this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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By 46100 do you mean 4680, the new Tesla format?
32650 is pretty close to a D cell. I wonder what they were thinking.
Lumintop AD01 came out this year, no idea why but they support 1 D cell.
Given how many folks refuse to buy any 14500 light that can't take AA's, as well as how many simply don't believe that there is any way a battery smaller than a D cell can hold enough power to do anything because that was true 30+ years ago, I can see why.
Long runtime, I guess. Maybe the circuit is recycled from a dual fuel 1AA/14500 light. Since they made the housing large enough to hold three AA's, having it accept a D as an alternative is a nice touch. Countycomm has a 1D light that looks kind of nice but costs $65 so I haven't been too interested. For non geeks though, D cells are a simple way to have quite a lot of energy on hand. It unfortunately looks like the AD01 is $70+, oh well. Wake me up if you see a light in this format at $20 or less, heh.
Countycomm version: https://countycomm.com/products/1d-flashlight-by-maratac
Added: oops this post is misplaced. It was supposed to reply to Reader9's post about the Lumintop LD01. Anyway I do like the 3AA/1D format in principle. It just misses its best audience if the light is expensive.
And just like that, Countycomm has lowered the prices of its C and D lights, to $35 and $45 respectively:
They are still pretty heavy, will end up getting powered by alkaleaks, and tbh for a light of this style I'd prefer 1 level to 2 levels, for less confusing operation.
I did make up 461000 but there are a few variations coming out with 46mm diameter, based on the popular format you mentioned but different lengths. And the poster of this BLF thread mentioned Lumintop GT110 which uses a 46110! (110mm not 11mm).
Interesting about these large single cells displacing multi cell lights. I guess the vendors don't trust the cell quality and/or BMS. This is all lumenitis anyway imho. By the time a light gets this large, maybe you want a night vision scope instead.
It kind of makes sense if you look at the geometry though. Look at the wasted space in the 3*AA holder and think how many more Wh you could get if that space were filled with more anode/cathode/electrolyte.
There are some adapters that squeeze four AA's into the D cell format. This is theoretically a little too thick, but it will fit in many devices where the battery tube is not too snug.
By pure volume a D cell is around 7x an AA.
As someone who started after 21700 became popular, I’ve never felt the need to buy a multi-cell flashlight thanks to single-cell existing for most use-cases and not wanting to have to think about ensuring all cells have the same charge or keeping them paired together. So I like this development since it means there can be more simple 1-cell lights.
But realistically I won’t be carrying a 4680 light around regularly (even Convoy m21b is a bit too large).