Nite Ize drop in module?

[sween1911]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

I just picked one up at EMS in West Chester PA. My sister gave me a giftcard from there, so I picked one up. Came with the tailcap, which I am using. It's not too bad. It was $9.95 or so.

Which reminds me, I saw a stack of Princeton Tec.. um... black lexan light, takes 3 or 4 AA or AAA, 40 lumens. Sorry I forget the model cuz I got a bit miffed... they were on a rack CLEARLY MARKED $2.50. It was so obviously marked, I felt stupid asking if that was the real price, but when she saw the two I put on the counter, she said "You know these are $13, right?" because a previous customer complained of poor price marking. HELLO? THEN MOVE THEM, DUMBA$$.

But I did get the Nite-ize conversion thing, which is pretty cool. Makes a nice option. I carry Surefires and stuff, but it's nice to have a simple task light. Gotta get my dad one of these. He always has a AA Minimag with him. (And his SF G2 I bought him, calm down. )

 

[Topper]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

For around 5 bucks it is not bad at all.
Topper

 

[AtomicX]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

I know it's not that bright... but it's plenty bright enough for checking the thermostat and hitting the bathroom in the middle of the night. If your only getting up for 2 minutes you really dont want something bright enough to really wake you up a lot. Works well for looking through the junk drawer as well :wave: Under five bucks is a bargain and runs fine on rechargeables.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

Please take a look at this review thread with lots of side-by-side comparison beamshots and valuable posts from CPF members including a discussion on the tail-switch -

Nite-Ize LED Drop-in for MiniMag 2AA

 

[Flashlight FeeN]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

I have 2 of these nite ize kits with just the led module and love them a heck of a steal for $5!
Thanks for all the pics!

 

[Sigman]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

Merged 2 threads on this together...I would imagine there are plenty more around these halls.

 

[dca2]

I do not like the soft feel of the clickie but it is great for my 2 and 4 year olds. The 2 year old kept unscrewing the head of his mini when he tried to turn it off. The easy push of the soft clickie is just right for him.

Any mod that puts a timer on the light? He keeps forgetting to turn it off.

 

[greenLED]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

Any mod that puts a timer on the light? He keeps forgetting to turn it off.

Nite-Ize is coming out with their new "IQ" switch, which will power-off automatically after 14 minutes of inactivity. It flashes before powering off, so if you are indeed using the light, you can tap the switch and the timer will reset itself.

 

[dca2]

Man, what will I do with all my cheap Wally World batteries?

 

[Ray_of_Light]

I tried two of the $5 Nite-Ize upgrade for Mini-Mag.

The Nite-Ize draws 300 mA of current at 3 Volt. I measured the current to each single LED, about 40 mA. 400 mW goes to three overdriven LEDs, while 900 mW are drawn from the batteries. The 500 mW that are lost are dissipated as heat into the inductor, that is working in magnetic saturation.

Incidentally, the Nite-Ize has the same power consuption of the Terralux TLE5, which is a Lux I driven at 170 mA.
The TLE10 draws 140 mA at 3 Volts driving a NIchia Rigel at 100 mA, and puts out more lumens than the Nite-Ize.

Definetively, the Nite-Ize is a $5 upgrade, and is not aimed to flashaholics.
Whatever you save in buying it, you will spend it later on primary batteries, or get a reduced runtime from rechargeable.

Anthony

 

[UnknownVT]

Ray_of_Light wrote: "I tried two of the $5 Nite-Ize upgrade for Mini-Mag.
The Nite-Ize draws 300 mA of current at 3 Volt. I measured the current to each single LED, about 40 mA. 400 mW goes to three overdriven LEDs, while 900 mW are drawn from the batteries. The 500 mW that are lost are dissipated as heat into the inductor, that is working in magnetic saturation.

Incidentally, the Nite-Ize has the same power consuption of the Terralux TLE5, which is a Lux I driven at 170 mA.
The TLE10 draws 140 mA at 3 Volts driving a NIchia Rigel at 100 mA, and puts out more lumens than the Nite-Ize."

Anthony,

Many thanks for the the useful input.

I just did a current draw from my Nite-Ize at the tailcap and got only ~160mA on alkaline AAs

For comparison my readings for -
standard incandescent MiniMag 2AA = ~320mA
MJLED gen2 = ~32mA

All these were on good AA alkalines.

How did you manage to get current readings for individual LEDs?

Thanks,

 

[Phaserburn]

True, but then again, the $18+ difference in price buys ALOT of alkaline AA cells... conservatively upwards of 44 cells. That's a boatload of runtime.

But your points about the efficiency and engineering elegance are well taken.

 

[Ray_of_Light]

Vincent,
I bought two Nite-Ize, and disassembled one of them. I was wondering why the inductor, even if is so big, is getting hot. I measured the current a single LED.
I repeated the reading on the new Nite-Ize with an analog multimeter, and I obtained 290 mA from the batteries.

If you read 160 mA from the batteries, that makes more sense to me, I may have got 2 lemons.

Anthony

 

[Bozzlite]

The Nite Ize drop in is actually what got my interest back up in flashlights. I bought several of them right before Christmas last year at Wal-mart. Along with some Minimags that were on sale for around $7.00.

Then I started doing some research on the internet and discovered the TLE-5.
Omigosh! What a difference! It puts out tons more overall light than the nite ize. The downside is the difference in cost. Zbattery has them for $22.50 now plus about $6.40 for shipping. Can't seem to find them in brick and mortar stores.

But I am hooked. I own 6 of them now. And every different color Minimag I can find. Somebody stop me.

I still like the Nite Ize tho. In total darkness they seem to put out a lot of light.
I even stuck one in my 1AA Minimax, and Lo and Behold it was just about as bright as it is in the Minimag. Must have some good regulation.

 

[greenLED]

I was just thinking how this LED drop-in pretty much eraser the Opalec NewBeam out of people's radars. I haven't seen a post on the NewBeam in ages. Does anybody have both and can compare beams and runtime, please?

 

[DaveG]

I was just thinking how this LED drop-in pretty much eraser the Opalec NewBeam out of people's radars. I haven't seen a post on the NewBeam in ages. Does anybody have both and can compare beams and runtime, please?

I have both the Opalec and the Nite ize,and using the eye ball test the Nite ize looks brighter to me. Have not done any run times on them though.

 

[AbnerCadaver]

I can hardly wait for this puppy to start showing up in retail stores: http://www.niteize.com/productdetail.php?category_id=28&product_id=125

 

[Donovan]

Any word yet on these switches?

 

[smokinbasser]

Re: Nite Ize LED Upgrade Kit AA Mini Maglite

I just picked up two of the night ize drop ins and am now using a minimag for my night wanderings once again. Now they are actually useful for something other than demonstrating how lame stock maglight products are!!

 

[europium]

Opalec Newbeam is a poor value

I was just thinking how this LED drop-in pretty much eraser the Opalec NewBeam out of people's radars. I haven't seen a post on the NewBeam in ages. Does anybody have both and can compare beams and runtime, please?

I think a telling review of the Opalec was the one by Quickbeam here: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/opalec_newbeam.htm

As for beam comparisons, he did one comparing the Opalec to a Lightwave 2000:

Opalec Newbeam (left) vs. Lightwave 2000 (right)

Ok. So for less than the price of a Minimag + Opalec Newbeam drop-in, you can get a much longer lasting, brighter, and more reliable Lightwave 2000. In fact, if you are lucky during a sale, you can get a new Lightwave Pro2000 locally for less than just the Opalec Newbeam by itself (via mail order).

The only reason to get these drop-ins in the first place is because at some point we all got ripped off by Maglite :sigh: when we bought these Minimags! The first bulb in the Minimag I bought didn't last through the second set of batteries (and I had not dropped it or mistreated it in any way ... I was out walking after dark and suddenly ... poof! No light. :shakehead And, ironically, I would have needed that light in order to see well enough to replace the blown bulb with the one in the tailcap ).

The cheap nature of the Nite-Ize allows something that was once gathering dust to again be useful. Somebody else pointed out that at about 0.70 per pair of AA batteries, you would have to use the Minimag + Nite-Ize for hundreds (or even thousands?) of hours before you could 'realize' your savings from purchasing a much more 'efficient' and expensive drop-in. But again, you would be better off buying an entirely different new light that suits your purpose than you would be with the modded Minimag (see Inova X1 review--link posted below).

Other Quickbeam reviews:

Nite-Ize drop-in: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/niteize_mag3led.htm

Terralux TLE-5 drop-in: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/terralux_ministar2.htm

Lightwave 2000: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/lightwave_2000.htm

Lightwave 2100 (= Pro2000): http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/lightwave_2100.htm

Another good choice instead of the Minimag/Drop-in would be the new version of the Inova X1 (reviewed at http://flashlightreviews.com/reviews/inova_x1.htm by FLR) which appears to be brighter than the Opalec Newbeam over most of its 8-hour halflife on just a single AA battery and costs just $20!