According to Olight, this new version can safely take a 10440 battery. However, in the manual it states: “Use batteries with a protection board and no longer than 44mm”
I have yet to find anyone who sells such a battery. All the ones that are 44mm are NOT protected, and all the ones that are protected are much longer than 44mm.
So, does anyone know where to get the proper 10440 battery for this light?
I don’t have a helpful recommendation for a battery, but the eneloops I have longer than 44mm in length, roughly 44.5. Based solely on how the spring resistance feels when tightening the tail down, It FEELS like it could handle another 1mm or two without overcompression. I’ll think about picking up some 10440’s for testing, but I absolutely dislike Li Ions below 16340 or 14500 in size…just a personal preference.
(I actually really like the Olight Imini series, but I hate the tiny LiIon cell that’s in there)
The only protected ones I have found are 46.25mm long, and it doesn’t appear that those will work, based on some basic measurements I have taken.
Just curious, why don’t you like Li Ions in this size?
Mainly because so many lights utilize the extra power to “full throttle” rather than regulating it down for longer runtimes. For me, from a utilitarian standpoint, if a *smaller cell offers a higher power rating in terms of capacity, I’d much prefer a lower, sustainable, consistent discharge.
For example, when Olight released the Iultra, they opted to raise the brightness from the Imini2’s 50 lumens to 80 lumens (a 60% increase) and the runtime decreased from 60minutes to 50 minutes (17ish%). However, if they had just kept the output the same, we could use the estimate of lumenminutes:
50×60 = 3000lmm for imini2
80×50 = 4000lmm for iultra, 33% more lumenminutes, so hypothetically should be able to run 80 minutes at the same 50 lumens, or even 100 minutes for 20% less (40) lumens…
In short, my opinion is that batteries with that little capacity should have their capacities better regulated for sustainable runtime rather than sheer output, especially since the sag and drag on those higher outputs is more taxing on the smaller cells.
Great explanation! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I’m sure there are many reasons one could give on why they might prefer more run time vs. brighter light, or the other way around.
For me, for this particular light and how I use it, brighter light is more important than longer run times, since I don’t ever deplete the battery in a single day of use. Since I can just charge it each evening, run times are not nearly as important as they are with my headlight, which I use almost all day.
But I completely understand your perspective.
im using 10440 unprotected in mine no issues.
How many minutes at a time do you typically use it?
I am curious why Olight suggests a battery that doesn’t even exist.
I inserted two 1mm magnets on the end of a 44mm Eneloop (the size they recommend) and there is no way that a 46mm battery will work. Not even with just one magnet (45mm). Therefore “protected” cells, which are all longer, CAN’T work.
If Olight has tested this light with a PROTECTED battery that is only 44mm, I would like to know where on earth they got it.
I just don’t want the thing exploding on me. Ha!
So I found a thread over at CPF that was far more thorough than this one, regarding this exact same question for this light.
Not being an expert in batteries, is it true, that as long as I don’t let an UNPROTECTED 10440 battery continue to run when the light starts to dim, that there is no harm in just using an unprotected 10440 battery? That is what one of the guys over there was saying, who seems to know a lot about batteries.
So is it really about just being mindful of the output, and being sure to not let it run down too low? Or is there something more technical going on, and more dangerous?
Nothing unsafe about unprotected battery.
How you treat it is the safety part.
Protection circuit exist primarily to prevent Overcharge voltage, Current limit and Low voltage shut off.
If you have a flashlight with a power hungry LED and a high amp driver you could get into a heat issue but with a 10440 that wouldn’t be a long time frame because of the limited capacity.
Just now looked at specs on you new Olight and it says it has thermal throttling so you are good to go on the heat thing, nothing to worry about.
So to sum up, Party on !
HTH
Keith
Used to be the done thing back in the “good old days” before LVP was common on drivers.
I’d guess the light runs in direct drive when on lithium ion, the only issue you might have when running unprotected 10440 is that the driver is designed for NiMh/Alkaline so will boost the voltage to the LED - I would guess if you left the light running, the driver would happily suck the lithium cell down to 0.9V which is far below “minimum recharge threshold” most (all?) cell datasheet values.
I’m unsure whether the light has over- temperature protection, so you’d want to be mindful of potential overheating.
If you want a “hot rod”, I’d say you could use 10440 with above cautions, and watch for a step down in output which might indicate the cell has dropped below the Vf of the LED (c.3V), at which point it would be a good idea to recharge.
Generally, advice is to not recharge a lithium cell below about 2V.
I think to less advanced users to scare them away from using something.
For 14500s, there are 14430 cells that let the protection board make up the missing 7mm to be the same 14500 dimensions.
Don’t ever recall a “shorter 10440” cell being made. And even if there were, it’d be a huge hit in capacity.
Thanks Keith!