Be careful with non protected because the driver will deplete them very fast and as it is designed for 3V batteries you may not notice until it is too late…
The best battery is the nitecore 16340 protected…
Anyone removed the driver? it is kind of glued in in mine, the stock LED wire is very thin and should be upgraded.
What is the lumen output difference between protected and non?
I just ordered some IMR 16340 from that AW guy on cpfmarketplace… also some 14500 for my other light
Is this a good charger: http://www.fasttech.com/product/1119500
along with these batteries: http://www.fasttech.com/product/1134001 , http://www.fasttech.com/product/1156500
Also, is the lumen output less with protected batteries?
The trustfire batteries are crap.
The charger and the nitecore battey will make you happy for a long time.
So I bought both the mini 1 & 2. The mini 2 claims 480 lumens while the mini 1 claims 280, is that true?
Everything came in today. Mini 1 & 2. Nitecore rcr and aw imr. It appears that both are just about equally bright with all batteries tested even though the mini 2 claims 480lumens whereas mini 1 states 280lumens. I think they both clock in at 480 or so with the rcr or imr… With cr123as they are both considerably less bright.
So since the aw imr does not increase brightness there would be no reason to use this battery over the protected RCR’s correct?
In the end, since they are roughly the same brightness, I like the mini 1 a little better. It looks nice and is plenty bright for $13 and is a wee bit shorter in length. Really nice small keychain light for brightness, look and price!
IMR’s have safer chemistry than regular li-on so that might be a reason but I am guessing would only be suitable for short burts to avoid running the battery down to zero.
Thanks for the tip on Nitecore will grab a couple of those on my next fasttech order.
Alright, I bought the mini-01 and it works fine with the battery it was supplied with and I ordered the Yezl 880mah 16340 to go with it.
When I use the Yezl, it works fine when it is on low mode but when I try to switch it to high it just flashes bright and turns off.
It is possible it is tripping the over-discharge protection on the battery?
Help please!
Order a nitecore 16340 from fasttech it’s cheap and very good.
I have a yezl too and it works but mine is older perhaps they have changed the protection circuit.
Thanks for the suggestion, funnily enough I actually went and ordered one about 15 minutes ago just to give it a try anyway.
Will report back when it arrives.
+1 I have tested a pair of Nitecore 16340s on my Mini-02 last May 24 and both ran more than 36 minutes on high. I also changed the LED wires with 22 AWG wires.
One minor problem I encountered with the Nitecore 16340 is that one fits tight into the Mini-02 while the other fits just right. 
Anybody know the specification on the little O-ring for this Mini? Mine (original green ones) have all disintegrated in the past year, and I’m not finding anything at the local hardware stores. The originals may have had a flat rather than round cross-section, not sure. What I find that seems to fit is slightly too thick and makes it very stiff to turn.
I bought these and I go very well
0-ring
I used similiar ones I ordered from DX in former times, just order some different sizes from fasttech…these are always handy to have
Is there still a location to find a 3-mode (low, medium, High) driver to fit these ?
Anyone know what the lumen reading is supposed to be on a stock Mini-01 CW with a fully charged AW IMR 16340? I normally just go by the retina test… just point it at my face and see how uncomfortable it is and how blurry my eyes are for the next few mins… well pretty darn uncomfortable and blurry I must say… (charged with a cotton pickers 200mah charger) 
I seem to remember getting close to 3Amps with an AW IMR, so that should give an idea of output. I’ve no actual output testing figures though I’m afraid.
Thanks mate,
Took it to the beach the other night and was even more impressed than in my backyard. Hope you doing well.
I’d say it did a great job of flood lighting the beach