Battery life -what should I expect?

[Bouchbri25]

I trooped for the first time with my new Emerald Manticore CE with Obsidian sound today and I love the saber.  But I only got 40 minutes out of the batteries... is this normal? The hilt got quite hot compared to my wife and kids sabers -no sound regular batteries, tri-cree -and theirs lasted over 2hrs without a hint of effect.  I get that the sound is going to draw a lot more but is that typical? Is it the sound or just emerald driver that draws that much more juice?


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[Lord Bladewraith]

I trooped for the first time with my new Emerald Manticore CE with Obsidian sound today and I love the saber.  But I only got 40 minutes out of the batteries... is this normal? The hilt got quite hot compared to my wife and kids sabers -no sound regular batteries, tri-cree -and theirs lasted over 2hrs without a hint of effect.  I get that the sound is going to draw a lot more but is that typical? Is it the sound or just emerald driver that draws that much more juice?


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Seems a little short for fully charged batteries. Before trooping when did you last charge the batteries? Some factors that affect battery life is 1) how many LEDs are being using for the color you set your blade color to through the Emerald Driver, because using only red, for example, will draw less power than violet amethyst, arctic blue or sunrider's destiny, which use multiple LEDs, 2) adding sound does draw quite a bit of power, so you could change to the silent sound font, #7, and that should help quite a bit.

[Racona Nova]

Seems quite short, although Emerald + sound can drain your batteries fairly quickly. When constantly running (idle), an Emerald sound saber should last more than an hour at least. Depending on the Emerald settings, of course - as Lord B already said.

[Teagan Rea]

My cousin has the Manticore Emerald with V4 Obsidian Sound, yes the batteries do drain very fast. This is why he brought a extra rechargeable batteries from US and a charger to always have a set of batteries on ready.

[Jediseth]

LB pretty much said it all. I have the Emerald RGBW and I don't really use the white led much I just turn it all the way down when changing colors on the program. I'm guessing that may help a little. I think having an extra set of batteries is a great idea. That's what I do.

[lovetadraw]

One thing I do for battery life is that if a color is a 50/50 blend or 33/33/33 etc, I don't just max out those values. My Gold yellow is RGandA at about 33% each as opposed to 100% each. It's still bright but doesn't die as fast. I imagine AB SRD VA and all could be done the same way, if absolute brightness isn't a must for you.

[B1ondeange1]

I costume a lot and fairly accurately know the battery lives so I know how many I need to take my sabers with sound I budget for 40mins total- I can get more, but that's not usual. Sabers without sound but with lithium set up, anywhere from hr 20mins to 2hrs depending on the age and condition of the battery. I budget for 1.5 hours as an average.

Standard set up (regular batteries) last for hours. I haven't yet figured out the exact time coz those sabers don't get used as much, but I'm yet to change the batteries on my RGB grab bag, and my sisters twin initiate v3s have only had their batteries changed once

As a side note, I am often costuming when it's quite warm, even in winter inside in cons it is far from cold. I have has the heat shorten the expected battery time. And I am also running my sabers without sound solid in that time unless it is very hot coz then they heat up extremely quickly.

[Bouchbri25]

Thanks for all the great response! I did a little research and it makes sense if the saber draws 1000mah (seems common from other posts) an 800mah battery would last about 40min. Gonna just get 2000mah batteries and keep some spares charged up. Thanks again!


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[B1ondeange1]

Thanks for all the great response! I did a little research and it makes sense if the saber draws 1000mah (seems common from other posts) an 800mah battery would last about 40min. Gonna just get 2000mah batteries and keep some spares charged up. Thanks again!


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Make sure if you have Lithiums that you get regulated protected batteries that are a decent brand. We got some cheap batteries that stated a much higher mah rating and were supposedly protected, because someone locally said they had them with no problems (for different purpose). They died very quick in my sabers at which point I stopped using them immediately. Used them in an electronics project and it caused the Arduino and motor controller to blow up. They are fine for something that doesn't require a specific voltage to run, but is something is voltage regulated, no good.

[Bouchbri25]

Make sure if you have Lithiums that you get regulated protected batteries that are a decent brand. We got some cheap batteries that stated a much higher mah rating and were supposedly protected, because someone locally said they had them with no problems (for different purpose). They died very quick in my sabers at which point I stopped using them immediately. Used them in an electronics project and it caused the Arduino and motor controller to blow up. They are fine for something that doesn't require a specific voltage to run, but is something is voltage regulated, no good.

It says "protected",3.7v, and the correct size, and I was buying them through Amazon prime-how do I know if it's "good"? I certainly don't want my saber to blow up in my hand.


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