The Battery Thread.

[PegLeg45]

Yep that's a great feature as to the CR123 or AA in the 1L-1AA.

I also like the ProTac because you can use two CR123s or one 18650. I have the two rechargeable 18650s and a stock of CR123s.
It's a battery miser as well. It's been my EDC light since Christmas and it's still on the two original CR123As that came with it.

[Big Frank]

I'm not familiar with the Streamlight Protac 1L-1AA, but will look into it if my EDC AA light craps out on me.

The battery charger I have that likes to eject the battery at random is a YIQUAN brand, identical to the E-outstanding Wall Charger Black 3.7V Single Slot Rechargeable Battery Charger for 18650 18350 16340 14500 14000 Li-ion Battery on Amazon, except it has no stickers on it. The information on the back is molded in, and there's nothing on the front other than a + and - in the bottom of the groove. You're supposed to put the batteries in + end down. I think I've been putting them in upside down most of the time, but they charged, so I don't know. Maybe that's why they kept popping out. The tab on the - end is short. It goes out to the middle of the battery but the contact is a little bit shy of that. The + contact is a lot bigger and extends farther out. I just stuck a battery in both ways and the LED at the bottom was green for fully charged. My 26500 batteries fit in it too, but aren't rechargeable. If they were, I'd have to wrap the battery and charger with a rubber band, zip tie, or tape, because it's barely in there.

My other battery charger is a Heseny Single Bay 18650 Charger. It only charges 18650 batteries and they snap in securely. There are a lot of double bay and larger sizes online, but I had a hard time finding pics of a single like mine. I swapped batteries in one of my cheap "tactical torches" yesterday and charged the battery with this charger. It topped off the 3.7 volt battery at 4.2 volts. That ought to last awhile with an extra 1/2 volt in it. Or burn out sooner. I was looking at a 4 bay OrcaTiorch charger before I bought this, and think it was when I bought my 4th battery. I knew they wouldn't all be dead at the same time, and now I have 2 chargers to charge 2 batteries. The plug on the other one folds flat for storage, but this one has a cord as shown. I like this one way better.

[PegLeg45]

The 1l-1AA was my EDC for a while. It's the perfect pocket size and has a very concentrated beam so it shines far but still has good side spill. It shines almost as far as the ProTac that has 500 lumens due to the fact that the bigger light has more spill and less focus. We have a deer cleaning shed on the back side of the property and it's about 175 yards from the house and I can light it up enough to see if someone is down there at night from our back deck.

Like Alf said it is very versatile as to batteries. It'll work with one AA alkaline (some newer lights specify lithium only, I think) or lithium or CR123A lithium.
350 lumens with the CR123 but around 150 with the AA battery....but the fact that you can use the AA in a pinch in order to have good lighting is a plus.



High Lumens 350
Run Time on High 1.30 hours
Run Time on Low 14.00 hours
Beam Distance 160 meters
Max Candela 6,400
Battery Type AA Alkaline, CR123A Lithium, AA Lithium
Battery Quantity 1
Length 4.25 inches
Weigh t2.80 ounces


https://www.streamlight.com/products/detail/protac-1l-1aa

[Rastus]

I picked up one of the Nitecore Intelligent chargers.  They are ~$40 but you can mix and match Li-ion / IMR / Ni-MH/ Ni-Cd chemistries and it sorts them out for you.  Also your battery voltage needs...automatically. 

Also if you have some lithium ion non-rechargeable batteries it will recognize them as non rechargeable .


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GODG3X0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

The only thing I would like to add to the info here is to consider a charger that is USB-compatible. That makes it very convenient to charge in a car, off of your laptop, at home using one of the "wall wart" type chargers, or even with one of the solar chargers out there.

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

My 30 year old Maglight didn’t improve much with 55 bulb.

It’s always been an excellent club!  😆

I carry Streamlight Protac 1L-1AA…about ten years now!  They also make an excellent gift!

If it's a C cell flashlight, you may see an improvement doubling the voltage by using 26500 batteries. If it's a D cell flashlight, you could do the same thing with 34615 batteries. You can buy 1,500 cheap ones on Amazon for $11,399.99. That was the first link I clicked on when I searched for "34615 battery".


https://www.amazon.com/Lithium-Battery-19000mAh-ER34615-1500pcs/dp/B085HQTYDX

Another brand says, Lithium-Thionyl Chloride (Li-SOCl2), Operating Temperature Range: -55 ~ 85°C (-67 - 185 degrees F), non-rechargeable lithium battery used in many applications such as Alarm Systems, Memory Backup, Flashlights, Radios,  RFID, Medical Devices, Buoys/ Emergency Location Equipment, Water Meters, Gas Meters, and many types of electronics.  These batteries are designed for long term use (3-20 years) and have a long term shelf life if stored at room temperature of 10 years.  The ****** battery has an extremely low self-discharge rate, making the batteries an excellent back up power source.

[PegLeg45]

The only thing I would like to add to the info here is to consider a charger that is USB-compatible. That makes it very convenient to charge in a car, off of your laptop, at home using one of the "wall wart" type chargers, or even with one of the solar chargers out there.

That is one of the things I like about the Streamlight batteries I mentioned earlier. All you need is a phone charger....even one of those $1.25 warts and a matching cable from The Dollar Twenty-Five Tree will work.

My Streamlight Stinger charging base works off a USB cable as well.

A lot of light makers are coming around to this.
I have a rechargeable spotlight that charges via the same USB type cable as the Streamlight. It came with the cord and it stores in the tail cap of the light. All you need is a USB port.

[Big Frank]

The 1l-1AA was my EDC for a while. It's the perfect pocket size and has a very concentrated beam so it shines far but still has good side spill. It shines almost as far as the ProTac that has 500 lumens due to the fact that the bigger light has more spill and less focus. We have a deer cleaning shed on the back side of the property and it's about 175 yards from the house and I can light it up enough to see if someone is down there at night from our back deck.

Like Alf said it is very versatile as to batteries. It'll work with one AA alkaline (some newer lights specify lithium only, I think) or lithium or CR123A lithium.
350 lumens with the CR123 but around 150 with the AA battery....but the fact that you can use the AA in a pinch in order to have good lighting is a plus.



High Lumens 350
Run Time on High 1.30 hours
Run Time on Low 14.00 hours
Beam Distance 160 meters
Max Candela 6,400
Battery Type AA Alkaline, CR123A Lithium, AA Lithium
Battery Quantity 1
Length 4.25 inches
Weigh t2.80 ounces


https://www.streamlight.com/products/detail/protac-1l-1aa

And if you don't like Tacticool Black, it comes in Coyote Ugly. I mean Coyote.

[Big Frank]

I picked up one of the Nitecore Intelligent chargers.  There ~$40 but you can mix and match Li-ion / IMR / Ni-MH/ Ni-Cd chemistries and it sorts them out for you.  Also your battery voltage needs...automatically. 

Also if you have some lithium ion non-rechargeable batteries it will recognize them as non rechargeable .


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GODG3X0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The automatic current selection, and automatically detecting non-rechargeable batteries and notifying you about it are features I never heard of in a battery charger before. That thing is really smart.

[Big Frank]

That is one of the things I like about the Streamlight batteries I mentioned earlier. All you need is a phone charger....even one of those $1.25 warts and a matching cable from The Dollar Twenty-Five Tree will work.

My Streamlight Stinger charging base works off a USB cable as well.

A lot of light makers are coming around to this.
I have a rechargeable spotlight that charges via the same USB type cable as the Streamlight. It came with the cord and it stores in the tail cap of the light. All you need is a USB port.

And if your phone has a 5x speed fast charger that you plug the USB cable into that plugs into the wall or cigarette lighter, you can charge your USB-chargeable batteries with it a lot faster than plugging into a USB port on your computer. Mine looks like this and it's just a standard old-fashioned USB A socket. You plug in whatever adapter cord you need, in my case a USB C for my phone, but a Micro USB for rechargeable batteries. All you need is the phone charger and the battery cable - it's "plug and play". I don't have a fast charger for the car and would have to use the slow (I'm assuming) built-in USB charger.