Novatac 120T serial 12269 pics and questions

[jon_slider]

I found a couple posts about the PVC in the tail, and some comments about the change to a spring at the positive contact in the head.. bolding of some words added by me, but no words were changed. the photos that work are from my own image host, links to original threads included in case anybody wants to update the original images

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...atac-amp-hds&p=2620626&viewfull=1#post2620626

Let's start with the basics. These lights have one positive and TWO (2) negatives. The tube, whatever tube, acts as a ground. When you screw the light together and the light goes on for 1 second then turns off, this is showing that the ground through the TUBE is making contact. The second ground (the spring) activates the light. If you screw the light together and there is no dim light that shuts off, the problem is in the contacts with the tail or head and the tube itself. If the light turns on dim then shuts off but the switch does not work, it is more than likely an issue with the spring not making contact.

Let's look at two tail switches:

The switch on the left is lacking the super-heavily engineered, long talked about... plumbing part. The first thing to do is rip this sucker out. It is only in there to keep pressure on the battery during HEAVY recoil of a weapon. Do you have this mounted to your .44 magnum or .308 rifle? No? Get rid of it. 90% of the time when there is a problem, it is not letting the spring make contact with the tail. That large, flat silver part inside the retaining ring is what the spring needs to make contact with. Make sure it is clean.
Now, lets look at the conection between the head/tube/tail.


As you can see, the tube on the left is rounded and the tube on the right is cut out to fit nicely over the retaining ring both the head and the tail. The left tube is a 17670 tube and the tube on the right is a standard 123 tube. All that matters is that the tube makes contact with the retaining ring (in a Novatac) or the outer ring in an HDS. When using these tubes, or any other tube on a Novatac, you want to make sure the spring protrudes evenly. If the spring makes contact with the retaining ring, you can have the light change settings as though you pushed the switch. It can sometimes do this if you hit the light on the side, thereby moving the spring to make contact with the retaining ring.
As the picture below shows, you must have the spring protruding from each end of the tube.

If the spring does not protrude from each end... stretch that sucker so it does.
Also, be sure that the retaining ring is nice and tight in both the head and tail of your Novatac. Loose retaining rings cause congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, and strokes, usually preceded by lots of cursing.

Sometimes the spring can fit around the HELTAPP (highly engineered, long talked about plumbing part). It helps to put the tail on first, making sure the spring goes over HELTAPP.


Again, make sure that there is spring protruding from the top of the tube as well.


Sorry, was :buddies: when I took that picture. Looks clear to me! If you squint and jump up and down, it almost looks very clear.
Now screw the head on and...


Let there be light. Well, first a second of dim light followed by bright light when you push the switch.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-new-circuit&p=2668148&viewfull=1#post2668148

First big change I see if the addition of a positive contact spring instead of the brass nipple.

From the serial number, this is the third run of Novatac lights, so vendors may have, and most likely did, change. I doubt that the soldering was done by a different vendor, but it is possible. I would need to look at the light first hand to say any more than this.

The addition of a positive contact spring was something that was always desired as it helps keep the battery terminal from losing the connection during recoil.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-new-circuit&p=2668562&viewfull=1#post2668562

...

I've been waiting to see how the third gen would turn out. Glad I have first and second.

I must say though, that when NT first came out, there was quite a stir on the forum regarding things that people thought were there to cut costs, but in actuality, increased costs. One example is the polycarb lens. Optical grad polycarb was used and cost a heck of a lot more than UCL. It was done so the lens would not break... ever. Even when thrown as hard as one could at a cement wall. (Did that!)
This though... this does look like other vendors were used. Perhaps to cut cost, or perhaps because the previous vendors could no longer supply what was needed (this happened more than once).

 

[jon_slider]

a nice first gen 120 T, serial 13662 just showed up at my house

tailcap says made in USA... presumably Tucson

 

[GoVegan]

a nice first gen 120 T, serial 13662 just showed up at my house

Nice, wish HDS still did Gun Metal Gray. It looks sweet.

If you keep going, at this rate you'll have the world's largest collection of Novatac lights soon enough.

 

[Lithium466]

Very nice Jon!

 

[desert.snake]

**The addition of a positive contact spring was something that was always desired as it helps keep the battery terminal from losing the connection during recoil.**

As an idea - yes, just not on Chinese novatacs, I had one spring flew off at the soldering point, the second spring turned out to be not quite a spring, it bent to one side and did not have springy properties, then fell off in the same way. Had to use a piece of silver from the broken magnetic starter.

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

Nice, wish HDS still did Gun Metal Gray. It looks sweet.

If you keep going, at this rate you'll have the world's largest collection of Novatac lights soon enough.

It isn't gun metal gray, though it looks it. Just wasn't the best HAIII.
Yes Jon, that one was definitely made in Tucson from the SN.

 

[jon_slider]

thanks all for the encouraging and informative comments
this light has a nicer reflector, and tighter hotspot than my Spa Novas

the beam is really nice, and the tint is really neutral, no sign of green at all
the two on the left are stock, the right is sw45k

though low in lumens, the light is High in Lux
the 70 lumen maximum, is brighter within the tiny, throwy hotspot, than my FWAA at 200 lumens.

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

thanks all for the encouraging and informative comments
this light has a nicer reflector, and tighter hotspot than my Spa Novas

the beam is really nice, and the tint is really neutral, no sign of green at all
the two on the left are stock, the right is sw45k
View attachment 15160

though low in lumens, the light is High in Lux
the 70 lumen maximum, is brighter within the tiny, throwy hotspot, than my FWAA at 200 lumens.

Should be a 120 lumen max.

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

When I said the HAIII wasn't the best, I meant that the colors were not consistent. Some parts turned out nice and dark green and others turned out more silver. Not great consistency but the thickness of the HAIII was consistent. It is one of the reasons we moved to black in the second run in Tucson.

 

[GoVegan]

When I said the HAIII wasn't the best, I meant that the colors were not consistent. Some parts turned out nice and dark green and others turned out more silver. Not great consistency but the thickness of the HAIII was consistent. It is one of the reasons we moved to black in the second run in Tucson.

But the inconsistent colors can look great (as long as they aren't Surefire purple), they give that Boba Fett kind of look.
Options are good, that's all I'm saying.

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

But the inconsistent colors can look great (as long as they aren't Surefire purple), they give that Boba Fett kind of look.
Options are good, that's all I'm saying.

People seem to like it now, but at the time... it was the biggest complaint.

 

[WarriorOfLight]

But Hogo, you know there are always some people complaining. But at least that is my feeling here in the HDS community in CPF that most of the HDS customer knows how HDS ist working.

But I know customers may be annoying ... at least sometimes.

 

[jon_slider]

> Should be a 120 lumen max.

thanks, Ive been giving that some thought

maybe my meter has trouble with the P4 LED
fwiw, CRX gets the same low outputs I do, when measuring novatacs

here are the outputs from my 3 Novatac variants

in any case
if the 71 lumens Gen1 Nova is actually 120,
then the 92 lumens Spa might actually be 155 lumens

I dont mind either way, the outputs are what they are, and they work well for me

 

[Kid9P]

You guys suck, now I want a Novatac again....LOL

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

> Should be a 120 lumen max.

thanks, Ive been giving that some thought

maybe my meter has trouble with the P4 LED
fwiw, CRX gets the same low outputs I do, when measuring novatacs

here are the outputs from my 3 Novatac variants

in any case
if the 71 lumens Gen1 Nova is actually 120,
then the 92 lumens Spa might actually be 155 lumens

I dont mind either way, the outputs are what they are, and they work well for me

Using a light meter is very unreliable when trying to figure out lumen output. Color temp and tint can affect the readings. I had asked Henry to do a write up about this, but he has been rather busy.

 

[GoVegan]

You guys suck, now I want a Novatac again....LOL

I still think that the Novatacs (along with the McGizmo McLux III PD-S) are the best looking lights ever. Certainly not the best design, but best looking.

I think the best feature over the current HDS lights is that the switch was user replaceable, and I quite like how the clip could be attached to the bezel... same as how emarkd still rocks his HDS' like this.

 

[GoVegan]

in any case
if the 71 lumens Gen1 Nova is actually 120,
then the 92 lumens Spa might actually be 155 lumens

I dont mind either way, the outputs are what they are, and they work well for me

Exactly! If they work for you that's the most important thing, and while they might not be the most efficient lights these days they still provide very useful output, more than enough for almost any task/usage.

I nearly purchased an SPL-120 one recently. lol

 

[LEDphile]

Using a light meter is very unreliable when trying to figure out lumen output. Color temp and tint can affect the readings. I had asked Henry to do a write up about this, but he has been rather busy.

Using a light meter (lux or footcandles) to measure lumens is challenging because you need enough measurements to be able to take the beam distribution into account. But assuming that you can take the required number of measurements (e.g. by using a goniophotometer), color and tint have almost no impact as long as the light meter is using a proper luminosity function (there is often some error between the theoretical curve and the practically achievable curve, but it usually shows up with saturated blues and reds, and has almost no effect with white light sources). Now, there's a bit more error when trying to measure color point without using a spectrometer (especially when saturated colors are involved), but that's not lumens.

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

Using a light meter (lux or footcandles) to measure lumens is challenging because you need enough measurements to be able to take the beam distribution into account. But assuming that you can take the required number of measurements (e.g. by using a goniophotometer), color and tint have almost no impact as long as the light meter is using a proper luminosity function (there is often some error between the theoretical curve and the practically achievable curve, but it usually shows up with saturated blues and reds, and has almost no effect with white light sources). Now, there's a bit more error when trying to measure color point without using a spectrometer (especially when saturated colors are involved), but that's not lumens.

OK. I guess you know more. I stand corrected.
We will sell our integrating sphere and start measuring HDS lights with light meters from now on. We can use some Styrofoam coolers maybe to make an integrating sphere... AND before you comment, you had best do some reading in some old posts regarding this. I'm not going to rehash it.

 

[LEDphile]

OK. I guess you know more. I stand corrected.
We will sell our integrating sphere and start measuring HDS lights with light meters from now on. We can use some Styrofoam coolers maybe to make an integrating sphere... AND before you comment, you had best do some reading in some old posts regarding this. I'm not going to rehash it.

Got a link to those old posts? I'm happy to be educated, but I didn't find any posts on this topic with a couple searches and looking through about 20 pages of search results.

And it seems like you were being sarcastic, but it is possible to correlate measurements made with a light meter in an arbitrary reflective box back to measurements made using a spectrometer in an integrating sphere (and I know of at least one company doing exactly that for production measurements, for various reasons.) But it takes a bit of effort to get things to correlate well.