Aleph Questions

I'm going to take the plung and get an aleph. Mainly because it seems they are very upgradable.

I'd like a 1x123 system with a lux3 and a 60 ohm switch. my question is...which driver do I want? I plain to use Normal 123s for starters but I may switch to R123s soon. So is a BB750 ok? what kind of runtime will I get? and how bright will it be? What other options do I have since I want a two stage switch. Are the next gen drivers okay or is that flickering an issue still.

Lastly I'm trying to decide between a A3 head or an A1. Will I really notice the Half and inch difference on my belt if I go with the A3? When I say this will be an EDC I mean that it's gonna ride on my hip 24/7. My current EDC is an Arc 4+ for perspective.

I am not clear on why or how you arrived at 60 ohms for the resistor but assume that you must want a really low low! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif If that's the case, then you will want to go with the BB. I would suggest an A-3-1x123 with NG750 and 15 ohm resistor for swivel belt carry and as to noticing it on your hip, yeah, you will. As to whether you will notice it more than the A-1, it has been my experience that there isn't much difference there. As to noticing it on your hip, I think you notice any thing on your belt from time to time, or at least I do. It has never been an issue for me or cause of frustration or concern. I can only speak from experience and I have a A-3-1x123 on my right hip 99% of the time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

[ QUOTE ]
McGizmo said:
I am not clear on why or how you arrived at 60 ohms for the resistor but assume that you must want a really low low! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif If that's the case, then you will want to go with the BB. I would suggest an A-3-1x123 with NG750 and 15 ohm resistor for swivel belt carry and as to noticing it on your hip, yeah, you will. As to whether you will notice it more than the A-1, it has been my experience that there isn't much difference there. As to noticing it on your hip, I think you notice any thing on your belt from time to time, or at least I do. It has never been an issue for me or cause of frustration or concern. I can only speak from experience and I have a A-3-1x123 on my right hip 99% of the time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you saying that the BB is for low lights and the NG is for brighter lights?

On the Low setting: I'm looking for a light to navigate dark places indoors mostly, so I want it to be a softer non-blinding type of thing that I can use for close up work as well. I'd like a fairly long run time at this setting. of the top of my head over 5 hours sounds good, but maybe I'm being unrealistic.
On the High setting: I'm looking for a blinding light for searching around outside and mainly just to see things at a distance.

A few questions,
So is there still a flicker problem with the Next Gen drivers or no?
And can you give me any idea of how bright my high and low setting would be with different resistors?

Also where do I order these? through e-mail from you or off of that sandwich shoppe site? What is the difference?

Thanks for your help!

Just wanted to say I'm open to anyone who would like to reply here...

I think McGizmo is on his way home from shot

I suggested the BB over the NG because it can handle the higher resistor value without flickering. All lights are compromises. From what I read, I think you should get the A-3 because it has a more efficient reflector than the A-1. I think you should get a NG500 for driver because of its efficiency and good, IMHO, compromise of power level VS light output. I think a 15 ohm resistor will give you a low level in the realm you seek and the spill portion of the beam can be used for direct up close illumination as well as the spot can be used for indirect (bounced off the ceiling) close up illumination as well as discreet illumination at a distance. You can buy this light from any of the guys building the Aleph lights, from the shoppe or from me via E-mail (check out my build and pricing thread)

As a general matter, I'll go for a NexGen over a BadBoy any day. I only use the BadBoy converter when I have to. That's not the say that the BadBoy isn't a great little converter. I just think that the NexGen is better.

The NexGen is more efficient. I hate to keep harping on this, but heat is an important factor to me, and the NexGen generates much less heat than the BadBoy does. Having to contend with the heat that the luxeon generates is enough without having to worry about the converter too.

I'd go with the NexGen even IF it flickered. In most cases, you don't notice the flickering in real use. What I usually do to avoid the flickering is to just use 10 ohms of resistance, rather than 15 ohms.

I also like the Aleph I head better than the Aleph III head in an EDC. I find the III to be a bit bulky for my taste, but then again, I carry my light in the inside pocket of my suit. The Aleph III does throw better, but in practical terms, the Aleph I just serves me better. The beam isn't as narrow as that of the Aleph III and it covers a bigger area. I very rarely find myself NEEDING more throw. I can't see as far as an Aleph III will throw.

To tell you the truth, I could probably give a more definite answer if I knew what you meant by "at a distance."

In the pitch dark and outdoors, you'd be surprised at how well an Aleph II will perform running at about 500mA with a nice warm luxeon. Say a TX1J, for example.

I sold a pair of Alephs to a friend of mine. One was an Aleph II as described above. The other was an Aleph III with a DB917/TX1J light engine. After taking both on a week long hunting trip, he commented on how handy the Aleph II was in the woods. He said that he used the Aleph II most of the time and only used the Aleph III at times when he wanted to check a plot that was 200 paces from his stand. He even used the Aleph II as a head light on his 4 wheeler to navigate his way though the woods.

I realize that I probably muddied the waters a bit, but all of the Alephs have their place. Among them, I think the Aleph II is the most useful.

Of course, you could always just get an Aleph II and order an extra Aleph III head for the light for those times when you anticipate needing reach.

As for the light engine, I'm not really sure of what your NEEDS are. I know that I like the single cell bodies. They make for really cool looking lights and are handy, but if you can live with a longer light, you might want to consider a downboy500 based light engine. I think that runtime is like 4 hours on high and a really long time on low.

If you do get a single cell light with a boost converter and want to run li-ion cells with it, you should do one of two things.

First, go with a bias of over 700mA if you are going with a J Vf luxeon.

Second, if you go with a K Vf luxeon, then you should be OK with just about any bias. The NexGen converter will allow for about .7v overhead.