Inside a HF branded POB spotlight

[Mugrunty]

Hey Guys, This weekend I thought I would see whats on the inside of the POB HID spotlight. I think I saw a forum before on this but the pictures never loaded for me. I have a Harbor Freight HID spotlight. It looks IDENTICAL to the POB one from Sam's club. The only difference is that its a red color instead of black. Anyway, I also did some current measurements and found that it draws about 3.5 Amps @ 12vDC. It's about 42 watts. The cool thing is that the inverter did not turn off the lamp until the voltage dropped to 5.8v. The current goes up as the voltage decreases...but the power remains about the same. This was obviously unbelievably cool. I also made my own NiCd battery back out of old drill batteries, but some of the cells were weaker than the others and had internal shorts. But anyway here are some semi-decent pictures of the light. Hope you like em!

Never mind... Um...I dont know how to post pictures dangit! I thought that button would work. Do i need to post them on photobucket or something?:help:

PS: They probably vary between lights but,I found out the voltages with the 4 LEDS:

RED: Always on (probably used as a voltage reference)
YELLOW: Turns on at 12.17V
GREEN: Turns on at 12.48V
GREEN: Turns on at 12.81V

I think i remember the charging green light turns on at about 14.2 volts or something...

EDIT: STARTS charging when battery falls to 12.93v
STOPS charging when battery rises to 14.23v

*Keep in mind that your's will vary since this light uses a relay*

 

[BlueBeam22]

I'm jealous you have the red HF version of the POB HID!
I have the black one but I have always prefered the red colored one.

Thanks for the interesting specs:thumbsup:

 

[Patriot]

Never mind... Um...I dont know how to post pictures dangit! I thought that button would work. Do i need to post them on photobucket or something?:help:

Yes, Photobucket will work. Once you've uploaded them to photobucket just right click on the little "img" link and a small yellow tab will appear for a 1-2 seconds saying, "copied." Then just past it right in this window.

 

[Mugrunty]

Ok, thanks! They are uploading onto photobucket now. Who doesn't like pictures...even though there are no beam shots.

 

[Mugrunty]

Ok Here are some photos...


-This is just comparing the "POB" light with my horrible HF 10million cp light. I really dont think it performs very well at all. It says it uses a 100watt bulb but i found it only draws 75 watts...blah




-Yup, just the inside part behind the reflector. Kinda funny, there is a 10 amp fuse in that small black holder with the red wire. You can also the the generic ballast it uses.




-a close-up of the ballast with the plastic case removed. Strange how there are no markings/specifications anywhere. I was hoping to find an input/output sort of thing. oh well...




-other side of ballast.


-These are just the connectors going to the bulb from the ballast. They look pretty well isolated so you dont get shocked! Anyone know how much voltage a HID bulb needs to ionize the xenon gas? I didn't think a volt-meter would be very safe. I always thought it was like 15kV.




-putting it back together.



-Looks like it still works! The dumbest thing about this light is how you connect the battery. I don't know about the Sam's POB, but the battery wires always are anoyying to line up right. You can't really see it with this small picture but i added a sticker that has the voltages that the LEDs represent.:thumbsup:




-Here is a picture of the bulb because it looks cool. The reflector isn't all that smooth.

I think thats enough pictures, Don't want to annoy with 50 billion pictures.
You can't tell, but I also have a Fenix L2D Premium Rebel 100, and a Garrity 1milcp pistol grip spotlight.
I've used this HID ripper light in the woods for a while, I think its pretty dang bright for the money. Obviously I'd love to have a polarion PH-50, or something else that melts eye balls and makes a nuke look like a candle...but sometimes people think I'm foolish for spending money on big flashlights. Oh well. Hope you enjoy the pics.

 

[TheGreyEminence]

Welcome to the Club

 

[Anto]

Got any pictures of the bulb base, inside and outside the reflector?

 

[Mugrunty]

not sure exactly what you mean. But in some of the pictures you can see the bulb is just held in by a bendy wire. I didnt take the bulb out just because I didn't want to get any fingerprints on it. I don't even know how you would replace the bulb...its like the black wires are connected to the bulb permanently. So....I guess I dont have any picutres of the base.

 

[CM]

not sure exactly what you mean. But in some of the pictures you can see the bulb is just held in by a bendy wire. I didnt take the bulb out just because I didn't want to get any fingerprints on it. I don't even know how you would replace the bulb...its like the black wires are connected to the bulb permanently. So....I guess I dont have any picutres of the base.

The lamp "unclips" from the reflector that holds it. It can be easily removed and replaced without touching the glass. In the event you do, just a little alcohol will take care of it.

 

[FredM]

Thnx for the effort on the LED voltages. That is very very nice info to have!!!!

 

[willrx]

Thanks for the info. Anyone know if this light uses the same bulb as the Vector POB light? Seems as if it would-just curious.

 

[Tensix]

Can the lense be removed? I got mine today and there seems to be a film on the inside of the glass and it looks dirty. I would like to clean it with some denatured alcohol. I don't want it to effect the output.

 

[Greatwhite]

Yes. First you have to remove the five screws that hold the bezel on and then there are six small philips head screws that hold the reflector to the inside of the bezel. I had to do this for the same reason.

 

[Tensix]

Yes. First you have to remove the five screws that hold the bezel on and then there are six small philips head screws that hold the reflector to the inside of the bezel. I had to do this for the same reason.

Are the screws those safety ones?

 

[Greatwhite]

you need something triangular shaped. I just ground the end of an old nail to fit.

 

[Cigarman]

Sears sells them in a safety bit driver set. They are called Tri-Wing drive.

 

[srvctec]

Harbor Freight sells a entire security bit set with 33 pieces for probably much less than what the bits at Sears cost, and you'll have lots of other bits for other uses.

 

[Mugrunty]

Thats weird, I don't remember a film on my lens. You're making me want to look, and I'll porbably see something just because you said it.
Just for fun, does anyone know the maximum voltage you could use for an input? With other ballasts, what is the generic operating range? I know I found the lower limit, but obviously its harder to find the max. Any ideas?

 

[Mugrunty]

Good news, I just ran my "POB" off from an old drill battery. The cells came from an 18v battery but I was only using 14 of the cells. When charged they were about 18 volts. The voltage actually dropped to about 16.7v when the light was on. (current was around 2.4 amps)
Anyway, I found the voltage at which my light starts charging the battery. This is when the light is green...but then changes to red to charge the battery. I'm going to try to edit my post above to add the numbers. But I got 12.93 volts when it starts. I'm still waiting for it to stop to find the stop voltage. Pretty cool though, I believe a SLA battery will start to sulfate at about 12.6V (2.1v per cell) so this light would prevent sulfation if you leave it on the charger forever. It would have been cooler if it actually had a float charger. Still, this one is a hole lot better than one of my other lights. I remember that it would charge the battery forever, just a light went off to tell you that it was done. Ah crap..my POB light just stopped charging and i didn't catch the voltage. It was a little over 14.1 volts.

 

[srvctec]

Thats weird, I don't remember a film on my lens.

I bought 3 POB lights from Sam's and they all had a terrible hazy film on the inside of the lenses. I took them all apart and cleaned the lenses with acetone to remove the film.