Options ?

[Styerman]

My self , my ex apprentice , and my best buddy have old skool Alum. PD's . None have skipped a beat , despite having been beaten on like red headed step children . If the electronics ever peg out , what are my options ? I feel no need to upgrade , they are about perfect for our collective usage !

I must admit my grail lite is a LunaSol , but they are priced a bit steeply for a working stiff in these troubled times . Plus of course , I have a perfectly functional PD !

Chris

 

[McGizmo]

Hi Chris,
I am not sure I understand your question as to options. If your electronics peg out then I guess the first consideration would be to replace the electronics. As to what might be available at the time would depend on when and if the time came?!? :shrug:

 

[Oddjob]

You may have to wait a long time before the electronics peg out on a McGizmo.:thumbsup:

 

[Styerman]

Great , I love them the way they are , truly a home run hit outta the park !

Chris

 

[Scottiver]

I think he may be wondering where these new electronics would come from and who would do the repair.
I've wondered that myself from time to time, if say 20 years from now the board fries in my PD and Don and Wayne are no longer in business, would I be left with a $500 Ti paperweight?
Just wondering. :thinking:

 

[easilyled]

I think he may be wondering where these new electronics would come from and who would do the repair.
I've wondered that myself from time to time, if say 20 years from now the board fries in my PD and Don and Wayne are no longer in business, would I be left with a $500 Ti paperweight?
Just wondering. :thinking:

We can't take anything for granted but can hope that others would walk in their big shoes in the future.

Technology and those that have the wherewithal to implement is one thing that doesn't seem to be going down the pan.

However if you're thinking about them in such a long-term view, make sure you leave them to someone you care about in your will. ;)

 

[McGizmo]

I think he may be wondering where these new electronics would come from and who would do the repair.
I've wondered that myself from time to time, if say 20 years from now the board fries in my PD and Don and Wayne are no longer in business, would I be left with a $500 Ti paperweight?
Just wondering. :thinking:

I recall a newspaper article I read 30 or 40 years ago. It was about a farmer in the east somewhere who was seen one day in town driving a brand new Model A or Model T Ford. It was such a surprise to see him driving the car because he had been driving an old one for as long as anyone could remember. It turned out that when he bought the first one, he liked it so much that he bought a second with the idea of keeping it safe and stored until the first one wore out. Well the first one did finally wear out but it was something like 50 years old when it did and out came the spare.

I am not saying that any of my lights will last 50 years but did this guy do the right thing? Perhaps he should have just bought a spare motor and drive train. I don't recall if the article identified what caused him to retire the first one.

In regards to the light, I suppose one could buy a spare converter and then set it aside but if it was needed 5-10-20 years later, would you even remember where you had put it?

Some time ago, Wayne and I had discussions of the possibility of making the "x2" converters available on the shoppe as a modder's part but it never came to be. They are relatively expensive and labor intensive converters and I don't think the demand would have been justified. Making them available would also encourage some competition in others making PD design lights which might be OK for the community but I don't think it would have necessarily been in my best interest? :shrug: :o As it is, I have had the pleasure of fixing some McGizmo lights that turned out to have been improved by others and ultimately in need of repair.

I am keeping a small reserve of converters on hand as I do feel a certain responsibility to be of assistance should the need arise sometime in the future and provided I am in a position to be of assistance. If I were to offer them up as spares for sale now, I would have nothing to work with and what is the likelihood that those who bought spares actually needed them at some future date VS the likelihood of someone actually needing one and not being able to source it, down the road.

If you use one of these lights for 5 or 10 years and it ultimately does die for whatever reason, it would be a bummer but I would also hope that you would feel that it had served you well and earned its keep. The Ti host would certainly be capable of being modified and brought back into service at the later date provided there are still those interested in flashlights?!?! There are any number of people here on the forum today that could take a 1940's Everready 2xC flashlight and convert it to a functional light and one that performed much better than original. I would expect the same could be done with any of the contemporary lights. :shrug:

 

[Oddjob]

This is something I think of when I consider how much I spend on a light. If I got 10 years out of my PD then it will have served me well and I can either get someone to mod it, repair it or retire it and move on to whatever is the latest and greatest. Technology is ever changing and who knows what will be available (or what Don will be doing with lights) if my PD ever dies.

 

[Dan FO]

We are now to the point where people are looking for lights with a good low. I can't imagine needing a higher high than the EDC's we have now for real life use. At some point you bump up against the point of diminishing return. The only thing we are getting is more efficient components which means we don't have to drive them as hard and get longer runtimes.

Don has never really driven his EDC lights very hard so I am not to worried about the negatives of overdriving them.

Will we get better color LEDs? That all depends on what each individual likes for color. I am very happy with what I have now and I am not sure that will change.

 

[Styerman]

I'm glad Don still has a few boards stashed away . No sane person expects electronics to last forever , when I got my first PD it was an early one , us early buyers were proud to be part of the beta test ! I rest content knowing Don has a few spares kicking around .

Chris