HPX53+2x18650?

[Tony Hanna]

I'm wondering if somebody could give me an estimate of bulb lumens for this combo running through a mag switch without resistance fix?
The spec sheet from Phillips lists the bulb at 6V 0.975A and 102 lumens.

Thanks,
Tony

 

[lctorana]

177 bulb lumens at 7.4Vbb. Not too shabby.

 

[R@ndom]

177 bulb lumens at 7.4Vbb. Not too shabby.

With excellent throw thanks to the tiny filament too.:twothumbs

 

[Tony Hanna]

177 bulb lumens at 7.4Vbb. Not too shabby.

Thanks!
If it's not too much trouble, what kind of increase could I expect from doing the resistance fix mods to the switch?

I'm shooting for around 200 bulb lumens. The half baked idea I had was to try to build a "poor man's magcharger" (minus the in-light charging) out of locally available parts. This means no bi-pin socket, bi-pin bulbs, or specialty battery carriers. It looks like this bulb will get me close...

 

[R@ndom]

You'll probaly need a more heat resistant reflector. I half-melted mine with a hpx40.

 

[Tony Hanna]

You'll probaly need a more heat resistant reflector. I half-melted mine with a hpx40.

Thanks for the warning! I'll try to keep runtime short enough to avoid that for now and see about ordering an aluminum reflector and glass lens soon. I've got a 6D mag-num star xenon bulb in it that I picked up today and I'm curious to see how the overdriven HPX will compare.

 

[R@ndom]

What resistance mods are you planning?

 

[Tony Hanna]

What resistance mods are you planning?

Probably just the solder wick in the in the bulb slug spring for now. That's the worst part for resistance isn't it? I'm not sure what (if anything) I can do with the - side and still keep the focusing mechanism functional.

 

[R@ndom]

Yeah, I'm looking into resistance modding them too. But I'm really tempted by Jimmy's regulator.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

What is the hour rating for the stock bulb at 6 volts?

Bill

 

[lctorana]

Thanks!
If it's not too much trouble, what kind of increase could I expect from doing the resistance fix mods to the switch?

I plugged in zero resistance, and the lumens only rose to 191. Don't bother.

But at 7.8Vbb, which should be achievable under load with freshly charged cells, I see 208 bulb lumens for that initial burst. And that's with no resistance fixes. I say leave it alone, and look after bulb life.

 

[Tony Hanna]

What is the hour rating for the stock bulb at 6 volts?

Bill

By stock bulb do you mean the HPX53? If so, I don't think bulb life was listed on the chart I saw though I've seen it mentioned that they will handle 9v without instaflashing which leads me to believe that they're probably fairly long life at 6v.

I plugged in zero resistance, and the lumens only rose to 191. Don't bother.

But at 7.8Vbb, which should be achievable under load with freshly charged cells, I see 208 bulb lumens for that initial burst. And that's with no resistance fixes. I say leave it alone, and look after bulb life.

Thanks again!
That sounds like good advice to me. Especially considering that if I end up having to order an aluminum reflector, the locally available parts limitation is out the window, so I might as well grab a bi-pin slug and run the magcharger bulb that I have laying around. From what I read in another thread, the resistance fix pushes the MC bulb into the danger zone with fresh cells...

 

[lctorana]

When I said "leave it alone", I meant not to bother with resistance fixes.

The bulb swap looks like a good idea.

 

[Tony Hanna]

When I said "leave it alone", I meant not to bother with resistance fixes.

The bulb swap looks like a good idea.

Right, I was agreeing with you as leaving the switch alone would also help keep from instaflashing MC bulbs if I throw a bi-pin slug in it later.:thumbsup:

 

[Tony Hanna]

Well, I pulled the trigger on a bi-pin slug, an aluminum reflector, and a glass lens. This project is taking a different direction than I'd originally intended but oh well.lovecpf

Going with bi-pin has got me wondering about bulbs. I've got a MC bulb and have been eyeing the WA1111 but I also ran across 3 interesting 6v bi-pin bulbs on KD. S003480, S003481, and S003482. They're rated at 5, 15, and 20 watts and are around a buck and a half each. Unfortunately searching CPF didn't turn up anything on these bulbs. For the price, I'm more than willing to order one of each to try but I'm really curious to see if anybody else has anything to say about them. Maybe I should start another thread?

 

[Tony Hanna]

The HPX53s arrived today and I tossed one in a cheap 2D Garrity with a pair of 18650s. :thumbsup: Definitely trounces the Radioshack KPR112. It doesn't seem as white as the 6 cell Mag Xenon bulb but it does seem to be putting out more light. I think this is going to be my new favorite PR base bulb for mild hotwires.

The Magcharger socket also arrived today and I went ahead and transplanted the bulb holder slug into the 2C switch and installed the Magcharger bulb. I've run it a little and I'm really pleased with the output but I'm going to put it aside until the aluminum reflector, glass lens, and new 18650s get here. I don't want to melt the original reflector because I have another mag that needs it and the 18650s are ancient and I don't really trust them into a load over 1A.

 

[lctorana]

Interesting to see the HPX can be overdriven. Xenon bulbs are not generally known for that.

OK, since you have a metal reflector and 18650s, you will be blown away when you try the halogen HPR72. Or the Pelican 3854L - the "RoP-low" bulb.

 

[Tony Hanna]

Interesting to see the HPX can be overdriven. Xenon bulbs are not generally known for that.

I'd read that xenons usually wouldn't take much overdrive. It's strange, but the HPX53 seems to be an odd case. Judging only by the color of the light, It doesn't appear to be suffering much at 7.2v. If color alone is any indication, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they'll take more and still have decent life. I wish I had a variable power supply to test with.

OK, since you have a metal reflector and 18650s, you will be blown away when you try the halogen HPR72. Or the Pelican 3854L - the "RoP-low" bulb.

The thing is, the new 18650s and the metal reflector are set to go in the mag 2c that I just modded to take bi-pin bulbs (Magcharger Jr). I do have a couple 2d mags that would make good ROP hosts (1 high, 1 low) for a future project though.:thumbsup:

Bringing up the subject of higher powered bulbs does have me curious. I'm wondering what the 2400mah black label trustfires are rated at for discharge? If I understand this stuff, if they're rated at 2c they should safely handle a 4.8a discharge right? I've not seen any reference to the c rating on these particular cells though.