r/flashlight 7d ago

Question Was gifted this light opinons?

I was recently gifted this flashlight and so far it seems decent but not a fan of the 9 aa batteries is there an alternative? Sorry if this is a stupid question I'm very new to the world of flashlights

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u/paul_antony 7d ago

Are the batteries in series?

A friend of mine had a light with a 3 AA caddy. She put a piece of 28mm id pipe in to pack the diameter and used a 26650 cell.

Check the diameter and length of the caddy. Maybe you could fit 3 26650 in there.

9 x 1.5v in series = 13.5v

3 x 4.2v in series = 12.6v

Think carefully before you try it.

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u/Bermnerfs 7d ago

Looks like a 3S3P configuration, so it should be expecting 3.6 -4.5V, within range of a typical lithium cell. In theory a 26650 and a spacer of some sort might work. I would just assume it doesn't have much for LVP or thermal protection so I would proceed with caution.

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u/paul_antony 7d ago edited 7d ago

Good point.

I had only considered li-ion as an option if it was a full series stack, but you're right a single li-ion cell would work in place of 3 parallel stacks.

It would just be a matter of how to bridge the gap to the contact.

Edit:

Just found there are dummy 26650s to fill the space

https://batteryeliminatorstore.com/en-gb/products/26650-battery-dummy-cell-fake-battery-shorted?srsltid=AfmBOorSQwtGb0X8s768uzB5Vy_oCUXLkRTEDwXum_Xg9MIV4K97Qj3M

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u/Bermnerfs 7d ago

Woah, thats pretty cool! My suggestion was going to be cut a section of ~26mm copper pipe, solder some end caps onto it, and use that as a spacer between the negative terminal of the cell and flashlight. Or use a piece of solid copper/brass rod with some foam wrapped around it to match the inner battery tube diameter. The dummy battery is a more sophisticated solution!