HDS Systems EDC # 18

[John N]

John, the Ultimate 85, is that an 18650 or 17670 tube on that classic HDS?

It's an 18650 prototype tube I was fortunate enough to nab. It's modded to an XPG.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3584365

-john

 

[John N]

They should all have a plug.

I wonder if this is an across the board change.

-john

 

[Kid9P]

It's an 18650 prototype tube I was fortunate enough to nab. It's modded to an XPG.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3584365

-john

Sweet, I have the same setup....U85 and an 18650 tube...even got the blue HDS 18650 battery. My U85 is stock though.
Thanks for the link, good stuff!

 

[djj]

I wonder if this is an across the board change.

-john

Is this the new more durable rotary tailcap design Hogo was talking about?

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

With 2 x alkaleaks do you get 325 lumens from XP-L model?

Yes, you do. Confirmed with Henry today. Check out the FAQ page on the HDS website. Some interesting stats just recently posted there.

I woould not play down the effect that CPF has had on Henry's business. 3260 posts in this thread #18 of the series. Lot's of CPF'ers, and lurkers are buying his lights. I have five myself.

Bill

Bill is correct. CPF does play a large role, however it is not the majority of sales. CPF is, dare a say, a test group of sorts. Lot's of personalities here, from rum drinking lush... oh wait... that's me, to some very good scientific minds... definitely not me, and a whole lot mixed in. Let's face it, it runs the gamut of a flashlight is art to a flashlight is a tool. Some crazy people even put faces on them and make skits thinking the flashlights are his friends.... ummmm... don't know who that could be.

The reality is, CPF is a testing ground of sorts. Good ideas come out here, and some not so good ideas as well. Ultimately, it is up to Henry to decided what he wants to produce and why. 20 folks screaming here for a change, is still only 20 people, and if it doesn't make sense to Henry as the owner and engineer, it simply won't happen. It's 20 folks out of thousands, and the cost of whatever change that may be, may just be prohibitive. Now, one person comes up with an easily implemented change, and that change can happen.

Hogo has stated in the past that the CPF market is not the primary buyer of Henry's lights. Sure, we have many as a group, but the majority are sold elsewhere. Thus, the changes he makes and features he offers, while perhaps taking into account our views, do not always, as his other buyers' needs and wants are important and may not coincide with ours.

Exactly, though CPF is does play a large role and is important to HDS. It's one of the many reasons I'm here.

As long as Henry keeps making these great lights, and Hogo stays with HDS, I'm not interested in his sales figures.

I'm not actually with HDS. Henry is a good friend of mine. When he needs help, I'm there calibrating lights. When he doesn't need help, I'm there drinking his beer. I let him know what is going on here on the forum, I suggest ideas that you bring up here, and I pester him with questions I don't fully understand and get answers that are well above my pay grade and intelligence, then I try to muck about and report back here.

Interestingly, my 18650 tube doesn't have the hole. There is a little plastic plug.

-john

Exactly. Plug has been installed. It's really more for cosmetic reasons, and to stop the phone calls that go "my light has a ding in the tail"..... AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I wonder if this is an across the board change.

-john

Yes.

And now for some flashlight porn... cheesy music please...

 

[gottawearshades]

Sounds about right to me.

The fuel gauge on the Zebralights is pretty easy to use. Four clicks from off and you get one, two, three or four blinks with one being nearly empty and four being nearly full.

 

[recDNA]

The plug is cosmetic so not water proof? Still an improvement.

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

The conversation always ends the same...."what was the name of that light again?" H-D-S SYSTEMS.... Google em up.

Then they see the prices, go , and then head back to their favorite big box store where they can a three pack of flashlights for $10.

Nothing against HDS, of course, but to the average person, Henry's prices range from "outrageous" to "insane".

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

Yup.

That's something new.

One of the things I love about HDS is that Henry is constantly looking to improve his products, even in minor ways.

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

Exactly. Plug has been installed. It's really more for cosmetic reasons, and to stop the phone calls that go "my light has a ding in the tail"..... AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Yeah, now he's going to get phone calls saying, "My light has a small spot on the tail without knurling. Is that normal?"

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

The plug is cosmetic so not water proof? Still an improvement.

The Rotary has two O-rings under the dial that provide the water proofing. The hole never had anything to do with it.

 

[recDNA]

Are the plugs available for those of us who have a hole in the tail?

 

[recDNA]

The Rotary has two O-rings under the dial that provide the water proofing. The hole never had anything to do with it.

So when seawater goes in the hole it does not contribute to gritty twist tail as I have read?

 

[kaichu dento]

Do you have a flush tailcap? I was under the impression this was mostly "remedied" - it is in the literature still that it's not an advertised feature so IDK....?

I've had both older lights that had this problem and ones that didn't, but both of my newer lights sit pretty flat, although one of them had a little trouble a couple months ago.

 

[abarth_1200]

old rotary holes are oval, those ones pictured above seem to be rectangular with round corners.

Onto a question somebody raised earlier, are these the newly designed rotary switches, or just an aesthetic update?

 

[John N]

Are the plugs available for those of us who have a hole in the tail?

Appear to be different shapes.

-john

 

[eala]

And now for some flashlight porn... cheesy music please...

Hogo, you are killing me. I assume that AA HDS on the left is mine and that it will be making the trip to Canada...

Thanks
eala

 

[ForrestChump]

Taking the tailcap off an EDC Rotary isn't easy enough to do that! Anyway mine was flush and I cannot imagine having a problem depressing it since it bulges a little but I suppose if pumped up with adrenaline you want a protruding cap you can't possibly miss.

Ahhhh.... missed the Rotary part. You can still do it, depress the switch while screwing the body together instead.

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

So when seawater goes in the hole it does not contribute to gritty twist tail as I have read?

Seawater might cause the twist action to become "gritty", but it's not because of the hole in the dial. The hole is simply there to allow a wire to be inserted to secure the dial to the flashlight body, and the two O-rings are located above the wire.

http://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Details/

The two O-rings and wire and pictured just above the "12". The wire is indicated by the circle with the dot in the middle while the two O-rings are the open circles. I don't think sealing the hole will make much difference when exposing your flashlight to sea water. Your best bet after exposure to sea water is to throughly rinse the flashlight in fresh water.

 

[recDNA]

Seawater might cause the twist action to become "gritty", but it's not because of the hole in the dial. The hole is simply there to allow a wire to be inserted to secure the dial to the flashlight body, and the two O-rings are located above the wire.

http://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Details/

The two O-rings and wire and pictured just above the "12". The wire is indicated by the circle with the dot in the middle while the two O-rings are the open circles. I don't think sealing the hole will make much difference when exposing your flashlight to sea water. Your best bet after exposure to sea water is to throughly rinse the flashlight in fresh water.

Thanks for the thorough explanation