Wait time for Orb Raw?

[magic79]

Hmm...now I'm really starting to wonder about my order. I ordered on the 5th of December and it sounds like a few people who ordered later than that have already received their lights.

Did you order one with a tritium insert? If so, I read those are backordered.


Regarding brightness, two things. First, I did NOT charge the battery in the Raw before checking it out, so it may not be a peak brightness. Second, that was a quick eyeball with no actual measurement.

After I posted, I took it into my back yard. Yikes! That little thing lights up the whole yard (even diagonally, which is about 80 feet).

I'll try to get some beam shots tomorrow evening.

 

[magic79]

Anyways enjoy the light. Mine sits on my keychain in the included case for now....not quite ready to let it get all scratched up.

Isn't that little plastic case the most clever thing?!!

This whole design is quite clever!

 

[Morelite]

When I ordered mine I was told by Rob that it would ship around the 20th of Jan. The green tritium vials where all used up and they where expecting to get more around the 20th. Rob did offer to ship the light then later ship the vials with the glue to install them. I choose to wait and let them install since I ordered mine with 5 vials spaced around the tail.

 

[Praxis]

Praxis: Did you order the RAW or the RAW Ni? None of the Ni lights will be shipped until after the 20th.

I ordered a standard RAW with the two-level switch and yellow tritium insert. At the time I ordered, Rob said he still had yellow tritium in stock (I originally asked for blue).

I'm looking forward to the light, don't get me wrong, just a little frustrated with the ordering process.

 

[magic79]

The documentation with the Raw is abysmal...no...that's not it. It's absent! There is no documentation for the light or the charger.

So...I'll give you a heads up.

Inside the ziplock bag with the charger was a tiny envelop stapled shut. On it was printed "Clear Watch Crystal". I almost didn't open it, as I figured it was a spare lens. But curiosity got me and I opened it. Inside was not a watch crystal, but two tiny toroidal magnets. I went to the Orb website to see if they were mentioned. They weren't, but they're identical to the magnets used in the Orb light, so I figured they were included by mistake.

I promptly began playing with them and soon lost them!

Last night I went to charge the RCR2 battery. I put it in the Nano charger...and it was 1/4 inch too short!

<LIGHTBULB OVER HEAD> So THAT'S what those little magnets were for...a spacer!

Well...after scrounging in my toolbox for a few minutes, I found some small washers that will fill the space, and that works. (still hope I find what I did with the magnets)

Next, I plugged the charger in, and the LED lit red. I had no idea whether the LED would extinguish when charged, change colors, or if red actually meant that the battery had a full charge.

As it turns out, the LED does change to green when charged.

To the Orb folks: How about spending 10 minutes writing some simple documentation for the charger, beginning with "DON'T THROW OUT THOSE TWO MAGNETS that we didn't bother to tell you what use they had."

 

[00evans00]

Last night I went to charge the RCR2 battery. I put it in the Nano charger...and it was 1/4 inch too short!

He he yeah. The first thing I did when I received my raw was charge the battery hoping I could get the biggest impact from the brightness of the light. It would have taken me a good few minutes to figure out what the magnets were for if I didn't charge the battery first. As well there are some good reviews of the raw here and here that I had read beforehand. They go into a lot of detail about everything included with the raw, its operation, and about rcr2 batteries.

 

[pbs]

Update. My orb arrived today (ordered Nov7th see earlier post).

I guess you just need patience.

 

[Macaw]

Great to hear pbs. Please let us know what you think about the output of this flashlight.

 

[magic79]

After charging the RCR2 fully, I can positively state that the Raw is MUCH brighter than the Fenix. Chalk it up to being too excited to try the light and not charging the battery first!

I took three beamshots of the Raw, on high. The first one has the Raw on the left and the Fenix on the right. Clearly, the Raw is significantly brigher.

The next shot is the Raw on high (L) and the Surefire L2 on high (R). Surefire rates the L2 at 100 Lumens, and it appears clearly brighter than the Raw.

The final shot is the Raw on the left on high, and the EDC Ultimate 60 on the right, also on high. The U60 is rated at 60 Lumens. This is close, to my eye, but the Raw appears brighter.

So, I learned something: no matter how excited I am to get a new light, charge it before using the first time!

 

[00evans00]

Thanks for the beamshots magic79. I have been looking for a good comparison of the raw against some other lights including the HDS U60. You mentioned that between the orb raw and HDS the beams appeared close to each other but I felt that in your photo the HDS looks quite a bit brighter. I have heard at least one other person who has both lights say that the U60 seems brighter. I am curious because I may buy an HDS U60 but want to know how it will compare to the raw. Do you really find it that there is not that much of a difference? Thanks

 

[magic79]

Well, to my eyes they seemed similar. The photos DO look like the UDS is brighter.

So...I would say this:

1. I've learned that eyes are not terribly reliable for measuring brightness (nor remembering colors too well)

2. I've already screwed up one analysis on the Raw...don't put it past me again!

3. The data would be better if I measured the beam hot spot with a light meter. I guess I should dig out my Minolta spot meter.

Perhaps take my observations with a grain of salt until I get some more empirical data.

 

[sideman7]

I had mentioned earlier in this thread that I found the Raw to be about as bright as the 42 lumen setting on my U60. I thought something was wrong with mine based on what I had read here (I guess those were the U bins I had read about), but the photo that was posted is a pretty accurate representation of what I saw with mine. However, if you take these lights outside, you will find that the Raw will light up a much larger area than the U60, but the hotspot isn't as bright.

 

[00evans00]

Thanks that helps you guys. Oh and sideman7 I think you must have been that "at least one other person who said the raw was brighter than the HDS" but I completely forgot that you mentioned it in this thread.