might, or might not, help.
I spent a couple of years in the 80's teaching science but often ran into the problem that what was blindingly obvious to me wasn't even remotely obvious to the pupils.
I completely failed to teach the importance of the mole in chemistry - a concept so glaringly obvious to me as to require no teaching at all.
But is apparently the hardest concept of them all to teach to 14 year olds. Which is why I was last a teacher in 1986.
Thanks all, OP's question is answered. I've got an off-topic question.
Completing a circuit is pretty straightforward, but when you see people with de-anodized bare flashlights, your body becomes part of the negative circuit, and in the case of divers, the whole ocean becomes part of the negative circuit. I know electrons will just find the shortest route from cathode to anode and just ignore the rest, but will this change the current or light output at all? i.e. like having the whole world as the ground?
Won't matter as about 99.9999999999999999999999999% of the current will choose the easiest path. For the rest, start learning about eigenfunctions and eigenvectors. Hope you have more fun with quantum mechanics than I ever did.
To really understand electronics, you really do need to know a lot about quantum mechanics and serious mathematics.
if you want the most accurate current/voltage readings to estimate into lumens, you need to measure them at the LED itself. best time to do this is when upgrading a driver or something.... which i never do cause i am impatient and just want to get the light together so i can shine it into the night sky lol.
multi strand, high gauge speaker wire soldered to banana plugs makes for good low voltage test leads.
ive measured over an amp difference with the same meter and the same light at the same time just swapping out various quality leads.
There is a "ground" on the case of the flashlight and then there is the ground of the earth we are standing on.
The flashlight ground is a "floating ground" and can have a higher, or lower potential than earth ground. If the body of the flash light is connected to the earth ground, through our body or is buried, it will not "short out". The electrons go from the negative terminal of the battery, through the LED to the positive terminal of the battery, and that's it. The completed circuit has to include the battery.
In fact the earth ground underfoot can be at a much different potential than ground 5 miles away, etc.
Ground is a relative thing.
Apart from what is going inside of the individual LED, The flashlight is a simple electrical circuit.
Gene Roddenberry explained during the creation of Star Trek, that the audience doesn't need to understand how a phaser works, just that when you point it and press the button, something dissappears.
