Malkoff Does Dragons!

I sent Gene a bunch of Diamond Dragons a while back, with some simple requests; Drive them hard, do a multi-emitter Mag drop-in, and do at least one Surefire drop-in.

Here's what he sent back:



Left to right:

M60 with a 19mm Fraen faceted reflector, driven at 2A.

Single emitter Mag drop-in driven at 2A.

Quad Mag drop-in, using 4x 19mm Fraen faceted emitters, and driving the LEDs at 1.5A each.

Overall initial impressions...Like all of the DD emitters I bought from ArcMania, these are very cool white tint. Milky, DatiLED and now Malkoff have all used them for builds, and all have commented on how cool the tints are. This is starkly different from the Mega Micro and Mega Extreme builds by ArcMania, which were much warmer tints. The Edwood EX10 swap is not quite as cool, but is driven at a much lower level.

The quality of beam from all my DD lights is spectacular. Whether it's a 2A light engine in an McR38, or in a Mule, or Milky's KL6 build, or the EX10, or now Malkoff's builds, the beams are beautiful.

M60

This is already my favorite non-warm M60. The output from the 19mm Fraen is excellent. Compared to other M60s I have, there is virtually no distinct hotspot...just a brilliant center beam, with a very gradual fade to the outside of the beam. It easily reaches out as far as the stock M60, but does it without the glaring hotspot.

Single emitter Mag drop-in

I've tried this in a few setups so far; an FM LOP reflector, a 3" smooth reflector and behind an aspheric lens in a nanomizer bezel. On tight focus in both reflectors, there is a geometric design of artifacts that I can't get rid of. It gets better as I tighten down the focus, but I can't tighten it far enough to get rid of it. I'll have to talk to Gene to see if he tried shimming the emitter up on his P7 heatsink. It seems like it wants to be further up in the reflector.

Behind the aspheric, it's phenomenal! At tight focus, the same artifacts are there, just brighter. At my preferred, slightly off focus setting, there is nothing but a brilliant round hotspot. It's almost as bright, and much smaller than at the same focus with a P7. Outdoors, it easily out-throws the P7 aspheric, with virtually none of the floody spill.

Quad Mag drop-in

This is my favorite of the three, and my new favorite Quad drop-in. Take the same beam quality of the M60 with its 19mm Fraen, and perfectly focus 4 of them in a Mag head. Gene said it gave him fits to build, and I can see why. The beam is perfect. There is absolutely no indication there is more than one emitter, other than the incredible brightness. Like the M60, there is no distinct hotspot outdoors, just a very intense center beam, gradually fading out. Indoors, against the wall, the hotspot is more distinct, but it can't be seen outdoors.


How many lumens?

You tell me. ArcMania rated the Mega's at 400+, running at ~1.5A. What does that give me when the DD is driven at 2A? Is the Quad, with each emitter seeing 1.5A putting out 1600L+? I don't know. I don't even have a Lux Meter. I do know the beams from the DD are the prettiest I've seen. If I had a choice, I'd go for a multi-emitter build, with a warmer DD bin, pushed as far as it can be pushed.

Thanks, Gene! Great work, as usual! :twothumbs

Nice looking lights, I always like to see stuff using different emitters.

Very nice, Donn. I think the whole drop-in concept is excellent, and almost certainly more economical (and sensible?) than building dedicated lights with fixed emitters that can be expensive to rebuild using newer emitters.

The other thing that occurs to me is that a newer emitter may benefit from a different driver (if there is a driver) than was used with the old emitter. If so, then in a dedicated build you may have to change both the emitter and the light engine.

On the other hand, if you just drop in a whole assembly, the new emitter has its own new light engine attached which is presumably suited to that emitter and the old light engine takes its driver (if any) with it when you take it out.

Finally, the old drop in need not be thrown out, as old leds of a dedicated build might be. You just put the old drop-in in another light that is suited to whatever the old drop-in had to offer. Maybe it was dimmer with longer run time or maybe it had a more focused beam. Whatever. Just because it is older doesnt mean it is useless, and if it is a drop in, using it is as easy as switching it to a new host.

I guess it has taken me a while to really appreciate the importance of Gene's whole drop-in approach and now, Donn's interesting use of that approach.

I agree, Bill. I'm a big fan of modularity. Like Aleph LEs and TnC canisters, the drop-in can go from host to host, maximizing the particular benefits of each host and each drop-in. I like fixed builds as well, but you can't beat the flexibility of a good drop-in.

Is Gene planning on doing a run of the multi-emitter drop-in or was this a one-time only thing?

Randy

So, Donn, hows abouts some beamshots? I'm definitely eager to see what the M60 looks like.

I'd be interested in seeing beamshots for the Quad Maglite Dropin...
Maybe if we get lucky, Gene will decide to add these to his product lineup.

Looks nice! Now...

Got any beamshots?

It's always nice to see other emitter being used in mods, especially really capable ones like the Dragons.

Sorry guys... but I don't do beamshots. I tried it once, and got all sorts of grief from the photography experts on the forum.

It's ok, we promise that we won't be judgmental. I don't care if they are taken with a camera phone or a full frame DSLR.
I believe the surgeon general warned that posting pictures of lights without beamshots is bad for one's health (our health, that is).

We dont ask for professional beamshots, just shine the light to anything then take a picture of this anything. easy right?

Osram is doing reasonable CRI with their emitters, too. I'm fairly happy with the cool white GDP's because the colors show up under it.

what does it take to get one of those quad mag drop-ins for a maglite rechargeable?