Lost power in my office - geek saves the day!

[MR Bulk]

FORTY DOLLARS for a Pak-Lite w/lith 9V???!!! Man.

Usre am glad I got mine when they were the result of just a one-man inventor for $10 buck$...in fact where the heck is it now?

Great blackout story!

My wife was converted when I gave her a M*g Solitaire for her keyring way back when, and one day the lights went out while she was shopping at the local mall. She became the fearless leader of a parade of nervous ladies marching out from the back of that dark (clothing, what else?) store!

 

[pjandyho]

I keep seeing TW4 mentioned in posts. Can someone tell me what is TW4? Is it the combination of a KL4 + E1E?

Thanks.

Andy Ho

 

[Hoghead]

pjandyho,
That is correct. Tactical Warehouse makes these up (E1E/KL4) and sells them as the TW4.

 

[pjandyho]

I see... Thank you.

Andy Ho

 

[blacksmithtech]

Just to jump in on the discussion about the Tw4. I got mine last night and I am totally impressed with the amount of light coming out of this thing. I couldn't beleive the great service from Tactical Warehouse, I ordered the light and they sent a TW pen and Surefire t-shirt, light had a battery in it and I still can't believe it's a LED! If fondling a flashlight is wrong , then I'm in trouble. Just can't stop playing with the darn thing! I got spoiled with the G2, now i'm totally blown away with this light. Long life / freakin bright / small edc carry size / I can't find the downside and do not know why everybody doesn't have one of these. Newbee's save up your pennies and buy quality, you won't be disappointed - Sermon over - Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

 

[paulr]

I compared the Blast and E1e side-by-side recently and the E1e is a lot brighter. I think Surefire's lumen ratings are much more conservative than anyone else's. I have NiMH AAA's in my Blast so with fresh alkalines the brightness difference would have been smaller, but the 1.25 volts from the NiMH cells would have corresponded to alkalines in about the middle of their runtime, so the comparison is fair.

However I don't consider this to be a big deal. The Blast is plenty bright for an indoor EDC. For when it isn't bright enough, an E1e probably isn't bright enough either, and an E2e would be much better. A UKE 2L is probably brighter than an E1e. It's a little larger but I think it weighs about the same.


I'm a little bit confused about the TW4, which supposedly has around 2 hours of runtime on a single 123. That's about the same runtime as an Arc LS or E1e/KL1, so I don't see how it can be getting more power to the LED than those other lights, and so I don't see how it can be much brighter.

I'm wondering about this because I'm leaning towards a TW4 or L4 as my next Luxeon light, finances permitting.

 

[DumboRAT]

paulr, I don't understand why that is so, either, but that's both what my personal experience with the TW4 and the ARC LSH (both a S and a spec.ed. P w/ Fraen LP) and this following review shows:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB16&Number=374761&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Allen
aka DumboRAT

- Note that the hot-spot for the P w/ Fraen *_is_* hotter than the TW4, but the TW4's overall beam just swallows the ARC's outside of that very narrow central "tube."

 

[wwglen]

On the TW4 Runtime...

I am not an expert but this is just a compulation from information gathered over the past 3 months or so on this board.

I do not have a TW4

Now to my best explination.

1. A LED underdriven is more effecient than an overdriven one.
2. A requlated light keeps the same current throughout its life.
3. An unregulated light reduces the current flow as the battery discharges.
4. The 5 watt in the TW4 is basically four 1 watt leds.
5. The ARC light is running in regulated mode slightly overdriving the LED.
6. The TW4 is running out of regulation underdriving the LEDs.
7. The four underdriven LEDs are brighter than an overdriven LED for the same current flow.
8. Assume that both start at the same current flow (from the battery) than the Tw4 is brighter than the ARC.
9. As the battery discharges the TW4 current draw reduces as the ARCs stays the same. This requced current flow increases the effeciencey of the LED keeping the TW4 about the brightness as the ARC.
10. The TW4 reaches a point where it is dimmer than the requlated ARC but is still pretty bright and taking less current than the ARC.
11. The ARC drops to MOON mode with reduced output and much reduced current draw.
12. The TW4 is brighter than the ARC for the rest of the runtime due to the lower current draw throughout the middle of the discharge curve.

wwglen