luxlover
Banned
This post is a "work in progress", with details added as they become available. For now, I would like to inform those of you with HDS lights having poor runtimes that you can give new life to your light by having it modded with a Seoul Semiconductor "U" flux binned P4 emitter. I highly recommend my modder, fellow CPF member milkyspit (Scott), for this task. His emphasis on detail, accuracy, and quality are to be commended, evident by the sterling condition of my light after the mod.....no dust inside the lens, no dust on the reflector, and no dust on the emitter's "gummy" dome. Almost "clean room clean!" The mod is a simple emitter swap without the need for light module removal, and turnaround time is usually one day. PM milkyspit for details!
For those who have not visited the www.novatac.com website today, there has been an update. The revised release date is now April/May 2007. This is a long way from January 31st......today's date. I am mentioning this to suggest that you do not have to wait 4 months for the next NovaTac light (??) in order to make your present underachieving light a 120lm (or so) powerhouse. In the case of those lights with inefficient emitters not easily yielding the outputs that are "model specific", Henry had to increase the power supply in order to rate his lights at 42, 60 and 85 lumens. In theory, the lower the runtime of a light the greater the improvement in output. This occurs because the power provided to the emitter will be better utilized by an efficient Seoul emitter, will maintain the same runtime as the stock emitter, and will generate the same heat as the stock emitter. In other words, more light will be produced without any negative consequences!
My impression of the modded light's "visual" characteristics:
The tint is barely a cool white. The beam pattern has no artifacts, no rings, no square die projections and no "angelic halos." The hotspot blends into the sidespill very smoothly, and the output of my U60 light went from 60lm to what I believe to be at least 120lm. I am pretty sure that it has not reached the next progression in output based on Henry's "visually even" level increase factor, which would be 170lm! Note that HDS light levels increase at the rate of the square root of 2 (1.414) from one level to the next one. This is why we have seen lights with 42lm, 60lm and 85lm levels, and most recently with 120lm as showcased at the Shot Show. Although I am disappointed that my light did not reach 170lm, the difference between my older U60 and my modded U60 is visually striking. It is a most impressive improvement.
How I plan to determine the output of my modded light:
Some of you may be thinking out loud "what is the output of luxlover's newly modded light?" To this, I give an answer to which I welcome comments. I plan on determining the output of my light with the use of my older U60, the modded light and a Meterman LM-631 luxmeter. If it would be proper to assume that my existing U60 is indeed a 60lm light, then I can use that light as a benchmark to determine the output of my modded light. My plan to accomplish this is as follows:
1. Assume that my light is 60lm, with a rating tolerance by Henry of plus or minus 5%. This means that my light could be anywhere from 57lm to 63lm. In reality, it wouldn't matter since the brain cannot easily detect such small variations anyway! So for the sake of simplicity, I will trust that my light is producing 60lm and use that value in my calculations.
2. To generate consistent luxmeter results, I will have to create a fixture that will be able to aim each light, one at a time, at the luxmeter's pickup in such a way that whatever portion of overall light output will be absorbed by the pickup will be consistent from one light to the other. This will not be a problem, since both lights have stock HDS reflectors, which means that the distribution of hotspot and sidespill will be identical. Note that if the modded light's output is so great that it overloads the meter, I will have to move it further back from the pickup until I can get a reading. I reserve the right to select the distance from the pickup, because my test is designed to get a reading of how much light is reaching the pickup. The result will be "relative" based on the distance from the pickup, and it will not represent an "absolute" value as it would if I had placed the light at the industry standard distance of one meter.
3. I was thinking of devising a setup where I would place each light inside a short piece of pvc tubing (or equivalent), and place the tubing directly against the pickup so as to take all light reflected off the inner walls of the tubing and have it absorbed by the pickup.
4. By recording the luxmeter's reading of the U60, doing the same with the modded light, and then using simple algebra to calculate the increase, I will get pretty close to the lumen output of the modded light. The key to the success of this experiment is to make very sure that each light is positioned in the exact same position from the luxmeter's pickup. Even if all the output of each light is not absorbed by the pickup, I can reach an accurate lumen determination if both lights are positioned exactly the same way.
5. To avoid confusion, I am going to give an example of a possible test outcome......
Once I determine the distance at which the modded light will not overload the luxmeter, and take a reading, I will place the U60 light at that same position and take a reading. Let's say that the modded light yields a reading of 12,000 lux, and the U60 yields a reading of 6,000 lux. If the modded light is yielding a lux reading twice as much as the U60, then it is a logical conclusion that the modded light has a 120lm output.
I welcome any comments, in favor of or against my testing methodology.
Jeff
For those who have not visited the www.novatac.com website today, there has been an update. The revised release date is now April/May 2007. This is a long way from January 31st......today's date. I am mentioning this to suggest that you do not have to wait 4 months for the next NovaTac light (??) in order to make your present underachieving light a 120lm (or so) powerhouse. In the case of those lights with inefficient emitters not easily yielding the outputs that are "model specific", Henry had to increase the power supply in order to rate his lights at 42, 60 and 85 lumens. In theory, the lower the runtime of a light the greater the improvement in output. This occurs because the power provided to the emitter will be better utilized by an efficient Seoul emitter, will maintain the same runtime as the stock emitter, and will generate the same heat as the stock emitter. In other words, more light will be produced without any negative consequences!
My impression of the modded light's "visual" characteristics:
The tint is barely a cool white. The beam pattern has no artifacts, no rings, no square die projections and no "angelic halos." The hotspot blends into the sidespill very smoothly, and the output of my U60 light went from 60lm to what I believe to be at least 120lm. I am pretty sure that it has not reached the next progression in output based on Henry's "visually even" level increase factor, which would be 170lm! Note that HDS light levels increase at the rate of the square root of 2 (1.414) from one level to the next one. This is why we have seen lights with 42lm, 60lm and 85lm levels, and most recently with 120lm as showcased at the Shot Show. Although I am disappointed that my light did not reach 170lm, the difference between my older U60 and my modded U60 is visually striking. It is a most impressive improvement.
How I plan to determine the output of my modded light:
Some of you may be thinking out loud "what is the output of luxlover's newly modded light?" To this, I give an answer to which I welcome comments. I plan on determining the output of my light with the use of my older U60, the modded light and a Meterman LM-631 luxmeter. If it would be proper to assume that my existing U60 is indeed a 60lm light, then I can use that light as a benchmark to determine the output of my modded light. My plan to accomplish this is as follows:
1. Assume that my light is 60lm, with a rating tolerance by Henry of plus or minus 5%. This means that my light could be anywhere from 57lm to 63lm. In reality, it wouldn't matter since the brain cannot easily detect such small variations anyway! So for the sake of simplicity, I will trust that my light is producing 60lm and use that value in my calculations.
2. To generate consistent luxmeter results, I will have to create a fixture that will be able to aim each light, one at a time, at the luxmeter's pickup in such a way that whatever portion of overall light output will be absorbed by the pickup will be consistent from one light to the other. This will not be a problem, since both lights have stock HDS reflectors, which means that the distribution of hotspot and sidespill will be identical. Note that if the modded light's output is so great that it overloads the meter, I will have to move it further back from the pickup until I can get a reading. I reserve the right to select the distance from the pickup, because my test is designed to get a reading of how much light is reaching the pickup. The result will be "relative" based on the distance from the pickup, and it will not represent an "absolute" value as it would if I had placed the light at the industry standard distance of one meter.
3. I was thinking of devising a setup where I would place each light inside a short piece of pvc tubing (or equivalent), and place the tubing directly against the pickup so as to take all light reflected off the inner walls of the tubing and have it absorbed by the pickup.
4. By recording the luxmeter's reading of the U60, doing the same with the modded light, and then using simple algebra to calculate the increase, I will get pretty close to the lumen output of the modded light. The key to the success of this experiment is to make very sure that each light is positioned in the exact same position from the luxmeter's pickup. Even if all the output of each light is not absorbed by the pickup, I can reach an accurate lumen determination if both lights are positioned exactly the same way.
5. To avoid confusion, I am going to give an example of a possible test outcome......
Once I determine the distance at which the modded light will not overload the luxmeter, and take a reading, I will place the U60 light at that same position and take a reading. Let's say that the modded light yields a reading of 12,000 lux, and the U60 yields a reading of 6,000 lux. If the modded light is yielding a lux reading twice as much as the U60, then it is a logical conclusion that the modded light has a 120lm output.
I welcome any comments, in favor of or against my testing methodology.
Jeff
Last edited:
