LED Search Light

[glockboy]

Take a look at the milwaukee led work light m12.
3 amp battery last about 6 hrs.

 

[3_gun]

An Acebeam E70 with 2 spare batteries would weight about 1lbs, has a broad even pattern (almost mule like) & could run at a 3rd party tested 150L for over 50hrs on those 3 batteries. At a tested 500L 3 batteries gets you about 15hrs. I doubt any one would be in the dark or the field to use up 3 batteries & at around 3oz ea just carry 4 spares for about 24oz of total weight. It's IP68 rated + drop tested to 1m, so it's tough.

If that's to heavy of a load get the E70 mini. The light w/4 spare 18650s would be less than 1lbs. It has the same beam pattern & is tested at 150L for over 6hrs & 300L for over 3hrs + it meets the same IP/drop testing. Plus both use batteries that lose much less performance in colder temps. The 21700 light is under $100 w/battery & the 18650 Mini < $80 w/battery

 

[TD-Horne]

Take a look at the Milwaukee led work light m12.
3 amp battery last about 6 hrs.

I own one of those that I used to use for electrical work. It matched the batteries I was using for my Milwaukee battery drill. I hadn't considered it because of it's size and weight. I'm still looking to identify a light that can produce an even level of near field light. that will run for ~8 hours at an effective brightness, and is as light and small as practicable while meeting those 2 requirements.

I don't have a specific lumen rating in mind. If I already new what I needed I would not have posed the question. I am grateful to anyone who took the time to offer a suggestion.

Tom Horne

 

[TD-Horne]

An Acebeam E70 with 2 spare batteries would weight about 1lbs, has a broad even pattern (almost mule like) & could run at a 3rd party tested 150L for over 50hrs on those 3 batteries. At a tested 500L 3 batteries gets you about 15hrs. I doubt any one would be in the dark or the field to use up 3 batteries & at around 3oz ea just carry 4 spares for about 24oz of total weight. It's IP68 rated + drop tested to 1m, so it's tough.

If that's to heavy of a load get the E70 mini. The light w/4 spare 18650s would be less than 1lbs. It has the same beam pattern & is tested at 150L for over 6hrs & 300L for over 3hrs + it meets the same IP/drop testing. Plus both use batteries that lose much less performance in colder temps. The 21700 light is under $100 w/battery & the 18650 Mini < $80 w/battery

That looks very promising. What type of battery do they run on? Is there any kind of primary battery that would power that light so that extended use need not require recharging? Do you know of anything with that kind of pattern that can be run on AA batteries even if the batteries would need to be Lithium Ion to run for the eight hours.

 

[Dave D]

I know that it has already been mentioned but I'd also recommend the Streamlight ProTac HL 5-X, it has high medium and low of 3500, 1000, and 250 lumens with run times, on 18650's, of 1.25, 2.5 and 10.5 hours.

The ProTac HL 5-X has a similar output to a good quality vehicle headlight and will be able to illuminate things at night that you will have to get closer to in order to visually identify.

I would recommend that you buy the version supplied with 4 x CR123's and keep those batteries for back up, then buy good quality (Keeppower for example) 3600mAh 18650's which have 38% larger capacity than the 18650's that Streamlight supply (2600mAh IIRC), which will substantially increase the run times to the region of 1.7, 3.45 and 14.5 hours. With a good supply of 18650's you could run it all night.

 

[DaveTheDude]

"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need." Keith Richards, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.

So what comes closest with the emphasis on ≥8 hours run time and a wide even near field light. If we cannot keep the weight and size down to something a counselor could carry for 5 days then it could become the camp response team lights. If it cannot run on multiple AA batteries running in parallel in D cell holders or some similar way to get it to last 8 hours the same thing might apply. The camp response team would bring them instead of the counselors on the trip having them immediately. An ≥8 hour zoom with lower light intensity is much better for this purpose than a high intensity light that will not run for that long. An evenly distributed wide angle pattern is essential. Anything other than an even near field pattern would not meet the need for a search in dense deciduous woodland! Long range IS NOT the objective! Super bright IS NOT the objective! An even, floody, near field light is what is needed for this very specific purpose.

Tom Horne

Gentlemen, may I make a suggestion? Many of us have lights that would be useful for Mr. Horne's purposes, lights which have been quietly resting in our respective gear closets, unused for God knows how long. Collectively we have D-cell Mag lights, various brands of 600 lumen 18650 lights, and probably a few 4xAA torches just gathering dust; all of which might be put to noble use in the hands of others.

I'm willing to donate a selection of these to Mr. Horne, and I hereby issue a community challenge for others to do the same. One light each, that uses either D or multiple AA cells. (And Tom, you can buy AA mulit-cell inserts for Maglights online for relatively low cost.)

What say you gents?

Tom, please post an address for receipt of donated lights. I'm pretty sure "free" meets the strictures of "parsimonious".

 

[bbrins]

Challenge accepted. Great idea!

Somewhere around here I've got a 2D incandescent Maglite(could be upgraded), a 3C Maglite ML25LT(?), and a Jetbeam PA40(maybe two) that I could donate to the cause. I doubt any of these lights would fulfill the requirements that Mr. Horne is asking about in this thread, but would likely be useful in other roles around the camp.

I'd also be willing to kick in a few bucks towards whatever lights he settles on for the search lights.

 

[bbrins]

I wonder if the newer Malkoff Maglite upgrade would be floody enough with an M31(2 cell) or an M361(3 cell). The M361 offers 3 modes, which might help stretch the runtime. The Malkoff upgrades would be pretty much bombproof, and replacement hosts are readily available should something happen to the Maglite(like a leaky battery).

 

[bridgman]

One thing I always wondered is why we don't see multi-LED lights with the LEDs fanned out horizontally but not vertically. Search and rescue is the obvious application but I always end up torn between a floody light that illuminates the tree tops and close-to-me ground (waste of lumens) and a spot light that needs to be flicked sideways to cover the search area.

Something like a Streamlight LiteBox with the LEDs pointing in different directions horizontally but not vertically would be ideal. Does anyone make something like this ?

And yes I'm kinda thinking about a duckbill shotgun choke, but with light instead of lead.

 

[Burgess]

May I suggest . . . . . .

Instead of "requiring" run-time of 8 Hours,
just carry Extra Batteries !

 

[jabe1]

For an economic solution using primary batteries, why not a Maglite ML300L with the reflector removed?
700 or so flood lumens for many hours.
I just tried this out and it does pretty well; maybe can’t be beat for $50 or so.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

That looks very promising. What type of battery do they run on? Is there any kind of primary battery that would power that light so that extended use need not require recharging? Do you know of anything with that kind of pattern that can be run on AA batteries even if the batteries would need to be Lithium Ion to run for the eight hours.

It doesn’t appear that the Acebeam E70-AL and the E70 Mini have options to use primary cells (2 123A). Would instead recommend Klarus G15 v.2 or Nitecore E4K. Both of those lights can also use primaries. They also have onboard charging for solar charging in the field (Klarus has USB-C charger and powerbank function built into the light, Nitecore has USB-C rechargeable battery). The Acebeam E70-AL requires a charger.

 

[TD-Horne]

I am humbled by this generous thought. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for this idea.

My home address is
Thomas Horne
711 Ludlow Street
Takoma Park, MD 20912-7309

For the sake of transparency let me say that the lights which we cannot use will be offered to camp parents and supporters in return for a donation. I'm using my home address because I don't want to burden the church office staff with dealing with this particular issue. I will check with our General Secretary, which is the title we have for our Staff Director, and the camp program director to check whether they would want them sent to the office instead. I will not be able to do that until tomorrow morning.

Tom Horne

"Friend I would not harm thee for all the world but thee is standing were I plan to shoot." Eli Coffin's reply to slave catchers threatening to break down his door if he didn't let them in to search for runaway slaves.

 

[bbrins]

Cool. I'll round up those lights and get them in the mail early this coming week. As far as I'm concerned, you may distribute them in any way you see fit. Itll be good to know that they are actually being put to use, rather than just sitting on my shelf.

 

[TD-Horne]

I'd also be willing to kick in a few bucks towards whatever lights he settles on for the search lights.

Please do not send money to me directly. That would cause me tax headaches you would find hard to believe. I made the mistake of selling 2 ~$1000 dollar items on my eBay account for the Auxiliary Communications Service radio team I'm on and we may never get our tax return back. It's held up because PayPal was obliged in law to report that as income. Now the IRS wants money that we do not have. Live and learn. Send any money in any form to:

Baltimore Yearly Meeting Of Friends
17100 Quaker Lane
Sandy Spring, MD 20860-1267

I would give the link to the online donation page but that doesn't work unless you give the Development Director; that's the fundraiser to most folks; your name, address, phone, email... and like any other fundraiser you may hear from her more often then you'd like. A US Postal Money Order is both safe and potentially anonymous depending on how you fill out the sender portion.

Tom Horne

 

[DaveTheDude]

I am humbled by this generous thought. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for this idea.

My home address is
Thomas Horne
711 Ludlow Street
Takoma Park, MD 20912-7309

For the sake of transparency let me say that the lights which we cannot use will be offered to camp parents and supporters in return for a donation. I'm using my home address because I don't want to burden the church office staff with dealing with this particular issue. I will check with our General Secretary, which is the title we have for our Staff Director, and the camp program director to check whether they would want them sent to the office instead. I will not be able to do that until tomorrow morning.

Tom Horne
"Friend I would not harm thee for all the world but thee is standing were I plan to shoot." Eli Coffin's reply to slave catchers threatening to break down his if he didn't let them in to search for runaway slaves.

Tom...

If you can exchange non-flood lights for cash donations from the camp's supporters, then I can offer you an even greater selection of "regular" non-flood lights for the cause (some of them still in their original box). I'll have my donations packed up and mailed within the week, addressed to whatever address you confirm with the General Secretary. I'll also include any special operating instructions, so that non-flashaholicks can operate the lights safely.

Please keep in mind when offering donated lights to others, that many of the forum members' lights are powered by lithium-ion cells. Li-ion cells are not commonly available from brick & mortar retailers, and the best sources of such batteries are reputable online merchants. Recommendations to reputable merchants can be found in other sections of this forum. The community has also, in many other posts, stressed the importance of using only reputable battery brands.

[One additional suggestion: if you receive donated lights that use 18650-sized cells, or 21700-sized cells, try them out at night before concluding they won't work for your purposes. Twenty-five feet is an awfully short search distance, and many lights with illumination patterns balanced with both a modest hotspot and a bit of floody spill-beam can be enormously useful as handheld searchlights over such short distances. These kinds of torches are relatively lightweight, and spare lithium-ion batteries are also lightweight; and also, cheap compared with buying new torches. Just charge up the cells before your teams' excursions. Just give them a try before "recycling" them.]

 

[TD-Horne]

Tom...

If you can exchange non-flood lights for cash donations from the camp's supporters, then I can offer you an even greater selection of "regular" non-flood lights for the cause (some of them still in their original box). I'll have my donations packed up and mailed within the week, addressed to whatever address you confirm with the General Secretary. I'll also include any special operating instructions, so that non-flashaholicks can operate the lights safely.

Please keep in mind when offering donated lights to others, that many of the forum members' lights are powered by lithium-ion cells. Li-ion cells are not commonly available from brick & mortar retailers, and the best sources of such batteries are reputable online merchants. Recommendations to reputable merchants can be found in other sections of this forum. The community has also, in many other posts, stressed the importance of using only reputable battery brands.

[One additional suggestion: if you receive donated lights that use 18650-sized cells, or 21700-sized cells, try them out at night before concluding they won't work for your purposes. Twenty-five feet is an awfully short search distance, and many lights with illumination patterns balanced with both a modest hotspot and a bit of floody spill-beam can be enormously useful as handheld searchlights over such short distances. These kinds of torches are relatively lightweight, and spare lithium-ion batteries are also lightweight; and also, cheap compared with buying new torches. Just charge up the cells before your teams' excursions. Just give them a try before "recycling" them.]

WillCo; = Will Comply, that old son. I'll try everyone of them at the next Young Friends Conference in April. The conferences are bimonthly mutual support gatherings for High School aged young people in caring for and helping each other through the challenges of High School life. I will just take as many lights as I receive to that conference that is at a rural high school campus. It is a perfect place to compare the pattern and brightness to what we hope to send out with trip counselors and provide for the use of Night Counselors in making their rounds as well as the in camp staff who don't need light weight but may need a strong light.

Tom Horne

 

[hamhanded]

One thing I always wondered is why we don't see multi-LED lights with the LEDs fanned out horizontally but not vertically. Search and rescue is the obvious application but I always end up torn between a floody light that illuminates the tree tops and close-to-me ground (waste of lumens) and a spot light that needs to be flicked sideways to cover the search area.

Something like a Streamlight LiteBox with the LEDs pointing in different directions horizontally but not vertically would be ideal. Does anyone make something like this ?

And yes I'm kinda thinking about a duckbill shotgun choke, but with light instead of lead.

I’m thinking this sounds like a bike light repurposed for handheld use.

 

[bbrins]

For the lights that I will be sending, I specifically excluded anything that would require anything beyond just plain old alkaline batteries.

Tom, I can fully understand where you are coming from on the money donation/tax thing. I work for a religious entity, things can get complicated when people try to donate outside of official channels.

 

[TD-Horne]

I’m thinking this sounds like a bike light repurposed for handheld use.

Now that you say that I'm thinking that there may be something to pursue there, I have seen a couple of those in use on bicycles and they might work out as special purpose head lights. By buying a replacement hard hat harness or something similar it shouldn't be too hard to fit them comfortably on the top of your head. I'll check at some local bicycle repair shops since they're more likely to have the high quality ones. That would leave one hand for a narrow beam hand light to check out anything they picked up on the horrizontal flood light and the other to manage such things as their radio.

Tom Horne