I got three of the four delivered - two neutral whites and one cool white. Waiting on the warm whites to come in stock. I had some time to kill today and these are my results. I was using Samsung ICR18650-30B cells at 4.17v.
- turbo: not measured because of the timer
- high: 2 hours 6 minutes, the cell was at 3.61v when I stopped the testing prematurely (had to go out and vote). The head didn’t heat up throughout the testing where I was concerned with cooling it down in water. It was left to free stand.
- medium: 7 hours 08 minutes, the cell was at 3.20v when it hit low and it started blinking
low: 7 hours 08 minutes and counting… I stopped the clock and measured the cell at this point. To my surprise, it was only at 4.14v. I’ll leave this thing overnight and see how it goes
Overall, I’m happy with the run times, output and the heat management. At high, it gets dimmer, but, as I did the tests in the morning/afternoon, I could not accurately measure or judge the light dimming as the tests ran.
Thanks for doing the tests.
Did I read that right? Started with battery reading 4.17. Left it running for a little more than 7 hours on low and it read 4.14?
Using a set of custom made, heavy duty leads, and a freshly charged Sanyo 2600 protected cell, I get current readings of approx:
Low - 11/11mA
Medium - 550/570mA
High - 1412/1460mA
First number is for the NW CW, second for the CW NW. (Vf of the NW may be a bit lower?)
Little point in publishing my Turbo numbers as they drop so quickly with cell voltage.
I think you'll be waiting quite a while for that runtime test on low Rod.
I also took rough measurement readings of output using the lux scale on my multimeter. In no way standardised and in no way am I able to put up any meaningful numbers - its just a test I run inside for my own comparison.
I did the spring bypass on both the tailcap and the driver for the CW version. The tailcap mod gave me an increase of about 8% but the driver spring made little to no difference.
Still a long way from the advertised current on Turbo but that may be down to my choice of 18650.
All in all they are very nice little lights, especially given the price. I would prefer the Medium to be a bit lower as the upper three levels are pretty close.
Interesting. I’m thinking your light may be a bit different than mine then, or your capacity of 3000mAh may be low. Here is what I noted in another thread on a 3200mAh Panasonic BD cell:
You asked about run time, my is probably drawing close to 2A max to the emitter average over the first hour, and dropping I’d guess. I was going to do more run time on turbo too, but after 1hr 40min of hitting turbo over and over (each turbo is 3min 20s on mine, perfect for 10 min increments), I was bored of hitting turbo and left it on high and it ran at least another hour before my helper shut it off…I was hoping she would tell me when it blinked instead, but oh well. Turned it back on and 5 min later it gave the low power warning. This was all on one 3200mAh Panasonic BD at 4.2V, almost 2hrs on turbo hits and over 1hr of high afterwards. Unless I’ve got miracle cells, its probably drawing sub 2A average at first and dropping throughout, and you really dont need Panasonic BD for that.
It’s low. These cells are rated for 3000mAh at 4.35v. Because the starting voltage was 4.17v, the capacity was probably around 2500mAh as per one of HKJ’s tests on this cell. That is why I said I was happy with the run times [with this cell] (neglected the latter bit in the OP). I don’t have any chargers that are able to get it to 4.35v.
The problem with run time tests on this BLF special is that it seems to have the steepest drop in output through time of lights that I’ve used, 10 mins use and I perceive a difference, and once you hit the 1hr mark, “high” might be in fact nearing medium. I had to go through the cycle numerous times to check I haven’t missed any step downs, as the only way to know was to count the modes since output dimmed so much through the test. I figured I’ve got double the protection and so its a competition to see which triggers first… 4hrs in we have low voltage warning! 3.01V measured taking it out immediately.
Rod’s test showing –0.03V in 7hrs on moon is enough, steep drop in output is seen on all modes, and running it down after it goes into moon mode after warning should be measured in days, not hours. If you miss the entire night and it goes down another .03V, it’s not a big deal. If you can’t remember to turn off your light in a couple days, and then you go find your light and recharge the battery for normal use, that is pretty negligent.
I’m going to say, unless you are one to need to get a safety sheath for your butter knife, wanting auto shut off on this light is going a little overboard…but then again, so is turbo step down! This is probably one of the “safest” Li-ion lights!
Stopped the test after 25 hours and 20 minutes on the low setting. The cell’s resting voltage is 4.07v. So I’d guess that at its lowest setting, you can get at least 5 continuous days worth of run time on a 2500mAh capacity cell. That’s at least 120 hours worth.
@ B42 - I agree with you that this light is a pretty safe light. I’d be confident enough to pass it onto non-flasholics as you can’t really go wrong here:
- stepped down turbo
- high mode doesn’t get hot enough
low voltage warning, albeit it does take the cell down, in your case, on the low side