REACTOR III First impressions

APPEARANCE: Identical to original except in length

LENGTH/ WEIGHT/ ERGONOMICS:

Reactor: L - 6" Wgt (with batteries) 3.5 oz

Reactor III: L - 8" Wgt (with batteries) 5.4 oz

Reactor III is noticeably heavier than original but well balanced when held in middle of barrel. Longer barrel permits more secure hold on light.

SWITCH: Combination of original (infinite turn, vague indents for on/off),
and "improved" original (center on, with right and left off/stop).
Reactor III has infinite turn with clearly defined positions for on/off with a clearly tactile detent for "full off".

BEAM CHARACTERISTICS:

SHAPE: Well centered and smooth with central hotspot approx 12-18" diameter at 7 feet blending smoothly into very bright corona of approx 3-4 feet in diameter. Hotspot and corona are so smoothly blended that there is almost no delineation between them. Modest ambient light spill makes for relatively narrow beam.

BRIGHTNESS: Slightly more than twice as bright as original Reactor. By way of comparison, my LGI is easily more than twice as bright as the Reactor III. Please note that because of Luxeon's inconsistency these observations apply only to these specific lights.

COLOR: A subtle aqua. Reminiscent of ARC AAA LE beam color. In no way offensive.

RUNTIME: To be determined. Started simultaneous run with original Reactor. As of this post one hour has elapsed.

RELIABILITY: I received two Reactor III's from Shomertec. The second one quit after 20 minutes, restarted and functioned erratically until it finally died after one hour and could not be restarted with new batteries.

Both Reactor III's were loaded with fresh RAY-O-VAC Maximums. The original Reactor was loaded with fresh Energizer lithiums.

TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS: If bright runtime is extended, and if the problem with the second Reactor III proves to be very rare, then this would be a practical addition to a collection and the brightest low priced commercially produced luxeon light to date. I am not currently able to test the light outdoors, and I have some questions about the suitability of the relatively narrow beam for walking /hiking. I'm sure others will start reporting in soon and will fill in these gaps.

Brightnorm

Nice to see someone is comparing this to the original reactor. From what I read you are comparing the brightness of the two with the Reactor III on alkalines, and Reactor on lithiums, and the Reactor III is still brighter? Wow! Would you guess that they are using identical hardware inside, hence the one R3 has sputtered out (possibly overvoltage)?

Brightnorm,

I'm thinking with three AAs it should be bright as heck, even with an average Luxeon. Wonder what kind of resistor (or even circuitry) setup they have in there? I've never seen one in person, is there a way to look inside somehow?

Originally posted by MR Bulk:
Brightnorm,

I'm thinking with three AAs it should be bright as heck, even with an average Luxeon. Wonder what kind of resistor (or even circuitry) setup they have in there? I've never seen one in person, is there a way to look inside somehow?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Charlie,

The view inside the battery compartment is identical to the original. In the "CMG Reactor III" thread, CMG states that there is a "small" resistor to avoid driving the Luxeon over 350ma.

The LGI is much brighter, at least twice as bright. The head is "permanently" bonded to the body, so I didn't even try to remove it. Perhaps someone with special tools (strap wrench?) could do it.

I'm still enjoying your LGI.

Brightnorm

Thanks Brightnorm for the articulate, informtive review. This may be on the short list for a Christmas gift for my niece and nephew. If you have a chance, could you try it with nimh's? I'm curious as my original Reactor is dimmer then an Infinity when using nimh's. Perhaps with three cells, the voltage to use rechargeables will now be high enough.

Originally posted by geepondy:
Thanks Brightnorm for the articulate, informtive review. This may be on the short list for a Christmas gift for my niece and nephew. If you have a chance, could you try it with nimh's? I'm curious as my original Reactor is dimmer then an Infinity when using nimh's. Perhaps with three cells, the voltage to use rechargeables will now be high enough.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I am certain that if you could get the head apart, you could change to resistor in order to get a bright beam using NiMH batteries. However, if you then use alkaline batteries, you might let the magic smoke out.

Originally posted by geepondy:
Thanks Brightnorm for the articulate, informtive review. This may be on the short list for a Christmas gift for my niece and nephew. If you have a chance, could you try it with nimh's? I'm curious as my original Reactor is dimmer then an Infinity when using nimh's. Perhaps with three cells, the voltage to use rechargeables will now be high enough.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Geep,

Unfortunately, the only rechargeables I have are in my UltraStinger. I've never used nimh's.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Brightnorm

Originally posted by Stefan:
Nice to see someone is comparing this to the original reactor. From what I read you are comparing the brightness of the two with the Reactor III on alkalines, and Reactor on lithiums, and the Reactor III is still brighter?

Wow! Would you guess that they are using identical hardware inside, hence the one R3 has sputtered out (possibly overvoltage)?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Stefan,

I just realized that I never answered your question. That lame Reactor III somehow came back to life and limped through around 17 hours of meager brightness. CMG specifically states alkalines, so I wouldn't expect an over voltage problem,. especially with that resistor in place.

My guess is that it's a combination of a pi$s-poor Luxeon and a possibly defective switch.

I should add that my second Reactor III is functioning perfectly. This one was probably a lemon.

Brightnorm

I just went & tried my SF Beamshaper for the 6P & was just slightly loose. Could be cured with a little electrical tape. This would cure the "to tight" center spot if needed. TX

The reactors were designed for alkalines, and possibly lithiums (might damage a Reactor III on lithiums). The internal resistance of alkalines keep the current low. It's been mentioned several times in other threads that NICDs and NIMHs have less resistance and will fry the emitter. Also with the lesser capacity of rechargeables over primary cells the time until half initial brightness would be around an hour tops.

At least this is my observation, milage may vary.

I got my reactor III last night. It started out way brighter than my reactor I on fresh lithiums. It took about 3 hours for the brightness to drop to about equal to the reactor I and inretech AA (just turning the 'I' and the inretech on enough to compare). After 12 hours it was a little brighter than my infinity ultra. I was a little surprised at how warm the III got during the first 2 hours.

How bright is the Reactor III compared to the KL1?

Originally posted by doubleganger:
TANSTAAFL!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">as a Heinlein fan, I can only agree...

Any Comparison Pics? Like to see the beam side by side against a Arc LS and KL1

Thnx
Alex