So i have two recently acquired BlackShadow Padme Lights.
One was working great, the other with a dead driver.
I decided to give the 7880 Regulated 20 - Mode driver a try in the dead light, and got some interesting results.
- The stock working original Padme, ( known for being way under driven with mediocre output on NiMH cells) measured average of 450 Lumens in my Sphere-O-Light on three Eneloop Pro cells on High, sucking 1.90 amps at the tail.
- Concidering the PadMe is configured to run off of three AA sized cell in parallel, I decided to give the cheap 7880 regulated 20-Mode 1.5 volt driver a try in the dead PadMe light after stripping off the original toast driver.
even though it lost the magnetic mode-ring control, The results were a very noticeable increase in output on High, ( using the Mode Group # 1) to 700 Lumens in the Sphere-O-Light with the 7880 driver, but with an unusual drop in tail AMP draw down to 1.7A. Giving this Light a good run time on all modes with Eneloops.
(The modded 7880 Padme even almost matched the output on high of the stock one using a single dollar store Zinc-Carbon AA cell! (thought it didn’t last very long on the Zinc cell)
Is the original Padme Driver that inefficient ? or is the 7880 driver that much more efficient is the question.
Left is the 20-Mode 7880 Padme, and Right is the Stock one. ( Beam shot photos to come soon.)
For more info on the 7880,
- It has a Total 20 Brightness modes in 3 groups:
- 1) Weak-Lo-Mid-Hi-Standby-10 second Beacon (Note:Group-shifting signal on Standby Mode)
- 2) Lo-Mid-Hi-Fast strobe-Warning strobe-SOS (Note:Group-shifting signal on Hi Mode)
- 3) Lo-Mid-Hi-Fast strobe-Warning strobe-3Hz Slow strobe-1Hz Slow strobe-SOS(Note:Group-shifting signal on Hi Mode)
- No noticible PWM in ay modes.
- Runs of 1.2 to 1.5 volts.
- Regulated.
Found here: >> http://www.dx.com/p/3w-5w-20-mode-regulated-circuit-board-for-flashlights-7880#.VDJs8xYzOkc