Multiple emitters, multiple battery combinations; how do you keep them straight?

Some emitters are rated at no more the 4.2v, some up to 8v.

If you like to "play" with your lights, swap emitters into different bodies, etc, how do you keep them organized so that you don't fry a 4.2v emitter with 2xCR123 battteries? Or put a 14500 into a light that should only take an AA? Seems easy if you only have a couple lights and don't experiment much, but with multiple lights and very similar bodies I see the potential for frying drivers.

How do you guys with big collections keep them all straight?

You could label them with a bit of tape.

I dont have that problem yet with my torches, but I do place small paper labels stuck down with tape onto things where I need a note for special precautions. These include my LiPo battery flight packs, and polarity indicators on my triple 18650 battery bay torch.

With a Sharpie, I write the date I recieved it, what emitter and max volts on the outside of the reflector. Otherwise, as you indicated, it would be all too easy to screw a 6 volt max drop-in on top of 8.4 volts of circuit sizzling batteries.

lotsolightsFoy

Okwchin and Foy have some good suggestions. For P60 drop-ins I used to mark the brass base, because I was in the habbit of swapping reflectors (go figure). Another thing you could do is just take a picture of said component and label it that way. That trick came in handy during my last engine build. I think I still have a file with about 200 pics of a 4.6L

After awhile though, you'll find it all unessessary. It's rumored Old4570 can identify emitters and drivers by taste alone...

Haha, is that with the batteries hooked up or not? Or maybe that would just be a voltage check, nota an emitter check...

You guys......

I keep all the details of what can be used with what type of battery and where I bought them from in a big PDF file with pictures of the relevant bits.

I've been doing that since I received a AA light a few years ago and as soon as I got it I popped a 14500 in it....instant driver death.

Pook, I like that idea, and modified it a bit.

I use gmail, and a nice way to keep track of and access data is to send an email to yourself with all the appropriate information. I don't actually send it, I store it as a draft, then I can access it from anywhere. So I just listed my lights, where they came from, what emitter, what batteries are acceptable. Next step will be to use a Sharpie on the emitters to show the voltage range, in case I swap one out. That should take care of most of my concerns.

Unfortunately, the Ultrafire 501B with XM-L that I bought on Ebay does not list what the voltage range is, came with 18650 batteries. Guess I won't be trying a pair of Cr123'as in it.

I label batteries (date of purchase, bought from, protected/unprotected, etc.) but since I mostly stop playing mix-and-match when I'm satisfied with a light, I can pretty much get away with keeping things simple and memorized. And then there are some batteries that are known to be "good", which I use in 3*18650 lights, ie. TR-1200s, mostly for the extra peace of mind and those are marked accordingly.

I know people who just number their stuff (either with a sharpie and nail polish, a label or a p-touch, which is probably the easiest and neatest solution unless your batteries are already a tight fit) and keep all their information in a spreadsheet. I guess Google Docs would work just fine for that as well.

I should have listened more carefully to the posts here, I already have 2 dropins that I'm not sure if they will take 2 x CR123 or just 1 x 18650. They should put labels on those things.

I label my dropins for voltage. Never bothered to label batteries as i have only a few Li-ions. I write on them with a "strong" waterproof marker.

Post a couple of pictures of them, it's possible someone will recognise them. If they are multi-mode drop-ins then they are *probably* single cell only, obviously there are exceptions.

OK, here is a photo of one I wasn't sure about, but now that I look at it, I'm thinking its an XM-L, just don't know what voltage for the driver. It's single-mode. I take that back, it is a 5-mode, but it is acting strangely. Hi-Mid-Low look the same almost, and in stobe and SOS mode the light doesn't shut off between blinks, just dims a bit.

Wasn't doing that before, but I've put a smooth reflector on it, maybe something is still loose.

Took everything apart, got it working correctly again. I like the SMO reflector better than the OP one.

Ones without labels I hit with an indellible marker on one not labeled I put 5 dots to tell me it's a 5 mode too.

I just write on the back of the reflector the maximum voltage and mode stuff with a permanent marker.

Another reason to love Solarforce-sales; I got two new dropins from them today, and both were clearliy labeled.

They put a nice sticker on each one that says which emitter it is, which bin, volts, and number of modes.

Thats really nice! Now if they would just not require a signature on their stuff, I'd be even happier.