Collimater LED Flashlight Review

[Roy]

Recived the Collimator LED Flashlight from www.shoplifestyle.com today! They sell this light for $49.95 which is, in my opinion, about $15.00 too much. The flashlight came in a plain, unmarked box that was the same size as the flashlight.

First impressiion is that it's a nice sized unit. It's about 1/4 inch shorter than an E2 and a bit wider than a ARC LS-123. The tail switch is either on or off with a loud "click". The pressure required to click the switch is around 3-5 pounds and can be manuipulated with the thumb with no problem.

Unscrewing the switch allows the battery holder to drop out. It holds 3 AAA Battries. Unscrewing the front bezel brings out the led assembly. The led is press fitted into the bezel and it is a Luexon Star (looks like one to me!).

Notice that the led appears to be off center!! The beam shot verifies that it IS off center. And the color of the light is about the same color as the coating on the led! Yellow-green I cannot tell if there is any regulation or no, but I doubt it!

The beam pattern has a pronounced white spot with dark yellow-green sploches surrounding the white spot. It appears to have a wider flood pattern than my SLS1 or my Ill PILL. Compaired the light output to my SLS1 and Ill PILL by lighting up a photo cell from 7 inches and measuring the mVdc indicated on a multimeter. Got the following results:

Collimator LED 210 mVdc
Ill PILL 230 mVdc
SLS1-123 210 mVdc

The paper catalog that came with the Collimator LED had a nice diagram of how a collimator works.

Added later:

It took 110 minutes for the photo cell reading to go from 210 mVdc to 105 mVdc. The battery voltage at the end of the run was 3.48 Vdc from a start value of around 4.4 Vdc. The run test was done with a fresh set of Energizer e2 Titanium AAA battries. During the first hour of the test the body of the flashlight got very warm and cooled down as the light output dropped.

 

[Stainless]

Thanks for the input... think I'll skip this one. Too bad it doesn't use AA or 123s instead of those tiny AAAs. It sounds like they at least put a decent switch on it.

 

[carl]

Roy, thanks for the review, I too was curious about this one. I think I'll skip it too but I am glad you measured the output. thanks!

By the way, maybe we should all put our mugs on our letters like Roy, no more of this anonymous AKA stuff!

 

[geepondy]

Thanks also from me Roy. Very nice review and pictures. They appear to be another company like CMG that is not filtering out the Luxeon's.

 

[Catseye]

Roy, the beam is off center on mine too in fact it looks indentical to your pic.Also the black cap on the tail switch can come off fairly easy it is just a friction fit on a plastic stud. My main beef with this light is the fact it isn't remotely waterproof. When you push on the front lens it compresses the rear spring and shoves all of the internal parts to the back of the light away from the front bezel lip. Which BTW has no o-ring. On a positive note I use my light quite a bit around the house. Its real handy when stood on end to light up a room.

 

[Roy]

There is an "o" ring on mine...just have to look very close. I didn't find any sealing on the front of the collimator to hold back water.

You're right! Around the house you don't notice the off-center beam. In fact the flood of light appears pretty even from across the room.

 

[Lux Luthor]

Thanks Roy,

Have you tried NiMHs in it? I think it might be brighter that way if all they have in there is a resistor.

 

[Roy]

Sorry, I don't have any AAA NiMHs.

 

[vcal]

Originally posted by Roy:
Someone else can be the sacrifical goat for the next LS base light to come out!

Yes, I think $50 is way too much for a light of this quality. If it were in the $30 -$40 range, I would say get one as it would be a good light to have around the house.

I'm not sure how the pcb comes out. If I could get it out, might be able to center-up the led.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Very helpful review, Roy + thanks.

I'm with hotfoot on possibly replacing that LED (& pcb?) for a MUCH better HD when it comes out.
I like the form factor of the light a lot though.

That light is from South Korea, and I'm very surprised is doesn't seem like better quality

-At least it comes apart!

 

[hotfoot]

Originally posted by Lux Luthor:
Thanks Roy,

Have you tried NiMHs in it? I think it might be brighter that way if all they have in there is a resistor.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">There's a resistor?

 

[Lux Luthor]

hotfoot,

I don't know whether it has a resistor, I just meant assuming it's not regulated.

 

[CiTY]

I've purchased 2 led lights from http://www.shoplifestyle.com/ and returned 1. They were pretty good about the returns. If you should care to do so. The one I returned was also a disappointment, no electronics at all, just 3 button cells driving an led... It sounded so high tech in their description.... IMHO, their lights are mostly low tech, in my eyes.

 

[ARC mania]

Oh, my GOD! I wished someone could have put this up sooner about this light. I just bought four of em a week ago and still has not arrived. Since I live half way across the world, I'll spend another fifty dollars to return these lights. City is right, this store does make all their flashlights sound high tech. I could have donated the $200.00 dollars to an animal shelter or some organization for better use of funds.

 

[hotfoot]

Thanks Roy for those very well-taken pix of your collimator light - I hope it re-assembled as well as it was dismantled for the shoot!

Would you buy another or recommend a friend to buy one? $50 is pretty steep and it goes head to head with the reactor (ie. unregulated LS torches).

Last Q - does it seem possible to remove the LS pcb? It would be nice to be able to swap it out for a HD when it becomes available... TIA

 

[Roy]

Someone else can be the sacrifical goat for the next LS based light to come out!

Yes, I think $50 is way too much for a light of this quality. If it were in the $30 -$40 range, I would say get one as it would be a good light to have around the house.

In my opinion, a Ill Pill or a Madmax conversion of a AA Minimag is a better use of $50!

I'm not sure how the pcb comes out. If I could get it out, might be able to center-up the led.

 

[Doug Meister]

Thanks Roy (and others for your comments), I think I'll save 50 bucks and maybe later this year spend $90 on a tree worth $150. I dont know what trees have to do with this topic - I guess I'm just tired this late at night.

--Ðøug

™

 

[brightnorm]

Roy,

Excellent and useful review. It helped me to feel very comfortable about not getting this light.

BTW, does anyone know if Luxeons can be smaller in diameter? It would make a big difference in the size of Luxeon flashlights.

Brightnorm

 

[Doug S]

Originally posted by brightnorm:
Roy,
BTW, does anyone know if Luxeons can be smaller in diameter? It would make a big difference in the size of Luxeon flashlights.

Brightnorm

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Once the Luxeon side emitters are available, I believe that good beam quality will be obtainable with MiniMag size reflectors.

 

[brightnorm]

Originally posted by Doug S:

Once the Luxeon side emitters are available, I believe that good beam quality will be obtainable with MiniMag size reflectors.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Thanks Doug.

Brightnorm

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I just got one of these today from ISP Korea. They also have a 3-C cell version with similar styling, but with a barrel-mounted pushbutton.

The 3-AAA "Collimator" light was DOA. Well, not really - turns out its battery carriage doesn't work with Duracell AAA cells, which are the only kind I have handy. So I took out my cuttin' horse and started slashing at it until I got the batteries to connect.

The beam isn't uneven or crokked at all; this sample actually has a nice beam compared to everyone else's.

Now, the C-cell version, THAT has a sh!tty beam!! It's very unusual, in that it has a squarish, bluish-white central hot spot, surrounded by a "rotten dog urine green" horseshoe, which itself is surrounded by a larger, white horseshoe and another horseshoe of that green **** color, which is surrounded by a wide, moonlight-white corona that didn't pick up in the photograph.

Time to get out the camera... *pop* *pop* *pop* oh wait, no flashbulbs... *click* *click* *click*. darn, digital camera... no shutter either.

The lights themselves.

Beam from the 3-AAA "InGon"

Beam from the 3-C cell version

Both lights have a very finely ridged, satin-like texture that can be made to produce a musical sound when rubbed briskly. They fell slippery in the hand because the texture is so fine, so they aren't for rock climbers. Frankly, I'm afraid to knock over or drop these, especially the C cell version. So I'll run the optical tests first, and then "accidentally" knock them off the table.

In the 3-AAA version, the Luxeon is affixed to the aluminum slug/battery contact using a white ceramic-like potting, rather than a piece of fiberglass PCB like earlier versions. Assuming this ceramic compound has reasonable thermal qualities, it may sink heat better than the PCB insulator did. I did briefly try to unscrew the bezel off the 3-C model, but it wouldn't come off. I'll wait until after testing before trying to disassemble that one.