Keychain Light Auditions

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I’ve been using the same two for years, Veleno designs quantum DD, and the other keychain has a SS Eiger 10180. I still own quite a few AAA lights, and for awhile I had a “fairy brass” 10180 on one, great little light.
I’ve tried to like the Nitecore Tube, meh.
 
Late to the thread, and not sure if it had been brought up earlier, but Carrot did a number of challenge threads back when;
I thought there was a 'keychain challenge', but the closest I came up with was a '5mm challenge':

<snip>
Edit: Maybe I should have read a little further, like to Post #29 at least, lol. :rolleyes:
 
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Got a Fenix Silvglow in a trade, the colorful heat anodized version. Dig the light, not so much the rainbow colors so once again, out came the dremel.
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This one will not receive a full keychain audition due to its weight, but it’s a solid little Fenix aaa light just like the rest I’ve tried from this brand. If they used this emitter in the E01 they’d have a real winner.
 
I think the Silvglow is an excellent light -- emitter color is beautiful, beam leans towards throwy for its size, and the three levels are well-spaced*. UI is easy, and the body is very robust. And it was very reasonably priced, when it was available.
A bit too robust, if anything -- it feels like a weight in the pocket. Yes, it will stand up to key-wear better than any AL or AL-anodized body will. But it's just a little too present in the pocket.

I thought this might be a replacement for my SS Preon Revo of lamented memory -- similar size, similar lumen-levels. In some ways, it is better -- the Revo had kind of a glitchy interface on the negative terminal, with a funny notched washer. And the Silvglow has a better tail stand than the Revo had. But the Revo did not feel quite as lumpy in the pocket.
ETA: just hunted up numbers: Revo SS was 35 grams, Silvglow is 52. So, 50% heavier.

*(As always, I wish that the low was 1 lumen instead of 5 lumens, but that's Fenix for you....)
 
lampeDépêche said:
I think the Silvglow is an excellent light -- emitter color is beautiful, beam leans towards throwy for its size, and the three levels are well-spaced*. UI is easy, and the body is very robust. And it was very reasonably priced, when it was available.
A bit too robust, if anything -- it feels like a weight in the pocket. Yes, it will stand up to key-wear better than any AL or AL-anodized body will. But it's just a little too present in the pocket.

I thought this might be a replacement for my SS Preon Revo of lamented memory -- similar size, similar lumen-levels. In some ways, it is better -- the Revo had kind of a glitchy interface on the negative terminal, with a funny notched washer. And the Silvglow has a better tail stand than the Revo had. But the Revo did not feel quite as lumpy in the pocket.
ETA: just hunted up numbers: Revo SS was 35 grams, Silvglow is 52. So, 50% heavier.

*(As always, I wish that the low was 1 lumen instead of 5 lumens, but that's Fenix for you....)
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Thanks for the impressions sir. I don’t get the AAA output choices that companies make. Half the time the low mode on their AA lights is lower than on the aaa lights. Why is it ok to have such poopy runtime with a AAA light as well? I was talking with someone about the Microstream. Such a solid platform but why 45 lumens when 10-15 prob can do just as well and triple the runtime? Output is the same as the low on the 1l-1AA.

Edit to add- the older ld22 which 2xaa and the ld11 single aa Fenix both had lows of 3 lumens i think?
 
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No-one is asking for my opinion, but I would go 1 lumen low, 10 mid, and 30-40 high tops for a AAA keychain style light. This is why i typically have to pay extra to get the correct output levels on my lights! 🤣

EDIT- sub lumen, 5, 20 would be great as well.
 
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"I was talking with someone about the Microstream. Such a solid platform but why 45 lumens when 10-15 prob can do just as well and triple the runtime?"
Right -- give me 6 hours at 15 over 2 hours at 45, any time.
Worse than that -- if you are running an Alkaline AAA, then that Microstream is not going to give you 2.25 hours of 45 lumens in any case. It will give you 45 lumens for the first 15 minutes or so, and then it will sag down to 30, and then down to 15. An alkaline AAA simply cannot handle a very high current load for very long -- shorter than what an AA can handle.

So now, your choice is between a fake 45 lumens that drops and drops, and a real 10-15 lumens that the AAA cell can maintain at that level for far longer. Again, I'd rather have the real thing than the fake number.

I wonder, honestly, what is the max current drain that an alkaline AAA can maintain as a flat curve for, say, 10 hours? Eyeballing the data sheet for the Duracell Coppertop AAA, it looks like it is a fair bit less than 100ma. That has dropped down to 1v in 10 hours, and 1v is not likely to be able to keep the light in its original regulation. 50ma is still around 1.3v after 10 hours, so that will probably not have lost much output.

Honestly, there was something brilliant about Peter Gransee's original Arc circuit: 10 hours at a bright output (around 5-10 lumens?), after which the circuit dropped down to another 10 hours at a low output (was it around 1 lumen?). For a single-mode light based on an AAA cell, that design is hard to beat.
 
lampeDépêche said:
"I was talking with someone about the Microstream. Such a solid platform but why 45 lumens when 10-15 prob can do just as well and triple the runtime?"
Right -- give me 6 hours at 15 over 2 hours at 45, any time.
Worse than that -- if you are running an Alkaline AAA, then that Microstream is not going to give you 2.25 hours of 45 lumens in any case. It will give you 45 lumens for the first 15 minutes or so, and then it will sag down to 30, and then down to 15. An alkaline AAA simply cannot handle a very high current load for very long -- shorter than what an AA can handle.

So now, your choice is between a fake 45 lumens that drops and drops, and a real 10-15 lumens that the AAA cell can maintain at that level for far longer. Again, I'd rather have the real thing than the fake number.

I wonder, honestly, what is the max current drain that an alkaline AAA can maintain as a flat curve for, say, 10 hours? Eyeballing the data sheet for the Duracell Coppertop AAA, it looks like it is a fair bit less than 100ma. That has dropped down to 1v in 10 hours, and 1v is not likely to be able to keep the light in its original regulation. 50ma is still around 1.3v after 10 hours, so that will probably not have lost much output.

Honestly, there was something brilliant about Peter Gransee's original Arc circuit: 10 hours at a bright output (around 5-10 lumens?), after which the circuit dropped down to another 10 hours at a low output (was it around 1 lumen?). For a single-mode light based on an AAA cell, that design is hard to beat.
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Why don’t we have that Gransee circuit these days! To streamlights credit, they give you a visual on the package letting you know you’re getting constantly dwindling light over that 2 hours, but yes I agree with your 6 hours at 15 lumens for sure. If we
Figure out a solid way to crack into those darn things I imagine someone like Vinh could add a resistor and swap the led while he’s at it. I’ve read people boiling the 1l-1AA to soften the glue in the head, but I’ve not seen a Microstream mod that didn’t screw up the build quality somehow. Drilling into the lens or something.
 
"Why don’t we have that Gransee circuit these days!"
Well, we do have more control and more efficiency now. I suspect that a Zebralight AA model could easily get 15 hours of 10 lumen light followed by another 30 hours of 0.5 lumen light out of a single AAA alkaline cell. And it could also do that in the reverse order, or alternating one hour bright and one hour dim, which the Gransee circuit could not do.
 
I had a steel Peak Eiger 10180 for quite a few years as my main keyring light, until replacing it with a modded Jetusolis.

That optisolis emitter had absolutely gorgeous tint and color rendition but sadly the JETBeam "shell" was not really up to the heavy duty EDC wear involved with this task.

Maybe a year or two ago, I switched back to a titanium UniVex AAA for daily keyring use instead. My only significant issue with this UniVex is that the switch is too temperamental.
 
I had two lights get funky/ totally die on me recently and it’s pushing me back to the less is more, the simpler the better, durable over fancy realm. Proven AAA twisties, AA MDCs, Microstreams and the like are getting and keeping my attention. Love to see that Univex @archimedes ! And maybe it’s time to slap that Peak back on your keyring!
 
The little Fenix getting a second chance to audition for keychain duty. So far, so good. Not as green as I remember the last one being and one handed operation is about perfect. Solid build like all Fenix lights I’ve had, and while low of 5 could arguably be lower, it’s fine for the keychain I think. I like the lower outputs on lights that are mainly used in the house especially late night.
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gurdygurds said:
The little Fenix getting a second chance to audition for keychain duty. So far, so good. Not as green as I remember the last one being and one handed operation is about perfect. Solid build like all Fenix lights I’ve had, and while low of 5 could arguably be lower, it’s fine for the keychain I think. I like the lower outputs on lights that are mainly used in the house especially late night.
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Any interest in Peak Eigers?
 
gurdygurds said:
Been planning on trying another. Been texting Robyn back and forth but then she went radio silent for a week so I’m getting over it. 😜
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I'm fighting the urge just to place an order and see what happens lol. I want to send them a dedomed Nichia 519A 5000k or 5700k to put into an El Capitan...but with optics involved, that could go sideways pretty quickly
 
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