benefits of a buck puck?

[Strydur]

Look at the LED resistor chart where it says target mA. If it says 700 then use the 700. If it says 1000 or greater then you can use the 1000 but the ones listed as greater than 1000 will be slightly underdriven.

[Eandori]

To answer the question, a milliamp (mA) is 1/1000 of an amp (A). So...

1 amp = 1000 milliamps

[Novastar]

To chime in with what Eandori is saying, Dacota... then you have batteries... "mah", right?

What the heck is a "milli-ampere hour"?? It's nothing more than a general idea of how long the batteries will last given a current draw.

Based on Eandori's 1000ma (1A) example, the math is quite easy. If the LED is drawing 1A, and you have a 2400mah battery setup... you simply divide. Meaning you should get approximately 2.4 hours of usage before the battery is pretty much depleted of that charge.

Granted... this is for approximation only, and tons of other factors play in, including load, resistance, battery type, LED, blah blah.

If you have a board running an LED... your draw will generally be more than the 1A example. But I don't know... it depends on how things work... for example, Erv's board regulates the current to the LED... AND you might recall that it has "flicker" options, which effectively turns the LED on and off and/or varies the brightness by messing with the current draw all over the map.

Naturally, this should EXTEND battery life, as the LED is "off" sometimes, and also drawing less than the optimal current as well during flickers.

Corbin's board does this also--but it does this so fast, the human eye cannot see it. His board is something like: on 85% of the time, off 15% of the time.

Sorry for all the info, but... just trying to help someone learn. Heaven knows... I had to do so back in late 2005 / early 2006!

[DACOTA]

Thanks guys that helps alot.I remember on mythbusters alot of times Adam Savage would say milliamps but I wasnt sure what that was exactly and if ma was the abrev. for it.Thank you.

[GFORCE13]

Ok let me first of all say I have never used a buck puck and only either resistors or Corbins board but seeing all the advantages I am thinking of installing one on my matched set of training sabers. My Current Setup is a White Cree which I am resistoring linke a Lux 3 and using a 4AA Battery holder with 4NiMH batteries, I did notice that in the description it mentions a 5VMin. but my set up freshly charged is only at 4.8V's, will a buck puck work for my setup???? Thx

[Jak'Kan-Ur]

So I wouldn't be able to use them on a K2 correct? Since the mA is 1500.
[?]
Thanks

[DarthFender]

So I wouldn't be able to use them on a K2 correct? Since the mA is 1500.
[?]
Thanks

If you wire 2 of the 700mA puckd together in series you should get 1400 from the outputs. You probably wouldn't be able to detect the diffrernce between 1400 and 1500.

One 1000mA puck will drive a k2, just a little dimmer than optimal. But at 1000mA a LuxIII will actually be brighter in most cases.

[Mad Hatter]

If you wire 2 of the 700mA puckd together in series you should get 1400 from the outputs.

Wire in parallel for extra current.

Series adds voltage (like making a 7.2v battery pack out of 6 1.2v cells).
Parallel adds current (and increases max current draw capacity, since the cells "share the load").

[Jak'Kan-Ur]

If you wire 2 of the 700mA puckd together in series you should get 1400 from the outputs. You probably wouldn't be able to detect the diffrernce between 1400 and 1500.

One 1000mA puck will drive a k2, just a little dimmer than optimal. But at 1000mA a LuxIII will actually be brighter in most cases.

Ok, I see, so you think i should in time go with two 700mA?
Or stick with resistor and call it a day?

[Hasid Lafre]

2 pucks are imo the best way to go.