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LED current draw?

GSS

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Newbie question,,
I bought a 5 pack of the cree 14500 flashlights and noticed that there was no difference in brightness between 1 AA alkaline at the usual 1.5V and a "Trustfire" 14500 at 3.7V+
I tried a Efest 14500 and the brightness was a huge difference. I mentioned the 5 pack as there's always dud with these cheapie lights but they all responded the same.
Iv'e used these Trustfires on my laser pointers plenty and they perform well on a 100mW unit's and more and couldn't tell a difference between them and the Efest's so I guess what i'm asking is doe's a LED need that much more current? Totally knowing the deal with "Trustfires" they cannot be that bad to not power a so called 200 or 300 lumen light over a single AA??
 
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Hi GSS
Alkaline cells are 1.3 V lithium ion are 4.3v that’s way more V . When I salvage a led from a host I hook them up to a lithium and fasten it over my work when I need extra light. Like setting drivers and bridging resistors. They work great

Rich
 

GSS

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Hi GSS
Alkaline cells are 1.3 V lithium ion are 4.3v that’s way more V . When I salvage a led from a host I hook them up to a lithium and fasten it over my work when I need extra light. Like setting drivers and bridging resistors. They work great

Rich
Hi Rich, oh I know regular cells run at 1.5V but was surprised the Trustfire 14500 at 4.1V charge didn't make any difference in brightness.
The Efest 14500 brightness difference was huge.
 
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The EFest are true IMR cells and they don't sag under load like those cheap ******Fire cells so they maintain a higher voltage under load.
 
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GSS

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1000's of post's of how bad these "****fire's" cells are and I still thought they had a use of some kind.:whistle: 1 of these 14500 ***fires was actually less bright in the Cree than 1 Sunbeam alkaline AA from the dollar store:rolleyes:.
The 10440's seem to be Ok. Probably got a counter fit "****fire" from what "****fire counter fitted or they re rapped some cheaper cell.:)
 
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I have a few xxxxfire and other misc. cells that are half way decent and I use them for low drain items such as 50-100mw 532's and such, I typically don't buy the 7-10 dollar a piece cells for my many low drain items, but in anything high drain I use good IMR/INR cells.

It really shows with something like a nubm44 if using only 2 x 18650's the EFest will hold up well enough to give you several minutes of 1 minute runs but the cheap cells sag below cutoff after the first 30 seconds.

So it's ok to buy the bargain cells for low drain IMHO

---edit---

I forgot to mention, many of those small/pocket led flashlights will have a buck/boost driver that will make use of anything you put in battery wise, so many will work with a 1.5v alkaline cell or a 3.7-4.2v Li

Also some of the cheap li cells will do ok at first but fail after a few dozen charge cycles so I try to find a deal on reasonably good 2nd tier cells, the ultrafires I actually have are several years old and are the pedigreed survivors.
 
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GSS

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^^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^ is what I wanted to hear..
:)
Like I mentioned the ****fire's seemed ok for up to 100mw's of 532.
Was running the 1 14500 ****fire on a 190mw+ of 532 an seemed nice and bright, just took it out and and tried the Efest, huge difference.
I have a pair of black labeled protected 18650's ***fire's that are pure survivals also. They have some good weight to them which i'm sure are re raps from nice nice cells and not sand.
I'm do to get a LPM to review today from member Foodson. Good timing!
 
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I have some Ultrafire 18650s that are still measuring 2000 mAh after 5 years of use. I don't use them for my more powerful builds, but they work fine in my lower power ones. These are cells I bought before I knew any better, so I haven't purchased any more for a long time.
 
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GSS

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I believe they were also my first ever 18650's I purchased;)
Then I bought a 4 pack of all blue's with no markings what so ever that 1 came DOA but surprising still ok on 2 of them.
Then I bought the "famous" red GTL 16340's at 2200mAh:ROFLMAO:
 

CurtisOliver

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Glad to hear you’re getting a LPM Peter. :) (y)
Next, up a spectrometer. :p jk
 
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GSS

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Glad to hear you’re getting a LPM Peter. :)(y)
Next, up a spectrometer. :p jk
There's a new member Foodson who's actually from the UK;) who sent me one he built for the price of shipping to give my review and thoughts. I'm pretty psyched as also receiving a M03 525 at 1W+ from are friend Lifetime:p
 

CurtisOliver

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Wow, great deal from both ends. :) Have fun playing around and measuring that 525! I can only imagine how great it will look in person.
 
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Peter, that 525nm laser was likely measured for power by Rich before he sent it to you. That will give you a ~1000 mW one to compare with on that LPM you are getting. Also, the 532nm that you got from me will give you ~200 mW as long as you use the better batteries with it.
 

GSS

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Yes i'm curious to see as Rich stated 1.1W+ on his Laserbee..
Paul, that's the exact Apllighting 200mw module unit I was using the 14500 Trustfire on "ALL" this time and I thought it was greatly bright till I tried the Efest earlier today.. Just wow what a difference. It's like I got a new laser!
 
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Yeah, those ~200 mW 532nm lasers are pretty bright. I have never had a problem getting a good beam shot with one. But, it does use a 1+ watt pump diode so you need a good battery or it won't give the rated power. I'm glad you finally got one so you can see what they can do.
 
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there was no difference in brightness between [cell types]

"difference in brightness" based on your subjective non-linear organic detectors (aka eyeballs), or something accurate? What is the current draw from their respective sources?

Could it be that your lights have a constant current driver? Or am I missing something obvious?
 




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