The one TRULY amazing thing about NiMH/AA/AAA Eneloops is that they’ve never leaked and ruined anything I’ve put them in, abused them in, or neglected to charge them in. Day in and day friggin out. I can’t remember even ONE Eneloop ever failing. And I own a BUNCH. Underrated? Hell yes. And all this without protection circuits, vents, explosions, fires, or finicky charging requirements.
Eneloops over the years have probably saved me at least multi-hundreds of $$$ in not damaging a friggin thing. For that alone I majorly thank Sanyo and their great engineers.
And then they keep constantly improving the product to boot while keeping the price down.
They deserve more dam good hard driving lights and I wish more would build them keeping them in mind in their designs. AA platform is my darling.
Anyway, this is what this whole topic was about. Appreciating something beautifully designed, robustly constructed, and on top of all that, a bargain.
Lithiums are great too btw. Just a different greatness.
PS. Correction: Eneloops do have hydrogen gas vents.
Are Eneloops (or other NiMH rechargeables) advertised in some parts of the world? Because, in North America, I’ve never seen an ad for them at all. Duracell and Energizer must spend a s**t load of money advertising their crap alkaleaks, which is why the consumer buys them like a addict buys crack.
I think Eneloops are overlooked because few consumers know about them. I think Duracell and Energizer like it that way, because Eneloops are the perfect replacement for their wasteful industry.
There are a few good aa lights they just take multiple cells. I believe it’s discontinued but the ea81 can still be found 2150 lumens off 8xaa
Then you have all the 4xaa can lights. Energizer has a couple 1100 to 1300 lumen aa lights 6xaa
There won’t be much improvements in the 1xaa arena. Unless a major leap in technology happens and then that tech gets cheaper.
IMO Eneloops are likely considered the 3rd rail to the mainstream disposable battery business model. Probably there are marketing and access to retail distribution limitation factors involved with here that maybe only an industry professional can accurately delineate.
One possible thing that sticks in my mind is that maybe Sanyo et al., can only handle so much production and so they’re happy enough with the sales/order levels as they now stand.
I’ve not been to Japan. I do wonder what type battery the typical Japanese consumer puts in his devices. Are alkalines as prevalent there as they are here? Or how about NiMh usage/popularity in Europe?
As an aside, I do get a kick that ‘heavy duty’ batts are still being sold in stores. With today’s higher drain devices you would think those things would’ve basically completely evaporated from inventories kinda like Betamax/VHS. ‘Heavy Duty’ batts must still be profitable enough given that the same companies that sell alkalines also sell them.
We’ll maybe it’s just more of a different affordability market segment they pursue as they appear to retail about 2/3rds cheaper than alkalines.
I think there’s still big gains that can still be made in the 4xAA soda-can lights. If a Zebralight SC5 can do over 500 lumens on 1 AA, then I don’t see why a 4xAA couldn’t do over 2000 lumens.
Maybe as much as 3000 lumens, using an XHP70.2 and a good boost driver. From the XHP70.2 spec sheet, that would require about 3600mA at about 5.8v forward current, or about 21 watts. Add a couple of watts for a driver, maybe a couple of more for resistance elsewhere in the light.
Looking at lygte’s site, an Eneloop Pro at 7 amps provides a voltage of about 1.1v, at least for a little while. So, that’s 31 watts from 4 Eneloop Pros.
3000 lumens from a 4xAA light should be easy. Get on it, flashlight makers!
Coincidental you mention this because in reading this thread/review of the DQG Tiny a single 26650 uses a very efficient boost driver to get about 21v or 1 amp for each of its 7 XPG2’s on turbo. From there it gets crazy good. Then there’s its phenomenal runtimes.
So it can be done with even 1.2v NiMh. IMO as the DQG demonstrates it’s really up to driver designers to push the boost driver envelope.
If the Zebra Sc5w can do it on a single cheap lightweight Eneloop AA…… :sunglasses: Now THAT’s a powerhouse little EDC. Even a 3 or 4 x AA NiMH batt carrier in a DQG idea would rock - especially when in situations where you’ll likely abuse the charging/discharging hell out of it. You know, not worry whether you trip the protection circuit or over deplete an unprotected. Not that any of us will ever do that sorta thing.
I want to use nimh in my flashlight too but one inconvenient thing is I can’t charge it whenever i want. Nimh have to recharge it when it drained completely and charge it full in one go, am I right?
I like lights with boost-drivers, especially for cycling at night where I need a fairly bright output. I get about triple the useful run-time from my Zebralight SC600w Plus (using a boost driver), than I do from my BLF A6 (using a FET driver and linear driver), at about the same output. The problem is that the BLF A6 output sucks when the battery gets about half drained, and is really only useful on low modes after that.
As for linear drivers like the 7135 chip, budget lights seem to love them (as they do FET drivers). But there just seems something wasteful about the way a linear driver throws away excess voltage as heat. It’s really only efficient when the battery voltage is about the same as the forward voltage of the LED.
I know lights with boost drivers (like Zebralights) are more expensive, but I wonder why they are so much more expensive. The boost drivers can’t cost $50 or $75, which is about how much more expensive the lights are.
Memory effect exists for NiCad batteries. NiMH doesn’t suffer from it.
NiCad AA batteries were common back in the ’80s. But when NiMH batteries replaced them, people just assumed they suffered from the same issues, despite being told otherwise. I think it hurt NiMH battery sales.
Ya there pretty much like lithium you don’t have to fully deplete or charge them. If you need to go you can take them out the charger and use them. If I don’t use mine for a couple months. I run a charge discharge cycle. Or run them down in a light to keep the chemicals going. Even though they can sit for a year or more. I don’t like to do that.
Wish more usb rechargeable nimh flashlights… and more electronic gadgets… but due to energy density, gravimetric density, lower costs… now every gadget uses Li.
Now take the case of the DCQ Tiny mentioned in the link above.
It runs 7(!) XPG2 emitters on 1 x 26650.
How does it do that?
By having a very efficient boost driver. The Zebra SC5w also has a very efficient boost driver to enable it to pump out 500 lumens on just 1 x AA Eneloop.
The point being that not all boost drivers are blanket equally inefficient and subsequently they’re not the same. Just like a 2 x (or more) 18650 in-series light that needs a buck driver while also partly inefficient because of energy lost through heat doesn’t mean one should never bother using a buck driver either, right?
There’s no perfect/exact 1 to 1 outcome when you mess around with an original state of electric charge. At least not that I’m aware of on this planet. :student: :laughing:
The fact that it pumps out X number of lumens alone says nothing about its efficiency.
“More efficient” would mean delivering more light output for a longer period of time from the same amount of stored energy. But in fact, as was stated earlier, a boost driver causes more current to be pulled from a cell, and the higher the current draw, the lower the energy (Wh) is. So in fact, it’s less efficient, not more efficient.
Take a look at this table from HKJ’s review of a regular Eneloop AA cell:
You’ll see that the more current you draw, the less capacity (and energy) you get out of it.
