Firstly thanks for all the info on this forum and CPF. It has been most useful over the past few weeks and I have learnt a lot.
I have just purchased (thanks to the reviews on this forum) a SK68 Clone from TomTop for £4.00 delivered. I want to know if anyone had any beamshots comparing an SK68 on eneloops and on 14500's. I am considering buying 14500's and charger but wanted to know what sort of difference I could expect and if it is worth it. If going down the 14500 route I would look to get a better light probably soonish to take advantage of the higher voltage batteries.
Anyway, beemshots for comparison would be helpful if anyone has done some or knows some that already exist.
That is exactly what you want. If the body gets hot quickly then heat is being efficiently sinked away from the emitter to the lights body. The time to worry is when a light that size is drawing 1.6A but its body feels cold.
I know the hotter the body the better the job its doing at drawing away heat but it produces that much heat on a 14500 that I'm worried if I leave it on for long I'll burn out the LED. Also that the whole body is hot and not good for the battery.
It gets pretty hot but not too hot to hold, I have only had it on a minute or 2 at the most.
I left one of mine switched on by accident in a warm jacket pocket for 20 minutes with a freshly charged 14500 in it. I only realised when I noticed my pocket was very warm. The light suffered no ill effects. I even checked out the star expecting to find scorching. There was none. The Sipik's body does an amazing job of discipating heat so all those fins are plainly not just for fun.
Is way brighter and also consider that 14500 have the same price of AA LSD(4 12$ in Italy) about chargers there are many starting from 3$ that sare enough safe using protected cells, I find useful chargers like that able to charge a mobile, but to make fit 14500's here you need some spacers like that magnets
as said will became hot and the autonomy, a bit also the LED life, is reduced don't remember btw should be around 80min with AA, 1h or less with 14500(when it discharge the light will became gradually more dim and less hot coz is direct drive)
I left two of my SK68s on straight running 14500s until the protection on the cells kicked in. This was right around 41 minutes for both. They did get hot but they both still work great.
Thanks for the comments. You hear some bad things about li-ion batteries catching fire or exploding, flame venting etc... Are there any safe chargers without spending a fortune? I know the batteries aren't too expensive but I'm not sure I would trust a cheap charger.
I use cheap chargers. As long as you check the voltages before and after charging, don't leave it on the charger overnight or unattended, and use protected cells, you should be fine.
if you use protected batteries like in my past link you are safe from shortcuts overcharge/discharge and so fire/explosion is like a mobile's battery, if you want be 100% safe with your charger take it with USB input like that instead of AC
I have read on these forums that it is not recommended to get batteries from ebay? I might take your advice and get the trustfires from DD. is this the same for chargers (avoid ebay)?
Oh, and I'd really love to see any beemshots comparing eneloops with 14500's. If no one has any I might post some myself if I take the plunge. It looks likely at the moment.