Got Lucky - Right Place at the Right Time

BVH

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I've had a 60" Carbon Arc, a few VSS-1 and VSS-3 tank lights, have some helicopter targeting lights, a couple Maxabeams and more HID and Short Arc lights but here's a light I never thought I'd have. Not because I wouldn't want one, but because they are so expensive for what they are as compared to other HID's. I've been watching these on Ebay for a long, long time during which, there have been very few for sale and at very high prices. A few months ago, I saw one that I think was between $3,500 and $4,500 that looked pretty good in the pics but came with batteries that were completely dead/expired. I saw it listed a few more times for a little less each time. Then a couple weeks ago, I saw it listed for less again. A day later, it was a little less again. I emailed the seller saying that if he didn't have any luck selling it, I would buy it for a$1,800 plus shipping. What the heck – a new 80 Watt Maxabeam is $2,300 and I can run this light on my 28 Volt portable power supply so a working light would cost me about $1,850 with shipping. He emailed back saying that he would keep my email but that he wanted to continue on Ebay for a month or two. A couple hours later, he emailed again saying that he was working with others on this and that he had argued with them to keep the price low while the others wanted to raise it back up. At the end of the email, he said they actually had 3 of them and that I could probably get them all for $5,500 shipped and with rugged Hartigg Storm Cases – of course all 3 with the dead batteries. I kicked it around for a day, emailed a fellow CPF member asking him if he wanted to go in for 33%. He answered in the affirmative. He can ID himself if he wants. So a deal was struck and now I have a couple of them sitting in the garage. I bought two with the intent of keeping one and selling the second one to help pay for the one I'm keeping. But I'm also toying with the idea of attempting to mod the 2nd light to 300 Watts.

This is what arrived a few days ago: (I'm a little disappointed that there was no Red Beret and military fatigues in the cases)

Cases are well traveled and the wheel bearings were near frozen. Soaked them in solvent and then in some oil and they're almost as good as new. One case is cleaned and polished. I have new OEM foam sets coming for one.

ClosedCases.jpg


The contents of the purchase

MROpenCases.jpg


A little closer

OpenCase.jpg


The lights close up

BothLightsCloseup.jpg


The battery packs in the vest. These were very nice Safion packs but every cell has vented and many have corroded through their cases. The cells are worthless. It was mfg'd as a 6S/4P LiFePO4, 3.3V x 6 = 19.8 V Nominal x's 5.3 Amps = 104.94 Watt Hours each x's 3 = 314.82 Watt Hours. The boxes and the PCB are salvagable. The 3-box pack weighs 8 lbs, 6 Oz. By comparison, I'm using 4 ea., 6S/3 Amp Lipo packs that weigh 4lbs total. 3.7V x's 6 = 22.2V Nominal x's 3 Amps = 66.6 Watt Hours each x's 4 = 266.4 Watt Hours. So my substitute pack is 85% of the capacity of the OEM pack. OEM pack run time on high is stated as 100 minutes so I might get 80 minutes from my pack.


VestBatteryPackComparison.jpg


The charger

Charger.jpg



Some beam shots on a windy, dirty atmosphere night. I'm disappointed in my beam shot results. In-person and in Photoshop at full resolution, the view looks a full 25 - 30% brighter. Something is lost in reducing them. I need to somehow compensate for this in the future. The same thing happened in my beamshots post in the Abyss Group Buy thread. To my eyes, the MR puts a bigger spot downfield and that entire spot is at least 2.5, maybe 3 times brighter than the Gen3 Maxabeam. I had my Maxabeam along but the battery ran out. I'll add the MB shots in the next few days. When they're up, you can probably appreciate the 175 Watt MRs' performance more.

Update: I reshot everything tonight with both lights using 8 second exposures instead of 6 seconds. It's better but still not what I see. But at least is a relative comparison of the two lights.


Maxabeam 350 Yards

MB350Yrds.jpg



Megaray 350 Yards

MR350Yrdsunderexposed2sec.jpg



Maxabeam 900 Yards

MB900Yrds.jpg



Megaray 900 Yards

MR900Yrds.jpg



Maxabeam 1355 Yards

MB1355Yrds.jpg



Megaray 1355 Yards

MR1355Yrds.jpg



Megaray Left, Maxabeam, Right

MBMR350Yrds.jpg



Megaray Left, Maxabeam, Right

MBMRontheRails330Yrds.jpg
 
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LuxLuthor

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Good for you! Are they still making these, or are they an abandoned product now? You should put on that battery vest and bring the case and walk to the TSA Airport guy and make his day! It's hard to get these in a proper perspective with other megalights.
 

FRITZHID

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WTG Bob! Great Score!!!!! wish i coulda gotten in on the deal, alas, they are byond my reach at this time. Enjoy your new toys! we all look forward to your fututre projects with these!
 

Parker VH

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Congrats Bob,
I saw that one on Ebay also but being unfamiliar with them I just watched it. He definitely lowered the price significantly from when he first listed it. Having seen your beamshots now I kind of wish I would've attempted buying it. I have never seen any other beamshots from it so I was hesitant.
Enjoy!!
 

Patriot

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Outstanding Bob! Of all the people who could appreciate and talk about the differences between the MR and other high performance spots, I'm glad it was you. The beam shots look really good regardless of the loss of light in reduction. Ultimately it's the comparison that we're after and you made a great showing. I sure love that beam shot place that you have. One of the very vest on CPF!
 

N10

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wow! i remember reading about these in a thread and on the super lights shootout made by KENSHIRO and Mr Ted Bear back in 2006 or 2007...if i'm not wrong the price on one of these was in the $8k range...haven't been to the blog site in a while. If anyone wants a review of these or just want a comparison with other short arcs and HIDs..just head to kenshiro's website..it's still there,just checked
 

BVH

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Every year I hunt down Kenshiro's review. I think it was closer to 04 or 05 wasn't it? His review planted the seed. I'm hoping I have my test range for at least another couple of years. City Council is close to approving a 400 home and country club development. It should take some time to build out hopefully. I find it interesting that the battery pack boxes have the label of the manufacturer on them and it turns out to be only about 6 miles from where I used to live in Burbank. If I'm not mistaken, the lights come from South Africa so why the U.S. battery? Unless these are replacements, but I don't think so.
 

Phil Ament

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Better update your sig line. :eek:


Phil Ament :wave:

P.S. I am quite sure that you'll be able to get some new batteries for it as you really now have a vested interest! :shakehead

P.P.S. Have you thought of mounting one on a helmet for when you go for a ride on your bike! :whistle:
 
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BVH

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Better update your sig line. :eek:


Phil Ament :wave:

P.S. I am quite sure that you'll be able to get some new batteries for it as you really now have a vested interest! :shakehead

Updated Sig a few days ago wondering if anyone would be curious about what "MR's" is. Nobody took the bait.
 

N10

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Every year I hunt down Kenshiro's review. I think it was closer to 04 or 05 wasn't it? His review planted the seed. I'm hoping I have my test range for at least another couple of years. City Council is close to approving a 400 home and country club development. It should take some time to build out hopefully. I find it interesting that the battery pack boxes have the label of the manufacturer on them and it turns out to be only about 6 miles from where I used to live in Burbank. If I'm not mistaken, the lights come from South Africa so why the U.S. battery? Unless these are replacements, but I don't think so.
You might be right...2004 or 2005,the website says last updated in 2006. Yeah, the lights are made in South Africa but i can't really give you much info on the batteries,depending on how old the lights you bought are and how much use they've been through,the original batteries might have had to be replaced at some point..Do you plan on trying to build a lighter battery pack for the light? And how do you plan on modding those to 300W?wouldn't that be hard on the bulbs?
 

Phil Ament

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Wow, now I feel like a real idiot coz I totally missed it. Bit too subtle maybe or is it just that I may need some newer glasses. :thinking: :sick2:


Phil :wave:
 

Lips

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Here's the other Megaray representing Louisiana!
Thanks Bob for letting me in on the deal! These lights and optics are in great shape!





Very "Heavy" Duty Military Case with pressure relief valve. Wheels on one long end and handle on other:

IMG_1839.png






Coffee cup by light for size comparison. Light is smaller than you would think or pics show...

Motorized Fan in back of Tube for cooling

IMG_1824.jpg




Heat-Sink on Bottom:

IMG_1825.jpg





Cermax Lamp module down in there with built in ellipsoidal reflector.

IMG_1828.jpg





On-off trigger switch and High-Low-Strobe toggle
Head of light extends by pulling at fatest end for narrow to tight focus.

IMG_1829.jpg





24 Lithium Phosphate 18650 in each pack(x3):

IMG_1830.jpg






Easy open with 4 screws:


IMG_1832.jpg





Batteries are shot!

IMG_1833.jpg





IMG_1835.jpg





IMG_1834.jpg





PCB for Battery Packs:

IMG_1838.jpg




Head fully extended by hand:

Megarayextend.jpg
 
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BVH

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You might be right...2004 or 2005,the website says last updated in 2006. Yeah, the lights are made in South Africa but i can't really give you much info on the batteries,depending on how old the lights you bought are and how much use they've been through,the original batteries might have had to be replaced at some point..Do you plan on trying to build a lighter battery pack for the light? And how do you plan on modding those to 300W?wouldn't that be hard on the bulbs?

The 4 Blue Lipo packs in my pic are what I've settled on. The 4 represent 85% of the capacity of the OEM packs and I can buy the four for $80.00 TOTAL! No way could I rebuild the LiFePO4 packs for less than probably $800 to $1,000. So less than 1/2 the weight and about 1/3 the physical size. I could fill the other two pockets with 8 more packs and get 4 hrs run time.

For the upgrade, I need to buy the 300 Watt version of the same Cermax bulb. It has identical specs - arc gap, focal point, physical size ect. as the 175 Watt bulb except for more Amperage - 22 Amps versus 14 Amps. I bought an OEM Cermax outboard power supply for powering both 175 and 300 Watt bulbs. To retrofit, I'd end up with an outboard PS and running just the high voltage cable directly into the light. I'd give up some portability but it would be only a demonstration light. I'd upgrade the standard configuration fan for more CFM.
 
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Phil Ament

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Lips

What a coincidence. I notice that in the 6th photo down that the battery already has your name on it. Now you won't have to get your mum to label it! :shakehead


Phil Ament :wave:
 
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Lips

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Lips

What a coincidence. I notice that in the 6th photo down that the battery already has your name on it. Now you won't have to get your mum to label it! :shakehead


Phil Ament :wave:


When BVH told me how much those batteries would cost to rebuild like they are stock my LIPS pocked out like MUM had given me a spanken!
 

Patriot

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Those are really clear and bright Bob! Great comparisons. It's so neat to think that you actually own one of these after all this time. What an impressive light too. Great performance from a sort of odd ball, off the wall, semi-rare, super light. We've never seen shots this good before.
 

Phil Ament

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Bob

Really great comparison photos but in the second one from the bottom, it appears as though the beams are actually crossed, and I thought that you weren't meant to do that, or has someone been lying to me. Maybe you had better find out for sure but I don't know "who you're gonna call". :shakehead



Phil Ament :wave:
 
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