As per the title, does such a beast exist and if not why not?
I have a lot of the Q5 cree on our boat and they are great for the $ but a 9v with double the light and hours would be magnificent.
All I have found seem to be lame looking block lights which while handy, does not put out the blinding far reaching hand held light saber like beam of the cree.
https://www.jaycar.com.au/blocklite-led-9v-battery-light/p/S…
9v batteries suck, capacity-wise they're not much better than a single AA battery.
Yes, rechargeable 9V batteries in the same form factor as the disposable ones do exist but as they are made by putting 7 cells in series they are not intended for high current draw applications as you can see from the current rating. Here's an example:
https://www.jaycar.com.au/9-volt-8-4v-200mah-ni-mh-rechargea…
You could have guessed that from the physical size.
Yeah they're pretty crap. My work has some older equipment that needs 9v batteries. The rechargable ones don't last long at all before the voltage drops too low.
White LEDs run on ~3 volts and can draw pretty high current at full brightness (2-3A easily). A 9V battery has no benefit - the high voltage will have to be stepped down, the cost is higher, current output is far lower, and the low capacity will not provide long runtimes.
Thanks for the replies.
So to get a bigger beamed/longer life cree type torch I need to go for one with more AA batteries.
Check out Candle Power Forums for more on this than you might consider possible:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/content.php
Or, more our style:
budgetlightforum.com
I gather the hotness in high power rechargeables is using 18650 cells, which are like AA on steroids. I got some with a flashlight from a deal on here, and they do work well, but whether you want to add another battery type is up to you.
My needs are cheap and bright, as the kids lose them camping, so I haven't really pushed the boat out in terms of brightness, but for under $5 and running on AA, this torch was surprisingly bright:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3W-Diving-Flashlight-2000LM-New-…
Sadly, a kid managed to break the switch off, but if you are more careful I recommend it for bang for buck.
Thanks for that mskeggs.
Do you think that puts out more than the cheap q5s often sold on here?
The ability to get it wet is very attractive to us.
It is pretty bright.
Under $5, take a chance!
Done
Thanks
I remember when those clip-on LED torches first came out, they were aimed at the entertainment industry who use 9v batteries a lot, like in guitar pedals, wireless mikes etc. They'd replace them at the start of performances so there would be piles of half-flat 9v batteries laying about, good enough for a simple torch but not trusted for anything else.
I don't know if they had any smarts (eg joule thief style) to suck out as much power as possible, or just slapped a resistor in and called it a day (which I suspect the Jaycar ones do).
I made one a while back for no real reason, I used a cheap constant voltage board that I think worked down to about 3.5v, so the 9v was well & truly dead at that point.
My guess is that the 9v battery is a bad compromise between cost and performance, so flashlight makers tend to design with AA and AAA in mind.