Re: Thor Spot Light information
Hi, this is Mark Weiss from Connecticut. I discovered this forum while doing some research on the Thor X Cyclops on Google. Nice to see a discussion on spotlights. I never knew there was an enthusiast group into 'overclocking' flashlights! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I just bought one of these Thor X Cyclops lamps from COSTCO yesterday. After giving it a full charge, I fired it up today and, yes it was quite bright, although, it didn't look like 10 million candlepower to me.
I also own a Brinkman Q-Beam Big Max, which is a sealed-beam spotlight with 150W filament. That has been my benchmark for 20 years (bought it in '83).
I recently bought a Vector spotlight, also at COSTCO. It's nice and portable, and reasonably bright.
Here's what gets me: Over the years, it seems like candlepower ratings are being inflated. 10 years ago, I saw the first 1,000,000 CP spotlights and they were a fraction as bright as the Q-Beam.
So I have the Thor, the Vector and the Q-Beam (with not so fully-charged 4.5 Ah battery attached by a 16 ga wire) and thought I'd do a comparison this evening. I set them up on the deck aiming up at 45º into the trees. The Thor was quite bright, as expected, and very white (being it was just fresh off the charger), but when I switched on the old Q-Beam, although it's beam was a little yellowish due to the lack of charge on the battery, ITS beam was easily as bright as the Thor's central point, and twice as wide as Thor's. Q-Beam's peripheral light was easily 50% brighter than Thor's. If I had provided a full 12VDC to it, it would have been even brighter. It draws 13A at 12VDC.
Now here's the kicker: Q-Beam is rated at 300,000 CP.
As for the Vector, it wasn't even in the running. It was like shining a flashlight next to a car's high beams.
Maybe someone can explain this anomaly. Has there been a change in measurement standards over the past 20 years?
Based on the Q-Beam, I would expect 10 million CP to be as bright as one of those mercury-vapor arc lamps used to light up the clouds at grand opening events. What it boils down to is that the Thor is a nice lamp, but it's more impressive to look at than to operate. I expected it to tromp the Q-Beam by several orders of magnitude, but it's only a close second instead.
Despite that confusion, I'll still keep the Thor; it's handles/stand make it a convenient work light for emergencies.
Maybe if I figure out how to post a pic, I'll do a head to head comparison shot and post it.
Jarhead has quite a nice little chopper/step up circuit there. It never occured to me to do that with the headlight system on my Ford Explorer, which has one of the worse lighting systems in the history of automotive lighting. I've got Phillips XtraVisions in there and still can't see where I'm going at night. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
