Just use what you have and stop worrying about what might be in the future.
IF, as you said; you DO NOT want to get into the “hobby end” of flashlights stop worrying about the advanced stuff.
Again… get a Basic understanding of the BARE BASICS and stop worrying about anything else.
IF you ask 5 different people a question most likely you will get 6 different answers unless the question is about BASICS. Then you will only get 2 or three different answers. Lol
IF a light requires an 18650 battery, put an 18650 battery in it and USE IT.
Those drivers are tailored a bit to suit the emitters. Like the Cree XPL and SST emitters and such can handle current quite far above their datasheet “absolute max” ratings…we know this from testing and experimenting. But the Nichia emitters (or just about any UV emitter for that matter) can’t quite do the same, so drivers for those will be limited to what they can handle. This can still be done with direct drive/FET with the choice of chips and such.
Now as a hypothetical example, if you buy a powerhouse light where the driver is delivering 8 or 9 amps to the SST emitter that comes stock in the light, and then later on you decided to swap out that emitter for a Nichia or a red emitter (which are known/tested to not handle nearly that much energy before failing), then you’d officially be tinkering and would roast those emitters soon or right away. But as you buy the light in stock form, generally you’ll never see that happen.
Remember, the electronics control the flow. The battery is in the circuit but usually it’s going to limit performance rather than increase it appreciably to the point of hurting anything. This does assume that the driver is designed to limit somewhat - either the max current or by temperature limits (step down or shutoff)…and/or if those are absent that the user has the good sense to turn it off before the aluminum melts. Most lights won’t let you get anywhere near the point of damage to any component no matter what cell you use.
The flip side there is if you had a powerhouse and it needed a battery to deliver a good amount of juice in order to achieve it’s lumen output of 4000 or whatever. In that case, if you put a lesser battery in there, you’re most likely just going to see less light/lumens because the battery can’t provide what’s needed. Won’t hurt anything at all because in effect it’s under-driving rather than over-driving, although sometimes the battery will get warmer than normal because it’s working so hard (and that’s generally safe…sometimes it’s not good…but again, in a light light that you’ll want to buy a good premium high drain cell anyway).
When you put a high drain cell into a light that doesn’t ask much, nothing happens….you get the same light output as you do with a normal cell. And keep in mind that most cells can happily deliver 6-8 amps with no problem. The majority of lights won’t pull more than that, but if they do then you want a better cell.
You don’t have to know every detail about how they work. Heck i don’t know every detail about how it works, but i basically know what i need to know. And some of my knowledge is out of date and i’m still rocking some almost 10 year old flashlights.
I have given flashlights to muggles, they know nothing except replace battery when drained.
BTW muggles are non flashlight enthusiasts.
What you need to know is if your flashlight gets so hot you get burned there is a problem. You can ask us if that happens. Most have temperature regulation around 50C which is hot to hold but won’t really burn you but will feel hot.
You have a charger and its a known brand so should be fine. Use it. Some of your lights have built in charging. Use that as well.
You have many lights of different types.
You don’t need to know about drivers or charge voltages, or noctigons and whatever. If/when you are ready to learn more you can ask one question at a time and absorb it by responding to the answer and getting more information on that one question until you understand it.
But at this point all you need to do is charge your batteries, play with the lights and recharge when the battery is empty.
Hey…quick side note. Hank made a timely-appropriate comment in his thread today. Asked about drivers for a new light, long story short his response illustrates what I was saying above about drivers often being tailored to the emitters they are sold with (using the electronics as the limiting hose nozzle so that battery choice doesn’t matter so much): Here
You may question this because he notes that the FET is disabled but this is just one approach to limiting the energy so that the light/emitter is operated within its limits.
Why some lights require extremely high current capable batteries while the actual current needed is way less?
Let’s have as an example the Sofirn Q8 Plus.
It has 6 CREE XHP 50.2, and theoretically, for reaching 20.000 lumens it would require 4.5 amps per LED, so each led will have ~3300 lumens:
So it would need 4.5 x 6 = 27 amps, or 9 amps per battery.
But actually, we need at least a Molicell P45B pushing way more amps to reach 20.000 lumens.
I have other lights, for example, a L21B with SFT40 that is brighter with a P45B than with a Wurkkos battery, even having a CC driver of 8 amps…
I know there is the driver efficiency that must be considered, but is this the sole reason to have this difference? What am I missing?
Most lights won’t let you get anywhere near the point of damage to any component no matter what cell you use.