Inretech LS Adapter or Madmax?

[Roy]

I have three AA Minimags modified with LS leds from Lambda Ill Pill, Madmax, and the Inretech White. All three have similar beam patterns. Over in the Modification Forum, I recently posted runtime plots for all three modifications. In this forum, I also posted a runtime plot for the CMG Reactor LS flashlight. Take a look, you may find them useful.

 

[logicnerd411]

Yes, they are very good, but I'm looking for personal experiences; which do you grab first to use for a job or why do you like a particular mod?

 

[logicnerd411]

I'm looking for a retrofit for my Mag 2AA to use a Luxeon. Well, how does the two compare? Anyone got beamshots?

 

[shipinretech]

I am very biased, but I like what we've done with the Mini-MAG adapter. It is a good utility/inspection/emergency light. The light under the curve is what we like about the product; the curve keeps going for weeks. We put as much of the power of the battery through the LED as we can; nothing is wasted in conversion. It is very bright for a good long while, and it produces light for weeks of continuous usage. The beam pattern is better than reflector driven focusable lights because there are no black spots.

I have abused a couple of test lights horrendously, and the light keeps working. I have to say that a lot depends on what you are using the light for. If you are trying to illuminate a campsite or a dark room or an engine on a dark road, this is a good light. If you put yourself in positions where you need a light and can't get batteries or replace the bulb, this is a good light. I really wish I would have had a light this good when I was in the Navy and my ship lost power once a month.

We really work to make a light you can reach for with confidence when you need a light.

What are you looking for in a light?

 

[Mr. Blue]

Patrick..are lithiums ok in the minimag without thermal issues? Do they give best performance?
does this adapter work in a Brinkmann?

 

[shipinretech]

Yes Geoff, there is a Santa Claus.

We've run lithium batteries to exhaustion without noticable problems with the InReTech AA adapter. Craig has expressed general concerns about thermal issues, but neither of us have seen the magic smoke leave the adapter in our tests. Keep in mind that neither of us has the funding and nobody has the time necessary to establish a good baseline for how much damage, if any, might done by running our adapter on lithiums exclusively. We did take into account thermal concerns when designing the InReTech AA adapter.

You can run lithium batteries with the InReTech adapter and it makes the light brighter for quite a while longer. It might do damage to the adapter over the long haul. It might only give you six years of continuous use instead of twelve. If you can afford to keep feeding your light lithium batteries for six years of continuous use, you can afford a new adapter. I strongly suspect that the economics of the matter are that after 200 sets of lithium batteries, you probably will want to change the adapter and that adds 1% to the price of your batteries.

I would say that the performance really does depend on what you are using the adapter for. If you are using the light continuously, the lithiums simply give a brighter light longer. If you want to give this light to your grandchildren, you might choose to stick with alkalines. For some applications, lithium batteries might be too bright for comfort. I think that alkalines might be superior for camping because it is easier on night vision if the center beam is not blindingly intense.

I have not tested the InReTech adapter on the Brinkman. I will look for one and try to get you some feedback on that.

 

[Gundam]

shipinretech,

your LED replacements are really getting me interested, however i'm rather concern with the shipping cost for shipping to singapore.

let's say i order
1 blue AA replacemnet
1 white AA replacement
1 Super 6
what will be the shipping cost like?

could i have a approximate cost and i can work out my budget, thanx

 

[Mr. Blue]

thankyou Patrick

 

[shipinretech]

What you are ordering doesn't weigh much, it will be some effort on our part to mail it, but we want to do business and show off our product. We will ship the package for the agreed upon shipping price. For a $165 US order, that should be $10, for a total of $175 US. After checking the Prohibitions and Restrictions for Singapore, it appears that since our product is neither a firearm or composed of meat, we are fine to ship there.

I do caution you to not use the Super6 in the immediate vicinity of the Strait of Malacca as it might be considered a hazard to navigation.

 

[shipinretech]

This is our data. http://www.inretech.com/pictures/lightmeter.jpg It hasn't been verified or certified, and it isn't using a $4,000,000 test lab. It is a good relative indicator of what we have seen. Please note that lines that do not connect to zero continue beyond the scope of the test. (We haven't rewired the power source for the lightmeter and its batteries give out before ours do.)
Alk = Alkaline Eveready
Tit = Titanium (r) brand Eveready
Lit = Lithium Eveready

One more note, we believe that the "wave" shown in the LED Lithium test is due to thermal changes between day and night. We consider this to be a reasonable indication of real world use, and a pretty cool indication of the effect of temperature on Lithium batteries. InReTech is in no way affiliated with MAG Instruments or Eveready Holdings.

 

[Spork]

there isnt much info on ineretech adaptors on the page. so the 2aa one is a luxeon? is it regulated? how bright is it compared to the arc ls? how can it all be done for 20 dollars?

 

[treek13]

Inretech LS Adaptor is a luxeon and no it is not regulated. Compare it to the CMG Reactor, also a luxeon and also not regulated. It is very similar price wise (although you can put it in a nicer body than the Reactor comes with). It probably starts off a bit dimmer than an Arc LS and then quickly gets a lot dimmer.

Pat

 

[hoss]

How difficult is the installation...is it just a drop in?
I've done a madmax and a newbeam - similar??

 

[Nerd]

Hmm... did you guys try to made a regulated one? I too live in Singapore and I am rather interested in acuqiring a LS 1 watt regulated module for my mini mag AA.

CMG infinity for where I don't want to disturb others...

Mini Mag AA for searching for things at dusk

PT Tec 40 with 3D Maglite white star bulb for longer throw

PT Surge for the brightest house filling light...

Maybe I should get 4 SL6 replacement modules and some how attached em all together for a long bright throw torch light.... powering them is another problem altogether...

Whoops! I am off topic...

 

[shipinretech]

We looked at regulated solutions and this is what we came up with:
Regulators of the size allowed in a AA flashlight body are at best 50% efficient, which means half the battery power is used up changing the power.
Regulators cost more money to build.
Regulators cost more money to supply with batteries.
Regulators fail more often because they have more parts.
Regulators tempt the designer to overdrive the LED to gain brightness.
Regulators of the size allowed are by definition very small and harder to manufacture to an acceptable tolerance.
One primary reason to have a flashlight is for emergencies and our direct drive LS adapters can run for weeks on a set of standard AA batteries. The light produced is small towards the end, but it is better than darkness.
We looked at regulated solutions, and we would still be debugging them if we had decided to produce them. We are happier putting a good light in peoples hands now.

Our product is a drop in replacement for the incandescent bulb, lens, and reflecting ring. No soldering, completely reverseable, and easy to do. We have not done direct comparisons with our competition, we'd rather spend our time and money developing our own product. I am sure that at the end of a day of continuous usage on the same batteries, our light is brighter than anything regulated.

 

[sunspot]

Patrick.

I am sure that at the end of a day of continuous usage on the same batteries, our light is brighter than anything regulated.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Craig. Can you test this statement? It's not that I don't believe but testing is the proof.

 

[INRETECH]

As for installation of the adapter, I told one of our customers that "it would take longer to open the box - than to install the adapter"

But, this of course depends on how well you did as a kid on Christmas day..

 

[shipinretech]

"Craig. Can you test this statement? It's not that I don't believe but testing is the proof."

My statement was a trick. Getting 24 hours of full brightness is not going to happen from a standard set of batteries using a regulated power solution unless they set their initial voltage to something very much lower, in which case our light is much brighter at the start. There is a finite amount of power in the batteries and the LS is very good at getting that power to come out in the form of light. A big part of our design is getting out of the way of the Luxeon Star doing it's job. The Luxeon Star is very good at doing the job of turning electrons into photons. Every time we looked seriously at regulated solutions, we discovered that we were getting in the way.

 

[sunspot]

How do you get light out of a LS at 3.0v? If you are already using a boost circuit, it's not a big stretch to add simple regulation.

 

[Alan]

We looked at regulated solutions and this is what we came up with:
Regulators of the size allowed in a AA flashlight body are at best 50% efficient, which means half the battery power is used up changing the power.

I think it's time for you to hire a new engineer

Regulators cost more money to build.

Agreed.

Regulators cost more money to supply with batteries.

It's not the case for me. I have to throw away batteries when they're only 30% to 40% used due to dimmed light.

Regulators fail more often because they have more parts.

That's why I want to get it only from well-designed product and good manufacturer.

Regulators tempt the designer to overdrive the LED to gain brightness.

ArcLS is underdriven. Yes, I prefer the overdriven Badboy.

Regulators of the size allowed are by definition very small and harder to manufacture to an acceptable tolerance.

Hmm... ArcLS? I will see what will happen to the upcoming KL1 from Sure Fire and production version of BadBoy.

One primary reason to have a flashlight is for emergencies and our direct drive LS adapters can run for weeks on a set of standard AA batteries. The light produced is small towards the end, but it is better than darkness.

Agreed. I will put a single nichia on my 2AA mini mag. I believe this should run longer.

I am sure that at the end of a day of continuous usage on the same batteries, our light is brighter than anything regulated.

This is good. That's why I prefer my regulated Matrix from Princeton Tec over my non-regulated M6

Sorry, just couldn't resisted

Alan