Anyone buy the Armytek Tiara A1 or C1 yet?

[chadvone]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?396543-Armytek-Prime-A1

Check out post #3

This is exactly how my Prime Pro A1 V1 acted when I inserted a NiMH after having it set to Li-Ion. I hope that is all that is wrong with yours.
This has been corrected on the V2 prime A1

Solutions. Primary 123 at end of your AA would need some wire to complete circuit. A friend with 14500.

 

[Woods Walker]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?396543-Armytek-Prime-A1

Check out post #3

This is exactly how my Prime Pro A1 V1 acted when I inserted a NiMH after having it set to Li-Ion. I hope that is all that is wrong with yours.
This has been corrected on the V2 prime A1

Solutions. Primary 123 at end of your AA would need some wire to complete circuit. A friend with 14500.

i guess it has not been corrected as near as I can tell mine is V2. If so it is a bad bad flaw as I never intentionally set the light for that mode. Gosh not sure what to do. It also doesn't help that the light didn't come with a manual. Maybe I will order some 14500 to see.

 

[chadvone]

Stand light on its head with tailcap off. Insert a Ni-MH. Insert a CR123 Primary. Get a Paper clip and bent it into a S shape that will contact the bare aluminum on the light and the negative end of the Primary CR123. Ni-MH 1.2 CR123 3 volts. That should allow you to reset to Ni-MH. May need a second person. Or extra time with paper clip bending to get so you can hold it with one hand.

 

[Woods Walker]

Stand light on its head with tailcap off. Insert a Ni-MH. Insert a CR123 Primary. Get a Paper clip and bent it into a S shape that will contact the bare aluminum on the light and the negative end of the Primary CR123. Ni-MH 1.2 CR123 3 volts. That should allow you to reset to Ni-MH. May need a second person. Or extra time with paper clip bending to get so you can hold it with one hand.

Here is what I did. I speculated that the cutoff voltage would be around 2.8 volts so combined 2XAA alkalines and some wire. Then went to their web site as have no clue how to reset the power source (no manual included) and presto! If I knew this I could have actually done it using the kit in my pack. I have wire in all my PSKs and always pack an extra battery.



Still this will count against the Armytek when I do the comparison between the Tiarra A1 Pro vs HL50. Pros, the ability to safely use unprotected 14500. Cons you can totally shut off the light and without included instruction a person would never even know what's going on. Heck even with the online instructions it's not really explained. I am going to buy some 14500. I have a charger as use 18650 and 16650.

 

[chadvone]

Glad you got it to work. My Tiara C1 Pro ran 5 hours 40 minutes on Nitecore IMR 18350 at 70 lumen level.

My Prime Pro A1 ran 2 hours 55 minutes on Nitecore IMR 14500 at 70 lumens. I think the Prime A1 and the Taira A1 have same circuit.

 

[Woods Walker]

Glad you got it to work. My Tiara C1 Pro ran 5 hours 40 minutes on Nitecore IMR 18350 at 70 lumen level.

My Prime Pro A1 ran 2 hours 55 minutes on Nitecore IMR 14500 at 70 lumens. I think the Prime A1 and the Taira A1 have same circuit.

I am glad as well because it's warm NW tint and beam pattern is rapidly growing on me. I was actually a bit squeamish about tonight's brook dunk test however it didn't leak so that's another pro. I am always skeptical of water proof/resistance claims until tested to at least some degree personally.

 

[chadvone]

Glad it passed. I have glassed mine, in the safety of light. I just posted a few other issues. In AT's Tiara thread.
I really like my Armytek lights. Sometimes it might sound like I am b#tching.

 

[blah9]

Like I said in the other thread I'm glad it's working, and great ideas everyone.

I am also a huge fan of the warm light from my Wizard Pro Warm. It has grown on me to be perhaps my favorite tint of all my lights.

 

[chadvone]

Woods Walker how does the 70 lumen level compare to the 60 on the fenix. My Tiara is light boxing around 60ish.

Also seen your post about possible getting a Zebralight H302w. I had one. Great light for anything 10 feet away and under. Hiking use, not so great. The super flooder made me use a much higher setting. Requiring more cells.

Blah9 I bought my Wizard Pro Warm for a headlamp. It has found its way into my pocket.

Wife's Tiara is a CW. One of the better cools I have used. On our walks I can see where she is looking and don't get upset when she crosses beams with my Warm Wizard

 

[Woods Walker]

Woods Walker how does the 70 lumen level compare to the 60 on the fenix. My Tiara is light boxing around 60ish.

Also seen your post about possible getting a Zebralight H302w. I had one. Great light for anything 10 feet away and under. Hiking use, not so great. The super flooder made me use a much higher setting. Requiring more cells.

Blah9 I bought my Wizard Pro Warm for a headlamp. It has found its way into my pocket.

Wife's Tiara is a CW. One of the better cools I have used. On our walks I can see where she is looking and don't get upset when she crosses beams with my Warm Wizard

The HL50s 60 lumens or 55 has the same field effectiveness for hiking compared to the Tiara's 70. Slightly less flood but a little more throw. The flood is enough to walk, very flood for a reflector light and the extra throw balances out the lower lumens when looking for trial markers or paths. Despite having around 20 less lumens both lights throw the same. The pro is longer runtimes but at less overall output. Fenix also uses the same LED IMHO as the ZL SC5w. Maybe they picked a cooler NW than Armytek got. It's more of a true NW. I actually prefer that tint but glad the Tiara is on the warmer side as like variety. The Tiara has an edge with it's 10 lumen low mode compared to the HL50's 3-4 lumen low as it's more useful in camp. I wish the Tiara had a 3-4 lumen mode and the HL50 a 10 lumen mode.

As for battery indicators everyone I ever used only really gave me a rough estimate.

 

[chadvone]

The zebra W's use 4500kv Armytek uses 4000kv. I also liked the tint of my H600w. But it was not enough to keep the light.

Tested my Prime Pro A1 today. 210 lumen level. Ni-MH. 68 minutes Green flash. 9 minutes of Yellow. 4 minutes of RED and Main led. Stepped, 2 minutes at 140,
2 minutes at 40 then stepped to 10 lumens and I stopped.

So if the Tiara A1 has same circuit you would get 4 minutes of 210 lumens to mind your surroundings , and another 4 minutes of stepping down to 10 lumens.
Plenty of warning for all the situations I can see myself in.
I also tested the Tiara C1 Pro at 210 lumens with NC 18350 IMR. Flashed green for 1 hour 58 minutes, I fell asleep a few minutes into the yellow flashing.

 

[Woods Walker]

The zebra W's use 4500kv Armytek uses 4000kv. I also liked the tint of my H600w. But it was not enough to keep the light.

Tested my Prime Pro A1 today. 210 lumen level. Ni-MH. 68 minutes Green flash. 9 minutes of Yellow. 4 minutes of RED and Main led. Stepped, 2 minutes at 140,
2 minutes at 40 then stepped to 10 lumens and I stopped.

So if the Tiara A1 has same circuit you would get 4 minutes of 210 lumens to mind your surroundings , and another 4 minutes of stepping down to 10 lumens.
Plenty of warning for all the situations I can see myself in.
I also tested the Tiara C1 Pro at 210 lumens with NC 18350 IMR. Flashed green for 1 hour 58 minutes, I fell asleep a few minutes into the yellow flashing.

That seems about right in terms of the voltage indicator. Good enough for me and another pro of a single battery headlamp or flashlight is easy battery change in low light conditions. Then again having only one battery can increase the chance of the actual need. LOL! I think both of my Armytek warm lights are warmer than 4000k but have no way to test it. They're on the warm side of NW which again is ok. My most disliked tint is CW with a strong shift to squid **** green then CW with a strong shift to alien abduction angry blue. CW what's creamy white, NW, Warmish NW, Warm are all ok. All of that said I value reliability and durability (not necessarily the same thing) over tint, modes, runtimes and about everything else. Any gear item that works trumps the one which doesn't.

 

[chadvone]

"Any gear item that works trumps the one which doesn't."

Well said.

I remember when my Princeton Tec Aurora and CMG Infinity was all I needed for a night hike. I still have them both. Angry Abduction blue as you put it...... I never carried spare cells back then. They were backup to each other.

 

[Woods Walker]

Here is an interesting bug. Once the battery runs down too low for max and the highest level 3 aka just turns off on those settings yet has enough power for all other modes with a green flashlight light I got it (god knows how) to get stuck in firefly with the green power button light permanently on. Normally the green power button light doesn't flash when using firefly but it was stuck solid green which is also a first. I needed to untwist the tail to reset the light. With a fresh battery it hasn't happened again and even worked just fine on the run down battery once it was reset via untwisting the tail. Still we have two first with this headlamp that I never experienced with any other model regardless of maker.

1. The ability to totally disable it via mistaken power mode setting. Reset via 2XAA trick. Worked fine after that.

2. The inability to turn it off. :laughing: No really.... It wouldn't turn off till the tail was twisted off. LOL! Worked fine after that.

There are some ghosts in this machine. I have some 14500 Fenix batteries in the mail so looking forward to seeing what the max mode looks like using those.

 

[zr2yz125]

"Any gear item that works trumps the one which doesn't."

...I completely agree! My Tiara A1 was so buggy I dumped it and picked up a Zebralight H52Fw instead. The ZL is a much nicer light...and it's reliable!

 

[Woods Walker]

"Any gear item that works trumps the one which doesn't."

...I completely agree! My Tiara A1 was so buggy I dumped it and picked up a Zebralight H52Fw instead. The ZL is a much nicer light...and it's reliable!

I have a ZL SC5w and so far it's wonderful. If they make a headlamps version I would consider it. Also own a H50 and H501 and H501w.

 

[gunga]

I was considering an armytek. Now, not so much.

 

[Woods Walker]

I was considering an armytek. Now, not so much.

To be fair low power can make lights do funky things (granted that was really funky) and the other issue isn't so bad once known. I am actually liking it but that's not the same thing as totally trusting it. The brand is sold as super reliable and durable but it seems there are questions hanging over it. So is it a wiz bang (multiple battery types and many modes) brand rather than durable/reliable aka Malkoff? I am doing the HL50 part of the 1XAA showdown tomorrow. Hope that also passes the water test.

 

[gunga]

Yes. Let us know. I was thinking of this as an alternative to a zebralight headlamp but I'm not sure I trust ít.

 

[Woods Walker]

Yes. Let us know. I was thinking of this as an alternative to a zebralight headlamp but I'm not sure I trust ít.

My A1 earned it's keep today. I was trail running and the weather turned bad. Rained so hard I had to run the A1 on the second to highest mode, the one just below turbo. It was able to cut through the downpour and mist to illuminate the forest and trail floor. No water got in and the light was really needed. That and my Equinox Silnylon poncho really helped. The trails were flooded and pitch black with miles to go. With luck it will keep on working.