Copper CR123 LED Flashlight by Maratac REV 3 - 2018

Just purchased this light (in the title) and am thinking about using one of these (Olight RCR123A Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery (3.7V, 650mAh).
Thoughts? Should it be ok or suggest not using it?

"Note: No battery is included and the use of rechargeable batteries exceeding 3.6V is not meant to be used with this light. We only recommend using standard high-quality 3V CR123 Cells."

For reference, the peak voltage of a single-cell lithium-ion battery is 4.2V. (except for LiFePO4 batteries -- see below.) Only the average voltage is 3.7V. It irritates me that Li-Ion batteries are labeled according to their average voltage instead of their peak voltage, because they are the only batteries labeled this way.

You might be able to use a LiFePO4 battery, which has a peak voltage around 3.6V, but the flashlight you bought doesn't have a low-voltage cutoff built into it, so unless you can find a protected LiFePO4 battery, you would probably end up over-discharging the battery and damaging it. I'm not aware of any protected LiFePO4 batteries on the market right now.

Tenergy makes a protected Li-Ion battery with a built-in downconverter so the output voltage is 3V, but they can't handle high load (max 600mA, according to the Tenergy website) because the downconverter will overheat. Whether it will work with your light is pretty much a trial-and-error thing, because I can't find any specs for the Maratac 123's power usage.

Thank you for the reply. I am highly ignorant when it comes to this stuff. From your comments i should not use them because the peak is 4.2?

Officially that light only supports CR123s (3V) and that is the safe answer. Higher voltage runs the possibility of frying the driver and rendering the flashlight dead.

fyrstormer said:

"Note: No battery is included and the use of rechargeable batteries exceeding 3.6V is not meant to be used with this light. We only recommend using standard high-quality 3V CR123 Cells."

For reference, the peak voltage of a single-cell lithium-ion battery is 4.2V. (except for LiFePO4 batteries -- see below.) Only the average voltage is 3.7V. It irritates me that Li-Ion batteries are labeled according to their average voltage instead of their peak voltage, because they are the only batteries labeled this way.

You might be able to use a LiFePO4 battery, which has a peak voltage around 3.6V, but the flashlight you bought doesn't have a low-voltage cutoff built into it, so unless you can find a protected LiFePO4 battery, you would probably end up over-discharging the battery and damaging it. I'm not aware of any protected LiFePO4 batteries on the market right now.

Tenergy makes a protected Li-Ion battery with a built-in downconverter so the output voltage is 3V, but they can't handle high load (max 600mA, according to the Tenergy website) because the downconverter will overheat. Whether it will work with your light is pretty much a trial-and-error thing, because I can't find any specs for the Maratac 123's power usage.

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This light is advertised as 450 lumen output, which would require at least 1A off the cell to achieve.

nacskins said:

Just purchased this light (in the title) and am thinking about using one of these (Olight RCR123A Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery (3.7V, 650mAh).
Thoughts? Should it be ok or suggest not using it?

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Congrats on your new Copper CR123 Maratac!
Olight makes some great batteries, but the one you listed is not one of them

this is the Olight Battery I use and recommend, for my Olight S Mini and Olight S1 Mini, but NOT in the Maratac CR123

Thetasigma said:

Officially that light only supports CR123s (3V) and that is the safe answer. Higher voltage runs the possibility of frying the driver and rendering the flashlight dead.

This light is advertised as 450 lumen output, which would require at least 1A off the cell to achieve.

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On my homebrew meter the High is actually 238 lumens
CountyComm has very optimistic Lumens claims, and though my meter is not very sophisticated, I believe it is in the ballpark

see this review
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?449554-Copper-Maratac-CR123-first-impressions

regarding LiIon, the correct answer is No, that is not a supported chemistry, and though some people get away with it, I suggest sticking to CR123 Primaries...
from the last post in the review thread:

SNES said:

I used one in mine for a couple months with no issues. I never ran it on high for very long though. To be honest, I don't recommend it. Not enough of a difference on high to be worth the risk. Ended up switching back to a cr123.

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If you decide to gamble, I strongly caution you NOT to use UnProtected 16340, (I do like the Olight mini USB rechargeable cells, because they ARE protected). The Maratac has no built in OverDischarge protection. One of the dangers of using LiIon, is that IF they get OverDischarged, they heat up during recharging, and can Vent with Fire. In all cases, do NOT leave LiIon connected to a charger unless you are present to detect OverHeating.

since you seem a bit new to the entire LiIon Chemistry Subject, maybe start by reading more about them here and or spend some time googling LiIon Safety

at minimum, you should invest in a MultiMeter so you can read battery voltage and act accordingly

I do not know if the Protected Olight mini USB rechargeable 16340 will fit in a Maratac CR123, they are slightly longer than CR123, and some lights wont close all the way.. thereby failing to make contact between the body and the pill.. the result is NoLight, or worse, crushing the Pill or the battery.

I strongly suggest you just say NO to LiIon in your Copper CR123 Maratac.

bottom line, unless you are an experienced LiIon user, the Maratac CR123 Light is not the right light to learn on.. imnsho

Thetasigma said:

This light is advertised as 450 lumen output, which would require at least 1A off the cell to achieve.

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Only if the manufacturer is telling the truth. CountyComm doesn't manufacture these lights themselves, they just quote the specs given to them.

nacskins said:

Thank you for the reply. I am highly ignorant when it comes to this stuff. From your comments i should not use them because the peak is 4.2?

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Correct.

The brightness settings in most inexpensive lights are achieved by various patterns of high-frequency PWM, essentially blinking the LED on/off/on faster than you can see, thousands or even millions of times per second. So unlike some older high-end lights that would simply get stuck on the brightest setting if the voltage-booster is overwhelmed by a high-voltage battery, with newer inexpensive lights you could still get multiple brightness modes even if the driver is being overwhelmed. On the lower brightness settings, the overall wattage reaching the LED is almost certainly safe, but on the highest setting the extra voltage will shove a lot more amperage through the LED than it was designed for and overheat it very quickly. They yellow phosphor coating will burn if it is overheated too much.

The copper shell of your light provides better-than-average heatsinking as compared to aluminum, steel, or titanium flashlights, but ONLY if the LED has a good thermal path to the copper shell. Someone would have to buy one of those lights and essentially destroy it to see if it was assembled with a good thermal path or not. I wouldn't risk it. There are other lights that you can shove tons of wattage through safely, if that's what you want.

fyrstormer said:

Only if the manufacturer is telling the truth. CountyComm doesn't manufacture these lights themselves, they just quote the specs given to them.

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Even that assumes they copied and pasted the right thing, they aren't the most accurate bunch.

The Maratac CR123 I tested did not produce the specified 450 lumens, my homebrew meter showed it reached 238 lumens

but Im sure it will pass 450 after this mod: (post mod lumens test pending)

CRX said:

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That's cheating!