6 cell lights that work with 3 cells

I bought the Ozark Trail 500L however the 6AA Coleman and the 6AA Dorcy have the same battery compartment. ozarktrail | This is my new Ozark Trail which I'm going to m… | Flickr New 500 lumen MCE light from... Coleman!! | Candle Power Flashlight Forum At first I looked down tube saw the battery icons and assumed the other 3 batteries went in the other way. This worked then I noticed the battery icon on the outside of the light that showed all the batteries pointing the same way. This also works so does 3 batteries in either tube. What does not work is 3 batteries backwards. No clue if running the light on 9 volts will eventually blow it up. These lights do not work well with rechargable batteries they are too tight and need to be beaten out. Vivitar NiMh work fine and I was able to pick some up at frys.com

Is there a question in there somewhere or do you just want us to know you don't know how to operate a flashlight?

I can’t figure out what you’re saying. In what way do the batteries work? I’d assume from looking at the diagram that these were the configurations which worked:
3s1p
3s2p

In which case you’re looking at the same voltage either way. Are you saying that you were able to drop 3 cells in one tube facing the correct direction and 3 cells in the other tube facing backwards and have the light work? I suppose a pair of diodes could be used at the top of the tubes to prevent you from making a 6s1p dead short.

Hi zerodish and welcome to the forum. I don't have one of those lights, but they look like a nice light. I think I read that they have a 3S2P arrangement. So when you reverse one bank you are canceling out the other bank of cells, you are getting zero volts instead of 9 volts. I could be wrong.

There is some pretty cool pictures and information in your photo gallery. Nice work.

I don’t think that’s the case. He seems to be saying that if he puts only three batteries in backwards it won’t work, but when he puts the batteries in what he thought would be a 9v configuration it does work. He specifically worries about frying it: “No clue if running the light on 9 volts will eventually blow it up.”

That’s why I wonder if the light isn’t diode protected (with a diode for each tube) against just this sort of behavior. If so it’s a neat solution!

Looking at the picture, it appears as if the 5S2P, at 1.5vdc x 5 then the voltage fed to the head would be ~7-7.5vdc

Oh wait…duh…only 3S2P, so roughly 4.5vdc…which makes more sense…image above shows the 2 extra AA batts for size clarity

You could drop 1-14500 in each channel followed by 2x 14500/AA blank/dummies and get about the same voltage but w/ MUCH less mAh

WarHawk-AVG, notice that the pictured array of batteries is too long to actually fit inside the light…

Yes…was editing when you corrected me

Thanks

Heh :slight_smile:

If you wanted to go Li-Ion I suppose you’d rip the plastic out of the tube and run it on a single 26650. I suspect that the body tube is too small for a 32650. Either way I don’t see much point.

Yes either 4.5 or 9 volts work. This is probably good news since it would be safe to use nickle zinc rechargable which top out at around 1.85 volts each or oxyalkalines which are 1.73 volts new. I expected the light to be 9 volts when I bought it. The light takes 6 batteries only the Vivitar’s fit correctly. The front does not unscrew so you can’t poke them through. I just needed a light that could run all night and one where the batteries could be charged in pairs since that what the majority of chargers do including the Vivitar that came with the batteries.

I suspect that you are mistaken… Run the light down with what you described as 9v and I think you’ll find that only half the batteries are empty.

You may be right but I’m not going to do the experiment.

I assume you plan to run the batteries in the stock configuration then?

Just bear in mind what I said before doing any experiments with the higher voltage chemistries you mentioned. Based on my understanding of the light you have not actually submitted it to a higher voltage than 3 alkalines yet.