Well, the good news is, I won Jimmy regulator give away.
The bad news, I won by default cause only one other person entered.
I won for my contributing an updated how to of a regulated mag using the modern tower,
and also for my experimentation of using one to run an MT-G2 LED which I have not posted yet at the time of this publication.
These builds were using regulators I had already purchased.
At one point Jimmy expressed sadness at the thought of:
"I don't see enough midsize lanterns with my regulators in them."
So, seeing as I now have a spare regulator that I did not have a plan for, I decided to go ahead and build one.
Just for you Jimmy, The Regulated Big Beam.
I think I impulsively bought this on ebay a long time ago.
At one point, years before I joined CPF, when I was the only one in existence I was aware of that modded lights, I managed to shoehorn a Streamlight Vulcan/Litebox reflector assembly into the head of this light.
I must have spent something like 8 hours whittling away the edge to custom fit it into place.
Once I was done, I felt self conscience of the absurd amount of time I spend building this, and was even timid to admit it to my friends.
But I digress.
This reflector is pure throw. It shoots like a laser with little to no spill as I'm sure much of you are familiar.
It honestly has not gotten used by me very much since I joined CPF got into mag mods and lion cells.
I ran it with the stock 6v 8w Streamlight bulb, and fitted it with a 6v 5ah SLA battery. It used to be the cats *** to me.
New for 2014, the switch is replaced with a momentary button.
It's actually a pretty easy build. No custom fitting required, just wire the thing in.
I put this together in the amount of time it took my Girlfriend to take a shower and get ready to go shopping . . . which isn't saying much actually.
The reg is taped to this foam, it will just get sandwiched in place.
This is the battery I've run with it for years. Wrapped in a beer cozy.
I remember when I used the think SLA's were awesome, now, not so much.
Under load it sags down to less than 5v making it a poor choice to run this Jimmy FET.
In fact, while running the FM Axial 4v bulb I selected, it didn't even need regulation after the softstart process was complete.
Seeing as I don't have any better battery options, and I don't want to dedicate some of my beloved 26650 cells to make a proprietary pack to run this light, I fashioned some magnet to spade adapters.
Now we just stuff it in there and call it a day . . . after some careful calibration of course.
The FM Axial 4v bulb was chosen because I like to run the regulator with a bulb that is rated lower than the supply voltage for best results. The bulb works perfectly with the reflector where not all that I try have. Ie: WA bulbs. The Stock SL bulb has a very short base compared to most bulbs.
The 4v bulb, stock rated for ~13w, gets pushed to ~15w for a good level of output. The regulator get calibrated to run the bulb at 4.85v. I have not had the nerve to try and push it harder. The output is quite brilliant white at this voltage.
To prove it works, presented to you in order of the modes as I prefer them:
Medium: 69%
Low: 47%
High: Duh%
The mode % was selected to accommodate this bulbs heavy regulation. The typical 30/60% causes the low and med modes to run too dim as the % is proportional to the vbulb setting and not the Vin.
Seen here, the beam profile is not the most flattering.
With the camera stopped up, you can see the tight hotspot. This is natural to the reflector and the axial bulb really enhances it.
For added convenience I went ahead and fashioned a cell carrier out of some scrap.
C cell battery holders cut in half, connected using 18g solid copper wire, and riveted to a piece of acrylic that I fitted to be snug.
It gets taped down and will not go any where.
Obvious awesomeness of the Jimmy FET aside, this is probably one of the best upgrades I've done to this light since the reflector.
Icing on the cake being there is so much spare room, I could store a spare set of batteries.
Perhaps one day I'll build a better 4 cell carrier, but for now, this is lightyears ahead of what it was.
The bad news, I won by default cause only one other person entered.
I won for my contributing an updated how to of a regulated mag using the modern tower,
and also for my experimentation of using one to run an MT-G2 LED which I have not posted yet at the time of this publication.
These builds were using regulators I had already purchased.
At one point Jimmy expressed sadness at the thought of:
"I don't see enough midsize lanterns with my regulators in them."
So, seeing as I now have a spare regulator that I did not have a plan for, I decided to go ahead and build one.
Just for you Jimmy, The Regulated Big Beam.
I think I impulsively bought this on ebay a long time ago.
At one point, years before I joined CPF, when I was the only one in existence I was aware of that modded lights, I managed to shoehorn a Streamlight Vulcan/Litebox reflector assembly into the head of this light.
I must have spent something like 8 hours whittling away the edge to custom fit it into place.
Once I was done, I felt self conscience of the absurd amount of time I spend building this, and was even timid to admit it to my friends.
But I digress.
This reflector is pure throw. It shoots like a laser with little to no spill as I'm sure much of you are familiar.
It honestly has not gotten used by me very much since I joined CPF got into mag mods and lion cells.
I ran it with the stock 6v 8w Streamlight bulb, and fitted it with a 6v 5ah SLA battery. It used to be the cats *** to me.
New for 2014, the switch is replaced with a momentary button.
It's actually a pretty easy build. No custom fitting required, just wire the thing in.
I put this together in the amount of time it took my Girlfriend to take a shower and get ready to go shopping . . . which isn't saying much actually.
The reg is taped to this foam, it will just get sandwiched in place.
This is the battery I've run with it for years. Wrapped in a beer cozy.
I remember when I used the think SLA's were awesome, now, not so much.
Under load it sags down to less than 5v making it a poor choice to run this Jimmy FET.
In fact, while running the FM Axial 4v bulb I selected, it didn't even need regulation after the softstart process was complete.
Seeing as I don't have any better battery options, and I don't want to dedicate some of my beloved 26650 cells to make a proprietary pack to run this light, I fashioned some magnet to spade adapters.
Now we just stuff it in there and call it a day . . . after some careful calibration of course.
The FM Axial 4v bulb was chosen because I like to run the regulator with a bulb that is rated lower than the supply voltage for best results. The bulb works perfectly with the reflector where not all that I try have. Ie: WA bulbs. The Stock SL bulb has a very short base compared to most bulbs.
The 4v bulb, stock rated for ~13w, gets pushed to ~15w for a good level of output. The regulator get calibrated to run the bulb at 4.85v. I have not had the nerve to try and push it harder. The output is quite brilliant white at this voltage.
To prove it works, presented to you in order of the modes as I prefer them:
Medium: 69%
Low: 47%
High: Duh%
The mode % was selected to accommodate this bulbs heavy regulation. The typical 30/60% causes the low and med modes to run too dim as the % is proportional to the vbulb setting and not the Vin.
Seen here, the beam profile is not the most flattering.
With the camera stopped up, you can see the tight hotspot. This is natural to the reflector and the axial bulb really enhances it.
For added convenience I went ahead and fashioned a cell carrier out of some scrap.
C cell battery holders cut in half, connected using 18g solid copper wire, and riveted to a piece of acrylic that I fitted to be snug.
It gets taped down and will not go any where.
Obvious awesomeness of the Jimmy FET aside, this is probably one of the best upgrades I've done to this light since the reflector.
Icing on the cake being there is so much spare room, I could store a spare set of batteries.
Perhaps one day I'll build a better 4 cell carrier, but for now, this is lightyears ahead of what it was.
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