Nichia 219 coming to Peak lights from Oveready

[Kevinkw1]

Wow, great review and nice beamshot comparison! I cant wait for my logan cr123 to arrive to oz! I have the 2 x aaa eiger and I just love it. Ramping smooth and nice, tint just gorgeous. I use mine for up close work when I'm checking out the guts of my computer!

[eala]

The New And Improved QTC

The redesigned pill is improved over the old one by leaps and bounds:

• You don't need to crank on it so hard to get max output
• You don't need to baby it so much to get minimum output
• The ramping is smooth and not jumpy at all
• The QTC recovers MUCH faster than it used to

Thanks for the review! Nice work. Any chance you could through up a few pictures of the new QTC. I am curious about how they made the improvements.

Thanks,
eala

[PCC]

I was a bit worried what kind of knurling would come on this Eiger 219 - I was hoping for the larger "diamond" pattern and that is what arrived.

It's actually surprising that they shipped that body. What you see in this picture is tracking error while knurling. Knurling is done by pushing two wheels onto the piece of metal while it turning, one wheel cuts lines in one direction while the other cuts lines in the other. In your picture, one wheel had tracked correctly leaving you with the wider spaced cut lines while the other wheel mistracked and left you with that pattern. Had both wheels mistracked identically you would have ended up with a finer knurl.

Nice write-up. The 219 really is an LED that every true flashaholic must at least experience, if not own, at this point in time. I've never been a neutral or warm or HCRI guy, but, having experienced this emitter I've found that I really didn't know what I was missing until I saw the (neutral tint HCRI) light! Yes, pun intended!

[Cataract]

It's a great review, you should make a separate thread just for it. Now I'm looking at my budget; you gave me the final kick the the @ss to get one.

[calipsoii]

Thanks for the review! Nice work. Any chance you could through up a few pictures of the new QTC. I am curious about how they made the improvements.

Thanks,
eala

As you wish! I cannot get the Gen1 QTC pill out of my lug body Eiger, so the Gen1 pill from my Logan will have to do.

------------------

The end that touches the body appears the same in both Gen1 and Gen2


The end that touches the battery, however, is quite different.


The Gen1 Logan pill came with a foam ring to prevent battery rattle - the Gen2 Eiger did not. If we remove the foam ring, we can see that the "ledge" it sat on is completely gone


Top: Gen1 Logan
Bottom: Gen2 Eiger




They've machined a groove into the side of the Delrin pill and slipped a "retaining ring" around it


If I had to hazard some wild guesses as to what has been improved here:

• the QTC material is now round, and the "pocket" now holds it snugly
• the battery terminal is now smaller, which should help focus the compression straight down onto the QTC pill and prevent wobble from side-to-side
• the battery terminal has a small nub on it, which (I believe) would help the battery pivot as the head is twisted down onto it
• the battery terminal is now hexagonal, which "locks" it into place and prevents the rotating battery from also rotating the terminal & QTC
• the retaining ring has a gap which is probably to allow for contraction as you squish it into the body, forming a friction fit. It works ok on mine but I wouldn't say it works better than the old design - a hard shake still sends the pill shooting from the light

Overall though, the changes seem very well thought out and executed. Simple things like a smaller hexagonal battery terminal and a tighter QTC pocket should vastly improve in the usability - and they do.

[PCC]

Interesting pictures. Here are some poor pictures of my first gen Eiger pill.

Note the O-ring


This one has the smaller round QTC as well.

[calipsoii]

Hmm, then I stand corrected, it looks like the Logan/Eiger pills vary quite a bit. Not a good comparison.

Maybe the smaller hexagonal battery contact is all that has been changed...

[PCC]

I'd be curious as to how your first gen Eiger pill looks compared to mine. Is it the same or is it different?

[iqwozpoom]

I just got a logan from the peak website and the pill looks the same as the eiger pill in the side by side pics. That's good, I've never seen one and was wondering if it was the improved design. It does have the square qtc though. I had a bit of jumping especially when I tapped the tail of the light but I dropped a thin oring as a battery bumper on top of the pill and now no skips and smoother ramping. I had to use the thinnest o ring I could find.

[eala]

Fabulous photos folks. Thanks a lot! I agree with your assessment of the design calipsoii.

eala

[gunga]

Yes. I think the main difference is in the shape at the battery end. This prevents shearing force that causes the qtc to break down quickly. I'm hoping the qtc cavity is slightly less deep too as I needed to shim mine to reduce the size. This prevents the sudden jump from 50% to Max caused by the qtc wearing out and the cavity being a touch deep. When I tune my qtc initially, by shimming the cavity, and centering the qtc etc, the ramping is smooth and precise. The qtc wears out quickly, likely due to shearing because of the pill contact rotating. This can also cause the qtc to shift. This leads to inconsistent ramping, until the qtc is cleaned out (loose bits) and re centered. I think the new design solves this.

[LGT]

I really hope this new design fixes the problems of the first generation QTC pills. I also hope the testing done on the new design went a little deeper then then the originals. My eiger, el capitan and rainier, at first, worked great. But it was a very short time before they started to skip many different levels even with a slow twisting of the head, and would go from low to high just by accidently knocking over while tail standing. Because of that, I think I'll take a wait and see.

[Diablo_331]

10180 Eiger is ordered and on the way! I'll report back when it gets here.

[jorgen]

My Nichia 219 Logan arrived today. The beam is clean and the colors rendered are much prettier than my Cree High CRI, especially yellows. The ramping on the new bodies is very smooth,
I didn't order an Eiger because I wanted to check out the Logan first, I hope there will be more as this batch is sold out.

[arcane]

My Logan 123 Nichia 219 also arrived today! The momentary is just ok; it takes a lot of pressure to get it to max output.

[tobrien]

My Logan 123 Nichia 219 also arrived today! The momentary is just ok; it takes a lot of pressure to get it to max output.

does it have the sharp finish problems like calipsoii had?

[PCC]

I'd love to see an El Capitan with them219 emitter. The Logan is a bit too large in diameter for my needs and I don't want to get another Eiger.

[Diablo_331]

does it have the sharp finish problems like calipsoii had?

If my 10180 lug Eiger has this problem, it will be sent back to Oveready until I get a decent one.

[arcane]

does it have the sharp finish problems like calipsoii had?

I got a HA aluminum body and the machining/finish doesn't feel sharp or rough. The knurling isn't very deep or aggressive, quite smooth actually.
I'll try to take a pic later.

Thanks to calipsoii for posting pics and a review!

[ElectronGuru]

does it have the sharp finish problems like calipsoii had?

"mistrack knurling" is rare and limited to stainless bodies, on the order of 1%

I'd love to see an El Capitan with them219 emitter. The Logan is a bit too large in diameter for my needs and I don't want to get another Eiger.

The optics maker discontinued the AA size option last year. El Cap's since are made with Logan size optics, with larger logan size heads. This size mismatch encouraged the 17500 option, with a 1-2mm thicker body and AA sleeves. However, a flood (no optic) El Cap head would be 'more true.'

When you say diameter, is the body alone, enough?

[Henk_Lu]

No Nichia 219 in stock anymore... I hope they'll come back soon!

As for the QTC, I managed as well to take the pills put my 2 Eiger SS (10180 & 10280). I'd be happy if I just could get the new pill, I guess I can do the update myself (unless the bottom of teh body has to be changed or something like that).

Can't you sell the pills?

[PCC]

The optics maker discontinued the AA size option last year. El Cap's since are made with Logan size optics, with larger logan size heads. This size mismatch encouraged the 17500 option, with a 1-2mm thicker body and AA sleeves. However, a flood (no optic) El Cap head would be 'more true.'

When you say diameter, is the body alone, enough?

That makes sense. Would the extra 2mm make a difference? Probably not, but, I try to not have lights with sleeves in them. The closet engineer in me screams "inefficient!" and I don't own any Li-Ion cells other than 18650s and one married pair of 17500s. I'm hoping to use primaries for this purpose as this light would replace a ThruNite T10 (single AA). I suppose I can go with a CR123a Logan...

[iqwozpoom]

Has anyone done any measurements on these? I've seen report of slightly higher vf's than the xpg's and would find it interesting to see how they compare. IE how much draw on a li ion or a lifepo4 at max.

[ElectronGuru]

Can't you sell the pills?

Please send requests here.

That makes sense. Would the extra 2mm make a difference?

Yeah, the sleeve options work well but once you try a true 17500, AA's look rather underpowered. The momentary also comes into its own, providing full power with less pressure, from the higher voltage.

[PCC]

Yeah, the sleeve options work well but once you try a true 17500, AA's look rather underpowered. The momentary also comes into its own, providing full power with less pressure, from the higher voltage.

You know, My EDC light only does 110 lumens and that's more than enough for why I carry it. I do carry a 6P sized light for those times when I need more, but, it's in my jacket pocket, rarely to be taken out and actually used. I'm still trying to find my perfect EDC light and a 219 El Cap would have been it.

[ElectronGuru]

Understood, thank you for the perspective.

[RobertM]

ElectronGuru, do you know when more Logan 219 lights will be available again? Also, approximately how many OTF lumens does the Logan with the 219 produce (I apologize if this was already stated and I missed it)?

[ElectronGuru]

Peak was working on more before the last batch went up for sale. I do not yet have an ETA on more heads, but it should be before July.

We have no testing data, but it calculates to 78% of XPG R5 totals. So about 235 at the emitter.

[whateatsrabbits]

The optics maker discontinued the AA size option last year. El Cap's since are made with Logan size optics, with larger logan size heads. This size mismatch encouraged the 17500 option, with a 1-2mm thicker body and AA sleeves. However, a flood (no optic) El Cap head would be 'more true.'

If this is true then why on the new peak website is the el capitan being sold with an option for narrow or medium optics?
What ever happened to the mule logans because I want one?

[ElectronGuru]

What ever happened to the mule logans because I want one?

Flood heads have been in development for almost a year and were not ready for announcement. As of today, the design is finalized, so its a matter of establishing production.

If this is true then why on the new peak website is the el capitan being sold with an option for narrow or medium optics?

Optics are differentiated, not by size but by beam profile. 'Narrow' refers to the most possible focus. 'Medium' is in between the most floody optic and the least. The optic is the same size, just frosted instead of clear. Like a textured reflector, frosting reduces throw, but gains a smoother/cleaner beam profile.