Ok, now a bit better LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

[Luminescent]

EDIT:
Changed the title because, I now have exchanged the drop-in and have one with a much more reasonable tint. The reason I bothered with an exchange rather than a refund after my initial bad impression below, is due to the neat features of the IQ switch (which were just too cool to pass up as explained in a later post). The original post appears below for thread continuity, but note that I am now happy with the Nite Ize IQ switch and the 1W Luxeon drop-in that comes with it -

Anyone else have the experience of getting the Absolute WORST LED emitter tint you have ever seen in your life on your "1 Watt L.E.D Upgrade & IQ Switch" from Nite Ize.

This thing seems to use some kind of reject knock-off counterfeit Luxeon, that comes from LED emitter tint bin "BSG" (which of course stands for 'Baby S#%T Green'). I have never seen such a NASTY greenish tint. Makes me want to PUKE (Oops, I just looked again, and DID puke).

This 'Upgrade' actually costs more than some others charge for a complete LED light, so there is no excuse for Nite Ize to be shaving a nickel by using some kind of cheap total crap counterfeit Luxeon from some Z-Grade source.

Not only is the tint the WORST I have every seen on an LED light EVER, but the beam does not throw an even color, but has 'whiter', 'bluer', and even ukier 'greener' parts as you try to adjust the focus on the maglight.

Are they all like this (so I know if it's even worth exchanging), or shoud I just return it and get my money back?

 

[VidPro]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

mine isnt blue, it heads a bit twards greenish.
there is no heat sincking, i kinda doubt they can do much of anything without complete redesign. they somehow have to cool a lossy curcuit AND a led emitter both.

the niteeyes switch itself which I really like, does sit in the curcuit path, as this reduces the power a teeney bit.

because of the heat issue, a more efficent emitter would be even more usefull here than anywhere else, dont suppose you could get it in a seoul instead? as it would work well with the reflector also. or upgrade to a seoul (not a cree cause it wont fit, and it wont match the reflector)
is yours a side shooter? or domed led

there is an advantage here, even if it makes you barf take it outside tonight, and quit aiming it at a white wall you will see that it works just fine, a bit low, but natures extensive green likes babey puke green, it works well out there where one could apply it

i bought mine way long ago, if i had purchesd it Today? i would sent it back instantally. we still use it, but i wont use it, i let others use it because its "normal".

 

[PhantomPhoton]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

So, um, does the IQ switch at least work okay? I'd send it back personally. I generally do business with only those types of establishments. Where'd ya pick it up from?

And it never hurts to send a well composed letter to Night Eyes. Usually venting about it here on CPF helps get it all out so we can do a better job with the manufacturer. I hear ya man.

 

[Marduke]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

quit aiming it at a white wall you will see that it works just fine

+1

 

[bfg9000]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

It's not difficult to make it twice as bright.

 

[VidPro]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

It's not difficult to make it twice as bright.

send it to BFg9000 for modification ?
great how much?

 

[Luminescent]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

So, um, does the IQ switch at least work okay? I'd send it back personally. I generally do business with only those types of establishments. Where'd ya pick it up from?

And it never hurts to send a well composed letter to Night Eyes. Usually venting about it here on CPF helps get it all out so we can do a better job with the manufacturer. I hear ya man.

Actually the IQ switch is totally cool. I even like the way it doesn't have memory but makes up for it by cycling VERY quickly.

You just do a single click to turn the light on in High, a double click to turn it on in medium, and a triple click for low (then there are also slow and fast strobe modes after that at four and five clicks)

The switch is NOT mechanical on/off switch, but just a momentary click switch, so unlike most other lights, you can cycle VERY fast. The switch does however emulate a mechanical on/off switch, so if you hit the switch again (after the mode is finally picked and persists for about two seconds) then the thing just shuts the light off, which emulates the way a mechanical click-on click-off switch would work.

There are only a couple of issues that are a little annoying. The first is that, because there is no actual latching mechanical switch, if you are adjusting the focus of the light and accidentally turn too far, it just shuts off, and because the rear switch is a momentary switch that is emulating a mechanical switch, you kind of expect to be able to just twist back the other way to turn the light back on, but this doesn't work (you have to put the bezel back in the right position, then use the rear clicky switch to power up the light, and re-select the mode you were using) Offseting this is the fact that you can really fly on that rear switch, which is just as fast and the clicky switches found on most computer keyboards.

The second issue was just a screw up that could easily be fixed in the ordering of the strobe modes. The light has two strobes, a fast strobe, and a slow strobe. They put the slow strobe first which was a really dumb thing to do when you consider that the slow strobe flashes so slowly, that by the time you get visual confirmation that you have entered this mode, the 2 seconds you are allowed before the mode locks in has expired. A lot of folks don't just count clicks, they want to see the modes progressing and then stop at the one they want, and with the strobe mode, by the time the slow strobe flashes, it's already locked in, so you can't get the the next mode without turning the light off and back on. Reversing the order of the fast and slow strobes should fix this because the fast strobe flashes faster so you could see a couple flashes and then still bump the tail switch to the next mode (it's a little complicated to explane, but if you play with the light you will see what I am talking about).

These are minor nitpicks however, and on a scale of 1 to 10 I give the IQ switch part of the package about a 9. It's too bad that the critical LED 'drop-in' portion is not quite as bright as it should be, apparently has heat issues even at it's modest output level, and has absolutely the worst emitter color tint that I have ever seen.

So the IQ switch is nice, but I don't think it's worth 20 bucks just to get this switch if the quality of the front LED drop-in part of the conversion sucks.

 

[Luminescent]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

mine isnt blue . . .

. . . and quit aiming it at a white wall

I should have mentioned that I know about the white wall issue and that I DID take this light outside and try it out, just a few minutes after opening the package and getting the Maglight modified. Actually what gets you in trouble judging color against a white wall is not simply the white wall itself, it's haveing another light source on in the room impinging on the wall, which causes the 'automatic white balance' in your eyes to lock in on that, and then the small circle of light being thrown by the flashlight will look tinted in comparison even if it's reasonably white. But remember, this drop-in's emitter doesn't even throw a uniform tint, so even absent other light sources it looks like hell (kind of like those 5mm Nichia LED's with the purple/blue fringes except that with this one the uneven colors include blues, greens, and yellows, as well as some purple)


While it's true that the poor tint doesn't show up as strongly outside in a more 'natural' setting, I could still tell that the emitter wasn't doing a very nice job. LED's have something called a CRI or Color Rendering Index, which measures how well colors will be truly rendered when illuminated by their light. This light also has the WORST color rendering I have ever seen, to go along with it's barfy green tint. :sick2:


As far as the suggestion that bfg9000 had about changing the emitter goes . . .
[Thanks for the link :thumbsup:].


I have done precision soldering, including repairing and hand soldering 20 mil spacing SMT components, so dropping a SSC emitter in there doesn't look like it would be that big a deal at all, I just hate to have to spend another several dollars on a SSC P4 emitter after the 20 dollars that this thing already cost.

Hey, I guess it wouldn't be total waste, I could always use the leftover Nite Ize emitter to make one of those 'puke inducing flashlights'. :eeew:

 

[Fallingwater]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

Well, my original unmodded Fenix L1S (won't stay unmodded for long...) has a sickly greenish color that looks pretty bad if aimed at a white wall.
But before I got my Cree 123 EDC I always kept it in my pocket and it often proved useful despite the questionable color of its beam.
In other words: beam tint in real-life use is not terribly important.

 

[RebelXTNC]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

I would definitely exchange it. Mine is nicely tinted. You can certainly get a greenie from any brand but hopefully luck will be with you the next time.

 

[Dogshund]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

Mine is also a nice white/slightly blue tint! I like it.

 

[awberke]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

i upgraded my 2AA minimag with a SSC-P4 as well with a nite ize switch from the 3-5mm led upgrade kit which is a complete piecer of a kit on the whole. But my new seoul powered mini mag is pretty nice, it has a huge spill which is nice for lighting up whole rooms, but the throw is just moderate, i was more than happy with it.

 

[Luminescent]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

I would definitely exchange it. Mine is nicely tinted. You can certainly get a greenie from any brand but hopefully luck will be with you the next time.

It's definitely the emitter, which seems to have a non-uniform phospher coating. As an experiment, to get an idea of what the beam quality should look like, I took the Nite Ize reflector out of the Maglight and then took the bezel off one of my old larger Luxeon flashlights and lowered the little Nite Ize reflector down over the Luxeon and looked at the beam on the wall. With the other lights Luxeon driving the reflector, the beam was very white and smooth and looked just great (with NO non-uniform color artifacts).

I wonder if these 'Luxeon' emitters Nite Ize is using are 'Ruxeons' rejected by Lumiled then sold out the back door anyway by the Chinese factory? The difference between the beam quality with the older luxeon and the one supplied by Nite Ize with this drop-in was like night and day. Either that or Luxeon quality control has gone totally to hell.

In any case this one is going back to Target. The IQ clicky switch is a nice package overall, and with a good emitter, the reflector throws a much nicer beam than my old Teralux Maglight drop-in ever did. So this upgrade may be worth a look, but I would be sure to buy from a local store like Target that has a good return policy, and then if you have to return it to get a good one DO IT. Nothing does as much to put pressure on a manufacture about bad quality as retail returns.

 

[Luminescent]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

I would definitely exchange it. Mine is nicely tinted. You can certainly get a greenie from any brand but hopefully luck will be with you the next time.

Update:

Went by Target at lunch and they only had one more of these Nite Ize IQ switch 1Watt Maglight drop-in's, and the one they had has the LED Emitter cocked at an angle on the mounting base (The emitter base is not flat against the underlying heatsink plate).

No wonder some folks have had bad beam quality and thermal issues!

I really like the functionallity of the IQ switch, so I may try one more local Target store, but if I don't hit the Jackpot this time, then I'll simply return it again and never buy another Nite Ize product.

 

[Luminescent]

Re: VERY bad LED color tint on Nite Ize '1Watt IQ Switch' AA Mini Mag Upgrade

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! I now have a Nite Ize drop-in that has better tint.

To tell the truth, I wouldn't have bothered exchanging it, but I really liked the IQ switch features:

- The tail switch is a momentary mouse style 'clicky' and then does the actual switching under microprocessor control. Because it does not use a more complicated ratcheting type click-on/click-off mechanisem, the switch should be very reliable.

- You can leave the light prefocused and turn it on and off with a single click. Not only that, the momentary tail switch emulates a FORWARD CLICKY. To latch the light on you give it a quick mouse style click of 100ms or less (or double or triple click for Medium or Low) but if you hold the button for even a half second, the light will turn back off when you release the button. This is pretty close to perfect tactical style forward-clicky operation (the only thing you can't do is send morse code, but most folks don't care about that).

- The momentary switch mechanism is much more responsive than the tail switches on most lights and you can double click to medium in the blink of a eye, which takes a lot of the complexity and hassle out of the 'multi-level' design.

- The standard Maglight bezel twist switch remains after the upgrade so to keep the light from accidentally getting turned on in your backpack you can just tighten the bezel, and if you forget to do that and it does get turned on by a bump on the tailswitch, it won't run the batteries all the way down anyway, because it has an auto shutoff after about 15 minutes. If you need to use the light for several hours, that's ok too, the auto-shutoff gives a couple sets of warning flashes about a half minute apart before turning off the light, and after either set you can just give a quick click on the tail switch to cancel the shutdown for another 15 minutes.

- Lastly it has this totally cool red LED locater flasher in the tail cap so you can find the light in the dark (Glow in the dark o-rings move over there's a new sheriff in town!). I suspect that being the toy freaks that we are, a lot of CPF'ers will buy this thing for this feature alone. You can of course disable the tail flasher by tightening the front bezel switch.

The twice as bright deal in the previously posted link sounds good, so I may eventually change out the supplied Luxeon for a nice SSC P4, but for those who don't like to fiddle with a soldering iron, the original LED gives pretty good brightness for everyday tasks like finding something in the trunk of your car at night. On high, it looks about like the Jetbeam C-LE or other CREE lights look on medium, but Nite Ize specs the battery life at a good 7 to 8 hours on high, and I think the level of brightness is reasonable when you take the long battery life into account.

Damn shame Nite Ize didn't put a SSC P4 in this thing to start with, because then it would be really awesome, but if you get one with reasonable tint and output, it's not to bad for the 20 bucks it costs.

 

[Marduke]

Glad you like it now. That blinking red light in the IQ switch makes it a good bedside light, as you can always find it. They have been out for several years now, so hopefully, eventually they will upgrade the emitter.

 

[Luminescent]

Glad you like it now. That blinking red light in the IQ switch makes it a good bedside light, as you can always find it. They have been out for several years now, so hopefully, eventually they will upgrade the emitter.

+1 on it being a good bedside light, and if you want a great 'read in bed' light you can replace the Maglights lens with an identical circle of plastic cut from one of those clear plastic CD/DVD jewel cases that come with the colored jewel case sets. The bottom plastic part of the ones I am talking about has a finely frosted textured surface that makes an absolutely perfect beam diffuser for a LED drop in Maglight. The plastic is even a good match for the thickness and durability of the original lens, and will seal with the lens o-ring very nicely to maintain the weather proof seal if you put the shiny side of the diffuser lens out. This diffuser will make the beam nice and smooth and floody while keeping a reasonable amount of output, and for close up tasks like reading you won't find anything that will work more perfectly than this combo. If having to cancel the auto shutdown every 15 minutes bothers you during reading, you can just use rechargable NiMH batteries (so you don't care if they run down if you fall asleep while reading), and temporaraly reinstall the original tailcap. (with the original tailcap, you just use the front bezel twist switch like a normal Maglight)

I did this diffuser mod to my Teralux side-emitter drop-in Maglight because the beam was so ugly, but the beam on the Nite Ize is now nice enough that I may leave it just as it is to preserve the throw.

For the total of about 30 dollars that this upgrade will cost when the IQ drop-in's $20 cost is added to the original $10 cost of the Maglight, I think I would just buy the Jetbeam C-LE v2.0 clicky (awesome little single AA CREE flashlight), but if like most of us, you have a nice 2AA mini-mag laying around that you have always liked, this is a nice upgrade.

 

[Black Rose]

I bought two of the Nite Ize 1-watt LED kits last month (had to buy the IQ switch separately since the combo kits are not available around here) and one of the LEDs is giving off a reddish hue instead of the white/blue colour you expect from an LED.

Contacted Nite Ize and they are sending a replacement.

 

[willrx]

A little off topic but I tried the the IQ switch paired with the 3-led drop in for what may be a very good low-low level of light. Can anyone guestimate runtime on level 3 (low)? Must be hours and hours.