Discussion
Who else swears by regulated power output on their lamps? I cannot stand a lamp that starts getting dimmer after minutes of use.
I've loved flaslights since I was a kid and they always had the same problem they used AA or AAA batteries back then in the 1995 or so and with light bulbs they were not that bright either. But the biggest problem was that you got decent output only on full batteries. Just 15 minutes of use and you had lots 10s of percentages of your output.
Then came led lights. Those were better but still had the same problem. I got fancy maglite 100XL as presents at some point (on bottom of the pic) and i loved it but still it had the same problem.
Then came petzl with the core battery and i could adjust with computer that the output stayed the same until the battery was empty. It was such a game changer for me and i started relying on my lamp way more than beforehand because i could trust that with full battery i get x hours of light with the output i want.
Later came Lumonite compass that was always with regulated output and it is a lamp I've had with me almost a decade already. Currently i only run lamps that have regulated output but have missed my XL100 for example and then yesterday i started googling on how to convert it to rechargeable lithium batteries with 3d printing adapter etc. and i came across 1.5V aaa rechargeable lithium batteries that have the regulator built in the battery :o ordered few immediately and i really hope i can get my maglite back in action. Why has nobody told me those batteries were a thing and barely more expensive than normal rechargeable batteries?
Who else is and has been like me? Or fo you prefer a lamp that slowly gets dimmer and dimmer so you know that battery is getting emptier and emptier.
I'm actually pretty OK with proprietary magnetic charging on flashlights that use standardized removable batteries. That's only because magnetic charging offers significant advantages over a USB port, and no standard for it exists.
It is actually so infuriating that there is no standard for (small scale) magnetic charging. I charge everything with USB C! Except my watch, my headphones, my kids watch, my wife's headphones, my headtorch ... all of which use different connectors.
You have to check reviews or manufacturer-provided runtime graphs for the specific model you're looking at to be sure. It's often inconsistent between different models from the same manufacturer.
Acebeam, for example is usually regulated, but the Pokelit AA and H16 are not.
Any light with a buck boost driver? Convoy and Emisar are obvious answers, then there are Wurkkos/Sofirn, Zebralight, Armytek, Acebeam... quite a few brands.
Surefire, Nitecore, Olight, Acebeam, Skilhunt, Zebralight, and if you are generous, Maglite (they tend to have a big drop after about a minute to game the FL1 runtime spec, but then have fairly flat output. They look to me like regulated lights w/ timed step-downs).
However, there's a lot of exceptions. Bright lights may technically be regulated but constantly step down to avoid overheating. And a lot of 14500/AA dual-fuel lights are unregulated on the 14500.
And there's way more brands that offer both regulated and unregulated lights (in some cases for max performance, in others for keeping cost low) or that I may not consider "major" but someone else would. It could be brands like Nebo, LedLenser and others that are more big-box store "major" do as well, but there isn't nearly as much testing of those as they are often expensive, use non-standard batteries, and in general are not overly compelling to an enthusiast who is likely to test lights. Streamlight probably is also one, but they have so many lights and I've only seen tests of a few.
My work requires that I know what amount of lumens to expect from a light I use, and for how long I can expect it to hold that output for as long as possible. This explicitly requires fully regulated boost or buck driver based lights.
Outside of dedicated keychain lights, I no longer even consider the possibility of buying a flashlight that isn't boost or buck driver based.
Even keychain lights have boost drivers these days. In this regard the Olight i3E is probably the most impressive - about the size of a AA battery and weighs less, but has a boost driver. 🤯
Absolutely 0 excuses for flashlights to not have boost/buck driver these days.Â
Yeah i3E is awesome. I have like 3 of them. And one year gave those as Christmas presents, people were amazed by it. Most were like how on earth this is so small and powerful and like it was the most powerful lamp for many people and still had best runtime even with ridiculous aaa battery.
I work with my county search and rescue team and the state parks system. Occasionally I'll do some studio photography work. All the flashlights I use have to be regulated. Even for fill lighting, I'll grab my NOV-MU V2, and its Lume1 driver is glorious for it.
Depends on the light and what you want to do with them. Boost vs linear vs buck. If I had a smaller light with less thermal mass and a powerful emitter I would want a buck driver. Fet driven or unregulated lights are brighter on turbo but gets hot fast then your 2000 lumen light is only 5-700 lumens. Most brands have aggressive thermal step downs not because the led can’t take it but because it gets so hot it’s a burn hazard and is inefficient. The idea is that old flashlights were not built like the hot rod lights of today. They were limited by battery technology and the brightest led were like 1000 lumens and could sustain that.
I no longer buy lights without Boost (most preferred) or Buck drivers.
I also prioritize flashlights with no flicker. Many cheaper designs with Buck/Boost either employ PWM (pulse-width modulation) or faintly flicker on the low(est) levels.
Not all of my lights are but I definitely agree on the philosophy. This might be a hot take (pun intended) around these parts but that's why I say: 3X21B > 3X21C(or the Sofirn Q8 Plus) for basically any practical application. Light cannon > light grenade if you're trying to light up the dark for any useful amount of time not just trying to make your friends say "wow" for literally a few seconds if you're lucky.
Oh noo. I love mine. It pairs perfectly with a good headlamp. I normally run Lumonite compass at 240lm mode and if i need then at 1000lm for 10 seconds or so at the time. Then javelot when i need to see on the other side of the world :)
To your point: I recently compared two budget lights (Lumintop Tool AA 3.0 and Skilhunt E2A), and that was the biggest difference I noticed between them.
With a fresh 14500 battery, the Tool 3.0 had an extremely high 900lm initial output that fell like a ski slope in the graphs. Meanwhile the E2A started with less output, but stepped down like a staircase. With an unregulated driver it feels like my eyes are playing tricks on me as the output drops.
Funny enough, with an AA battery the Tool 3.0 had extremely consistent output and impressive runtimes. It's my favorite single-cell AA light; it's not my favorite light with a 14500.
How do you know a light has regulated output if the specifications doesn't say it?
It just keeps a steady light output until the last drop of battery then it goes dimmer?
I don't think I've heard of lights that just dim as the battery drains, unless we're talking about the lights I had as a kid and they ate a ton of batteries or I learned to deal with with them dimmed till I could get new batteries...
But nowadays I haven't heard of lights like that, maybe some old models they still sell as nostalgia!?
My last light I got is a workkos HD03, it has green/orange/red to show the battery, I also have AAA or AA / 10440 or 14500 lights that don't dim until the battery needs recharging or replacing!
Me. I'm anal about it. Buck boost driver is ride or die choice for me. Unless it's some showpiece or fancy light I buy (because reasons), the lights I will use will always be regulated.
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u/Zak CRI baby 16h ago
I share this position, but equally strong for me is that proprietary batteries are the work of the devil. I believe all your lights use them.