I have the Poppas W-878 (as seen in the review thread). I don't use it often nor do I use it with AAA's. I'm thinking it may be ok with 4AAA alkalines. Mine (as seen in the link post #21) powered up with 3 new Duracell alkalines, but I didn't run them long. I think 4AAA's would help with voltage sag too. Still wouldn't expect great runtime and it would have 5 modes (including flashies).
Beware of some having the hollow pill (read TomE's posts at that link).
And I also have the 57mm UltraOK I mentioned above. That one I do only run on 4AAA's.
-Garry