Lighthound's Cree Drop-in for Surefire, optomized for runtime or brightness?

[MacTech]

Out of morbid curiosity, i picked up one of Lighthound's Cree drop-ins for my 6P, just recieved it today and, well, i'm underwhelmed......

compared to the G&P 3W i have in my G2, it's *slightly* brighter, using my extremely unscientific "Mark One Eyeball" tests, i'd say it's perhaps 20% brighter, if that, they're really close in output (the Cree is a cleaner tint, makes the G&P look slightly yellowish), i know that the human eye isn't the most exacting test device, but i'm not seing a huge difference between the two....

of course, it goes without saying that the P61 utterly slays it in brightness.....

then i remembered, the interesting thing about the Crees is that they can be optomized for efficiency, or for brightness, so this got me wondering.....

compared to the G&P 3W, is the Lighthound Cree optomized for runtime, or brightess?

if it's optomized for brightness, i'm very dissapointed, if it's optomized for runtime, i'll be quite impressed, as it's both slightly brighter *and* longer running than the G&P

that said, i'm not seeing the infamous One Cree Ring (My Preciousss!) with this LA, must be due to the textured reflector

if i had nothing to compare it to, the Lighthound drop in would be more impressive, as it is, unless it's optomized for runtime, it's not exactly an impressive upgrade, it's a decent, solidly made upgrade, just not a retina-scorcher

So, is it optomized for runtime or brightness?

Of course, i really should wait to evaluate it tonight once the sun has gone down, a quick evaluation in a dark bathroom isn't the most scientific test environment....

 

[zx7dave]

I would say brightness since mine started to taper off after about 2 hours.

 

[MacTech]

2 hours, eh, seems like this drop-in is generally underwhelming.....

my current quickie review of the LH drop-in, a resounding "Meh..."

I'll test it tonight when i go for a walk on the beach, last night i had fun illuminating waves with my 2C to 3-123A upgraded Mag with the overdriven MNS 5-cell bulb, we'll see how this upgrade compaes.....

so far, it hasn't impressed me.....

 

[zx7dave]

I was not impressed with the Cree. I did like the white light, I did not like the fact that my bezel would not screw on all the way, and I did not like that the peak light output started to fade after 2 hours. I will stay with the G&P 3 watt or G&P 1 watt next time.

2 hours, eh, seems like this drop-in is generally underwhelming.....

my current quickie review of the LH drop-in, a resounding "Meh..."

I'll test it tonight when i go for a walk on the beach, last night i had fun illuminating waves with my 2C to 3-123A upgraded Mag with the overdriven MNS 5-cell bulb, we'll see how this upgrade compaes.....

so far, it hasn't impressed me.....

 

[ADDICTED2LITE]

What is the current draw on the G&P 3watt? the current draw on my Cree dropin is 660ma.

 

[Weskix]

According to the info at lighthound it is pulling 750ma, the cree drop in that is. Do you have the same drop in from lighthound?

 

[ADDICTED2LITE]

Yes,I have the Lighthound drop in. I have another post going stating the current draw on primaries and 17670. the current on a 17670 is 600ma and primaries is 660ma.

 

[MacTech]

Okay, i was wrong about the Cree upgrade, when outside in quality darkness the LH drop in is actually a pretty good performer, throws reasonably well, pure, tintless white hotspot fading to a ringless spill

inside the house, in a dark room, compared side by side with the G&P 3 watt, the LH module appears to be almost twice as bright as the G&P, it also appears to be twice as bright as my Fenix P1 and L2T on High, it's kinda' like comparing a L1P to a P1, the difference is that noticeable...

as with all LED's the XR-E does tend to "flatten" out whatever it's shined on, but not as badly as the Luxeon LED (then again, this could also clearly be a psychosomatic illusion)

okay, now the picky little things that annoy me about the drop-in....

the emitter die is off center *slightly*, causing an extremely faint yellow tint on one side of the hotspot, it's a minor annoyance, and is only visible when WWH or WCH'ing (White Ceiling Hunting), in normal use it's not noticeable, given a choice between a ringy beam and a tiny patch of tint on the edge of the hotspot, i'll take the tint patch, and bearing in mind that this is a $30 drop-in, it's not worth worrying about

when the bezel of the 6P is screwed down in place, there's a small gap between the bezel and light body, unsightly, but harmless, luckilly i found an o-ring that fits the gap perfectly, so problem solved there

not a bad little upgrade, it's not perfect, but for $30 i'm not expecting perfection

little bits of trivia;

the reflector unscrews from the emitter "pill", exposing a bare circuit board, the emitter PCB has two wires leading from the PCB to the guts of the pill, so the emitter looks to be swappable for those with soldering skills, the underside of the reflector has an o-ring in place to seal out moisture

for some strange reason, my eyes seem to be immune to the Cree's "wall of light", shining the light in my eyes while standing in front of a mirror does *NOT* cause my eyes to slam involuntarily shut and my head turn away from the light, like it does with the G&P 3W, my A2 and my P61'ed G2

all in all, worth the $30 if you don't expect too much

i'll add beamshots tomorrow as my digicam battery is recharging

 

[jsr]

Can anyone compare the various drop-ins available: Solatek (Litemania), Lighthound, and Wolf-Eyes? Wondering how they perform relative to one another.

 

[MacTech]

The Lighthound drop in seems to be pretty power efficient too, on a whim i grabbed a pair of 123's that ZTS'ed at 0% and dropped them in, the light's been running now for about a half hour or so, and it *is* dim now, about the brightness of a stock E1e (15 lumens or so) or a Fenix L2T on Low, and dropping rapidly, but at the start of the half hour it was still quite bright

the runtime basically broke down this way;

start of test; decent brightness, still very usable, about as bright as a stock 2AA MiniMagLED
10 minutes in; first signs of visible but slight dimming
15 minutes in; very faint and random flicker, could be the module dropping out of regulation
25 minutes in; distinct drop in output, roughly 15 lumens or so (compared against my E1e) slight shift in tint to greenish
it's now been about 45 minutes, light output is similar to a Fenix L0P-SE on High
Remember, this is on *dead* batteries (0% ZTS) and it's still producing usable light for reading or navigating the house when dark adapted

not a bad little module

i'll do another runtime test with a pair of batteries ZTS'ed at 20% (2.98v per cell) once these can no longer produce usable light

 

[Strauss]

Just wanted to add my .02 to this thread. I have one of these modules that I dropped in my black C3. Overall, I was quite happy with the results. I got exactly what I wanted....a decently bight light with matching runtime. I am running mine on a pair of protected AW 17500's. I get just under 100 lumens out the front in my lightbox with a bit over 2000 lux @ 1meter. Add to that the fact that the light held regulation for about 2.5hrs, and I am was one happy camper Overall I felt it was worth the $$, at least with a 2x17500 set-up.

 

[MacTech]

It's now down to about the brightness of a Fenix L0P SE on Medium, as i was writing this it dropped to around the level of Low on the L0P SE, but went right back up, looks like the batteries are on their last legs.....

Hmm, around two hours of usable light (1 hour of decently usable light, around an hour of moon mode) off batteries that ZTS'ed at ZERO percent, not too bad

and it still is able to extract usable power from these depleted cells

as of 11:15 as i write this, it's now down to about the Low level on a L0P SE or Fenix E0, and seems to be holding steady

12:20 AM; it's now dimmer than the Fenix E0, but still puts out useful light for dark-adapted maneuvering.....

 

[slim shady]

Is there a link in the nearby future?

 

[MacTech]

Yep, here's the link to the drop-in

1:40 PM; still putting out light, but you must be fully dark-adapted to use it, at this point the drop in is not very usable, so i'm calling the test completed

i didn't meter the exact voltage at the start of the test, but they did ZTS at 0%, taking another cell that ZTS's at 0%, it reads 2.85V, i know it's not strictly accurate, but it gives me a rough baseline

so, after roughly 4 hours on 0% charge cells, the LH drop-in has drained the batteries to....
Cell 1; 2.45V
Cell 2; .45V.....

:eeksign:
Oooooookay.......time to dispose of these cells, this was clearly a case of unbalanced cells, even though they ZTS-ED at 0%

Note to self, *DO NOT* use 0% cells in your multiple-cell lights, single cell lights only, Cell 1 still ZTS's at 0, Cell 2 doesn't even trigger the ZTS LED's