Challenge Week #3: Throwers Only! Got Throw??

[novice]

I could just continue using the same light I used all this week, the SF E1L, but I'm wanting to not only work my Jetbeam and Ra Clicky back into my rotation, but I've got some new-to-me lights I want to play with, so I'm out.

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

This is going to be fun and challenging! Back to the old standby of the cupped hand over the bezel as an improvised diffuser. Safe to assume that's acceptable?

I personally think that goes

 

[jabe1]

I have to sit this one out. There are too many times throughout the week that I need a very physically small light, can't get a maglite or a DBS to work at all.

 

[bigburly912]

Impossible for me. Good luck to everyone!

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

I have to sit this one out. There are too many times throughout the week that I need a very physically small light, can't get a maglite or a DBS to work at all.

As it says in the challenge rules thread:

2. You can carry additional lights etc for emergency needs in support of rule #1.

a. For example, if your job requires some particular light use outside of what the "challenge light" can do, that's okay. However! Report any such usage by posting in the challenge thread, so your fellow flashaholics can judge you innocent or guilty

But in the end, it's your choice

 

[bykfixer]

One of the things I enjoy about these challenges is the chance to use lights I don't really think about that much. Shelf queens and blast from the past numbers. In this one my brain has been contemplating which lights I own with the most throw versus lumens. And the two I really like for this one but tend to forget are from around 2015.

The Streamlight and Menards
The Streamlight Multi-Ops was an a/c repairmans light with a 40 lumen LED with 2000+ candella, a red pointer and a 390nm UV for finding refrigerant leaks. It easily lights objects well at 50-100 feet. The Menards is a wooden 1 watt 2aa number that easily throws a beam 100 feet.

The idea was to have the roster by sundown today (6pm) so those two, the Manker from an earlier post for regular use, a Pelican 2390 for backup and the Elzetta aa I use for a night light for it's ability to reach the opposite end of my house with 1.5 lumens.

And so it begins.

As a side, when Mrs Fixer and I take our evening strolls this week I'll carry a Maglite ML100 for it's 23,000+ cd at 137 lumens.

Edit: if anybody reading this participated in the M61N 4L group buy and are having trouble finding a thrower the SST20 is pretty throwey.

Brinkmann MaxFire with patriotic "glove" by Mrs. Fixer.
End edit

 

[Dark Attic Works]

bykfixer, can you share more about this Elzetta aa?

 

[bykfixer]

Sure. On high it has a pretty broad, conical shaped beam where the medium has a good throw without all of the spill. On low it tosses a beam forward with enough spill that keeps me from goose stepping into furniture.

The specs.

What the burglar sees on low.

Up close spot vs spill on low at 1 foot.

 

[Katherine Alicia]

Once again, I`m in.
I`v decided to go with the surefire P60 dropin and the Sofirn SF11, the p60 is just on the edge of being a good edc size for me and the SF11 is just a rotund chonk of metal that`s not EDC size at all (for me anyway), but they`re the smallest throwers I have with a decent tint.

 

[Olumin]

So what do you guys say to using the Fury for this Challenge. Thrower or not?

 

[Dark Attic Works]

Sure. On high it has a pretty broad, conical shaped beam where the medium has a good throw without all of the spill. On low it tosses a beam forward with enough spill that keeps me from goose stepping into furniture.

The specs.

What the burglar sees on low.

Up close spot vs spill on low at 1 foot.

Thanks! That looks great. A worthy companion.

 

[bykfixer]

Woke up at 4:30 and began to groggily feel around for a night stand flashlight. Then next thought was "flashlight challenge week, oh crap which one?" "incan? No, um E? Nope, tosser week".
Then I discovered I had left the Manker T01 next to the Elzetta AA so I went for the Manker.

 

[theinvisibleman]

How about a torch that can throw at HOT spot 75-100 yards away?

 

[Stress_Test]

Heh heh. My new drop-in for the Maglite arrived just in time for this challenge

It is the "LiteXpress LXB430 2Mode LED" for 2-cell Mags, C and D models. Rated at 430 / 40 lumens. 18 bucks, made in Germany.

These PR replacements pretty much look the same, but the hold-down ring on this thing is aluminum (for better heat-sinking maybe?)

I have no idea what LED this might be. The dome is actually clear, but it reflects the die surface all through it. No visible bond wires in the LED die itself, like you see on an XM-L, for example.

Sooo, this is thrower week, but a Mag can be flood and throw both... hmmm. Also, the beam tends to be ugly when in full throw mode.... hmm, what to do?? If only there was an easy way to change the beam profile...

Oh look, here's the old Task Force 2C light that came with a TIR lens!

The lens is screwed into the aluminum bezel; maybe it could be removed with the right tool? Doesn't matter though for what I've got in mind. (wish I had gotten a better photo; it's tough photographing a clear piece of plastic surrounded by shiny aluminum!)

So, let's just take the reflector out of the 2C Mag, install the new drop-in, balance the TIR lens on top if it, then screw the head assembly back in place! The head can screw all the way down, and the spring-loaded action of the bulb tower holds the TIR optic in place against the Mag lens. It's a bit loose; it can be knocked off center a bit, but a whack or two against the palm will re-center it.

Shown next to my Quark Turbo-X Neutral (XM-L running a 16650 Li-ion)

From the outside you don't notice anything different unless you look in the lens.

And now, beamshot comparison! The Turbo-X is rated something like 400 lumens I think?? (left side) I don't know if anyone measured one of these for sure. The right side is the Mag, on two white-wrap Eneloops, that were about 1.35v each. Current draw started at 1.6 amps, then decreased slowly to about 1.4A and staying mostly steady. Hard to say if that was battery sag, or if the module was heating. The package states "temperature controlled" so presumably there's some protection there.

I know it's hard to tell from the photo, but the Mag hotspot was just a little less bright (verified with the pixel brightness values in a photo editor). The Mag's hotspot is bigger though. However, the Turbo-X has brighter spill. That TIR optic seems very efficient at sending most of the output into a center beam and not losing much to side spill. The Turbo-X is brighter overall but I could still believe that the LiteXpress drop-in is still putting out 300+ lumens.

Not bad!!

 

[bykfixer]

The worlds premier of a whak-a-palm Maglite.
Another first, only here at CPF.

Got out the Pelican 2390 and my gosh……Raining cats and dogs but it was never this fun getting soaked by 45 degree rain.

Before
Plenty of free lumens in my area.

The neighbors shed

The Manker T01 on high using a Rayovac.
Hard to imagine a 1aa light tossing a beam like that using a plain vanilla battery but there it was.

I remembered why I put the T01 on a shelf. It loses low mode at times or gets stuck in some kind of rescue mode where it flashes in strobe, sos and and beacon mode. This evening it was stuck in rescue mode for a while and following instructions I was able to get it into some kind of hidden modes. After a while I changed batteries and it operated normal. Put back battery I was using and again acting normal.
Weird.

 

[CanAm]

I'm joining the mag club for this one with a 2d Ml300. So far so good...

 

[Stress_Test]

The worlds premier of a whak-a-palm Maglite.
Another first, only here at CPF.

............

Well sort of... the whack-a-palm description normally means you have to do that to make the light work again. The TIR/Mag combo doesn't quit working or anything if the lens slides out of place a bit. It can only go so far before it bumps the LED dome and stops. It turns out the alignment of lens to LED isn't as critical as I thought.

If I wanted a more robust install, I'd try some kind of low-strength, soft adhesive like caulk, or maybe RTV, to hold the TIR lens.

It does have the disadvantage of still having to shoot through the stock Mag plastic lens, so that's causing some lumen loss. And by the way, the 40 lumen low mode has bad (slow) pulse-width-modulation; ugh. I'd only be using that in a pinch, I think.

By the way, you must have very understanding neighbors to be able to shine your lights around like that without causing trouble!

 

[bykfixer]

That neighbor is a flashaholic too. Well so long as the flashlight is $35 or less. He has dozens of $15-25 lights.

If you decide to go permanent with your Mag-mod flashlight lens dot com has some ultraclear acrylic numbers already cut for Maglites.

 

[Stress_Test]

Is anyone seeing messed up font sizes in the text of my last post with the photos?? It looks okay when I'm logged in, but when I'm not signed in, there are several lines that are different sized text... not sure what is going on there!

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

Is anyone seeing messed up font sizes in the text of my last post with the photos?? It looks okay when I'm logged in, but when I'm not signed in, there are several lines that are different sized text... not sure what is going on there!

Try editing those comments, selecting the wonky text and selecting 3 in the "size" hotbar above.

I noticed but thought it was intended, so I said nothing about it.