MikeLip
Flashlight Enthusiast
Well, I may have found my AA light! I got mine from Battery Junction for $44.95. Photon is having a sale, but BJ price is even better and their delivery is MUCH better.
The light arrived and I thought I'd have to feed it, but it came on right out of the box. Great - a no-name Chinese AA ripoff, right? Nope. It was stocked with an Energizer lithium AA! Can't argue with that!
The light isn't tiny at nearly 4 inches long, with a 3/4" head diameter. But wow does that 6 white LED array put out the light! It easily lights a room. Heck, it lights a room from the end of the hallway! Photon says its 1.4W. From a 5mm LED array? Ouch! 230mW each! Probably not for long either on a AA. But that's OK because the output is TOO high for many things, and reducing it will give much better life. Brightness control is simple PWM, and yeah you can see the flicker when you wave the light around. I'm going to have to rig up a detector and connect it to my oscilloscope to see how fast it's going and the duty cycles.
Oh yeah, the head glows in the dark by the emitters. Cool!
The control is great. Click/release the body mounted button and it comes on full. Click and hold and it ramps down. A quick blink at the end of the ramp tells you that's as far as it goes. Click again and it goes off.
Click/hold and the central red LED comes on dim. Click and hold again and it ramps UP. Click and it's off.
The whole thing reminds me of my old Lion Heart.
There are a whole mess of blinky modes available that, frankly, I couldn't care less about. So I am not going to get into them.
The finish is shiny black with concentric rings machined for grip. Not bad, but I would have preferred knurling. There is a very good pocket clip in stainless steel, which is detachable for keyring use. It comes with the keyring and clip installed. I removed the keyring, since for me this is a pocket light. That was a pain in the butt, because the ring which links the light to the chain is like 1/8" diameter. I have very good fine point needlenose pliers. Fingernails won't cut it. At least mine won't.
The light seems extremely well made, like all LRI/photon products. I have no doubt this one will live for quite a while.
Now I can't wait for the Cree version!
The light arrived and I thought I'd have to feed it, but it came on right out of the box. Great - a no-name Chinese AA ripoff, right? Nope. It was stocked with an Energizer lithium AA! Can't argue with that!
The light isn't tiny at nearly 4 inches long, with a 3/4" head diameter. But wow does that 6 white LED array put out the light! It easily lights a room. Heck, it lights a room from the end of the hallway! Photon says its 1.4W. From a 5mm LED array? Ouch! 230mW each! Probably not for long either on a AA. But that's OK because the output is TOO high for many things, and reducing it will give much better life. Brightness control is simple PWM, and yeah you can see the flicker when you wave the light around. I'm going to have to rig up a detector and connect it to my oscilloscope to see how fast it's going and the duty cycles.
Oh yeah, the head glows in the dark by the emitters. Cool!
The control is great. Click/release the body mounted button and it comes on full. Click and hold and it ramps down. A quick blink at the end of the ramp tells you that's as far as it goes. Click again and it goes off.
Click/hold and the central red LED comes on dim. Click and hold again and it ramps UP. Click and it's off.
The whole thing reminds me of my old Lion Heart.
There are a whole mess of blinky modes available that, frankly, I couldn't care less about. So I am not going to get into them.
The finish is shiny black with concentric rings machined for grip. Not bad, but I would have preferred knurling. There is a very good pocket clip in stainless steel, which is detachable for keyring use. It comes with the keyring and clip installed. I removed the keyring, since for me this is a pocket light. That was a pain in the butt, because the ring which links the light to the chain is like 1/8" diameter. I have very good fine point needlenose pliers. Fingernails won't cut it. At least mine won't.
The light seems extremely well made, like all LRI/photon products. I have no doubt this one will live for quite a while.
Now I can't wait for the Cree version!
oo:
