Milky Custom Aleph III Review, Pics, Beamshots, and more

[csshih]

Hi Everyone,

Up for review is a custom built light Gary123 sent to me to take a look at. I have not had the pleasure of handling too many custom lights, and I thank him for allowing me the pleasure of checking one out first-hand.
the light consists of a Aleph 3 head and Leef e-series 2x123 body, combined with a RPM tailcap with a McClicky (from what I can tell). the head has been modded by milkyspit and it is labeled as follows:
"Shifter" X727.4-A3 CreeMCE-MWG Ledil-Iris 5.5Deg
Acon NR ('C-Valet2' Firmware) BrassUniSink FauxCan
Use with 2xRechargeable Only

the light is bare uncoated polished aluminum, which makes it much more suspectible to scratching, but it is still a very good looking light.

optics are rarer in the world of flashlights because I believe they are harder to design and more expensive. Optics can achieve more efficient light transmission due to their application of the total internal reflection (TIR) phenomenon.

you can spot the quad-die LED through the optic.

A bit of background:
according to Gary, this light is a direct drive 4 mode lights. On fresh batteries, the light runs the MC-E @ ~3.3A, then settles down quick as the battery voltage drops.
There are 4 modes with the acorn driver, and 10 flashes swaps modes, instead of 20. Mode 1 is 4 output levels (4 is brightest), Mode 2 is only level 2 and 3, Mode 3 is only level 3, and Mode 4 drastically reduces power to all levels in mode 1 to maximize battery life

Comparisons:

the lights sat for roughly 20 seconds while I set up the camera.

ouptut and throw is very high for a light of this size.

White Wall Shots:

I didn't capture the donut hole on camera... the light was too close to the wall for it to show up.

Impressions:
I have never used a optics-based multi-die light before. This light has a completely different beam profile than a traditional reflector'd one.
One of the first things I noticed was the squareish beam and donut hole in the center. Being an avid white wall hunter and spoiled by the beams of larger lights and the new cree XP-G LEDs, first impressions were not as high as they should have been. A trip outside changed things. this light has a large amount of flood, yet quite a bit of throw, too. the 5.5 degree optic gives a very tight beam, and this light excels outdoors.
This type of beam profile is impossible to achieve with a standard reflector, and I can see why milkyspit decided to use an optic in this case. various body tubes are purchasable and swappable to accommodate many different types of batteries(using e-series threading), but the driver will only accept 2 rechargeable lithium ion batteries. I have a runtime for 2xIMR16340s, but constant runtime on this light is not something you should do often, as the high heat generated in this smaller light is not always good for the LED. IMR cells also have a rather low capacity, and the light does not run a very long time on max.

Fit and finish on the body is excellent, and the leef body tube is very well knurled. the design of the tailcap allows for even greater protection against slips and drops.. I believe the leef tube may have been a bit too long for this light, as a spacer was needed for the batteries to achieve contact. The switch feels very solid, but is a bit hard to operate.

This kind of modded light has very good performance outdoors and I hope to see optics used with the new SST leds for a floody, yet throwy high output light.

 

[Dioni]

Re: Milky Custom Aleph II Review, Pics, Beamshots, and more

Excelent review Craig as usual!


Cheers
Dioni

 

[csshih]

Re: Milky Custom Aleph II Review, Pics, Beamshots, and more

thanks!

outdoor beamshots:

Milky-Modded Aleph II 2xRCR123A

 

[Gary123]

Re: Milky Custom Aleph II Review, Pics, Beamshots, and more

I offered this light to Craig to review because it is an impressive performer. It is also a build Milky can do for any Aleph 3 head. For longer runtimes, I run a Fivemega 2 x 18500 body. The four output levels of the Milky driver is well suited to higher output lights where you can get 4 useable, well spaced brightness levels.

My concept for this light was to push the limits of technology. I wanted to drive an MC-E pretty hard, but still have a light that could be used on max for longer than a burst mode. This required substantial heatsinking. I also wanted a relatively compact light and something with serious throw, as this has been a challenge for the new larger quad die emitters along multiple output levels. And of course, I wanted it to look nice.

After talking to several modders I decided on Milky because his driver offered the most output levels (4) and as well as some ability to custom program the LE to my preferences. (These preferences were: always start on low, mode one is all four outputs, mode two is outputs 2 and 3 (med-low and med-high) and mode three is single output level 3. Modes two and three are somewhat designed for others in that both eliminate the extreme high so I can lend the light and not worry about overheating, and mode two is real simple on/off).

In assembling the body parts, the only part I knew I would use was an Aleph 3 head because it takes a large heat sink, numerous bodies will fit, and lots of custom parts are available for it. I took me about 8 months to find the parts I liked. The throw is impressive because most of the light is focused into a rather large spot, and you basically use the spot when moving the light around. The spill is adequate to see where you are walking.

The spacer problem for this light is because this is the first light of its type. I believe that on successive builds Milkey can bring the contact from the head down further and eliminate the need for a spacer. Also, Milky configured the light for two batteries. He could have configured it for how ever many batteries and volts that the owner would want.

 

[toby_pra]

WOW that Milky is amazing! :twothumbs

I like those TIR-optics very much. Does it still have a UCL lens for protection?

 

[csshih]

Hi Toby! :wave:

yes, a glass lens (unsure of type) would be mandatory for protecting the optics because of the design. If it weren't there, rubbish would get stuck in it! (what appears to be a hole in the center of the optic indeed actually is one!)

 

[toby_pra]

Although i dont like that bare finisch, taht light rocks! :twothumbs

Thanks for the quick reply...

 

[milkyspit]

Wow, not often I get to see a writeup on a build of mine by csshih! It was a neat little surprise when Gary123 sent me a link. Thank you, Craig, for taking the time to put this together, and for sharing some very nice beamshot photos.

:bow:

Regarding the spacer issue, Gary is right, this was the first build of its kind. It's a challenge (to say the least!) to fit that deep an optic in an A3 head along with a meaningful amount of heatsinking and an Acorn driver. I'd rather have incorporated more heatsinking into the head, but given space constraints that wasn't to be. As for the spacer issue, the A3 head is modular. That presented a dilemma in that it needs to play nice with a number of different potential bodies... if I had extended the contact farther into the tube to resolve the fit issue in the body used for this review, then some other bodies would no longer work at all as the head would not even screw down on such tubes! It's a known issue with some of the Leef Bodies (as shown) that their overall length is a little excessive. Use of a spacer is an easy way to work around that matter while not breaking compatibility for other bodies. That said, if the customer had wanted the head designed specifically for THAT body, it's not a big deal to do so.

The bare aluminum is not my call. Gary supplied the parts and liked the overall look, so my job became building the best light possible within those constraints. Personally, I prefer some sort of plating for improved wear resistance, though I do like the look of that combination very much. Tough call! :thinking:

Regarding the lens, yes, there is one! And yes, it's a UCL... it's a very clear float glass lens (probably Pyrex or borofloat) with AR coating on both sides.

Regarding the optic, I've grown fond of that one in it's ability to throw the beam from an MC-E to a respectable distance while also maintaining very good beam quality, delivering enough sidespill for useful context, and keeping things within a surprisingly compact size relative to the focusing power. It's all a compromise optically, as better throw would come at the cost of larger size and/or a more pronounced donut hole, and conversely additional smoothness would hurt the throw badly. (A well focused [=long throwing] MC-E will show a donut hole.) As Craig noted, there is a donut hole that's visible on a plain white wall, but in real world use, particularly outdoors or at more than 10 feet or so distance, it becomes a non-issue.

Regarding runtime, the lower levels make a big difference. The available levels are high, medium, low, and ultralow. Medium would give 3-4 times the runtime of high beam... low would give roughly 12 times the runtime of high beam... and ultralow would run for nearly 2 weeks continuous. Heat would be a non-issue in all but high beam... and the design philosophy here was to build a light intended for most use at the lower levels, yet still providing much brighter output for intermittent use as needed. The "ValetUI" dumbs down the light to dual brightness plus disables the high beam so Gary can loan the light to a non-flashaholic without worrying about the user inadvertently leaving it on high beam forever! oo:

 

[LED_Thrift]

Beautiful work Milky, as always. Small P7/MCE lights are the best. Lights like this were just pipe dreams just a few years ago. The Valet UI is well named and a great idea.

Gary123: that light is makin' me jealous. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the review Craig.

 

[bigchelis]

Craig you did an awesome and fair review of this Milky build. Good to see you are doing some custom lite reviews too.


That optic and MC-E is awesome because it is different...,but the fact that it works is even more awesome.

I wonder how it would look with an SST-50 at 2.5A I bet it would please the indoor wall hunters and perhaps even offer more throw, which is what I would want.


Great job Milky and Craig.

bigC

 

[csshih]

Wow, not often I get to see a writeup on a build of mine by csshih! It was a neat little surprise when Gary123 sent me a link. Thank you, Craig, for taking the time to put this together, and for sharing some very nice beamshot photos.

:bow:

and It's not often that I have the legendary (well, to CPF, that is ) MilkySpit commenting on my review thread, wow, thanks! :bow:

not much else to comment on about your post, they're all facts!