Pocketable light with clip

[pacmanfan]

I'm in the market for a small LED light with a clip on it. The only one I've seen so far is the NightCutter M60L, with a 5watt Luxeon. I'm in love with it, considering the output, but the price is a little bit out of my range if there's something else out there, and I don't have CR-123s or a charger for them.

Any AA, and possibly CR123, lights with clips that you guys could point me at would help me things a bit easier. Nothing too long, so 2 batteries is the max.

Thanks

 

[ACMarina]

QIII??

 

[vtunderground]

Surefire L1?

 

[Big_Ed]

Look at the other lights NightCutter offers. I have the P20, a 1 watt Lux, and it's considerably cheaper than the 5 watt. About $64, give or take, I think. It has a good strong clip, bright, smooth output, and has changable optics.

 

[pacmanfan]

Where can I find more information about the QIII?

I'd just as soon have a Lambda pill as the P20. It's not worth the money.

Surefire is even pricier than the NightCutter 5w Lux. I found the NightCutter for ~$130.

 

[Mike Painter]

My QIII came today.(Ordered it Tuesday, notified yesterday.)
http://www.countycomm.com/TM303XLEDLIGHT.htm

Very nice.

 

[beam_me_up]

You want the Q-III...it is the ultimate in pocketability and packs a nice punch for brightness in the world of LED.

 

[pacmanfan]

Alright, looks like the QIII is about what I'm wanting. There's only one thing that worries me. The clip. I was wanting something that I could clip to the inside of my jeans pocket, for EDC right next to my knife. One review I found said that the clip was pretty loose, and it looks to me that there'd be a lot of the light sticking out if I clip it to my pocket. Could someone who has one comment on my qualms? I'll probably just go ahead and get one, but it'd be nice to know, anyway.

 

[pacmanfan]

Oh, and I'm new the CR123s. Never used them before. I just read partway through another thread, which makes it look like rechargable ones aren't for me. What kind of cost per hour would I be looking at with a Q-III and the best bang for the buck CR123 cells available online?

 

[Haesslich]

The clip is awful - do NOT trust the clip. Use a sheath for it, or find a new clip for it. The clip is completely useless, IMO - the bezel sticks out too much, and it's not tight enough to grip anything.

 

[Hoghead]

You can get 123s for $1 apiece from Battery Station

Surefire sells 123s for $15 per dozen which comes out to $1.25 each.

 

[beam_me_up]

I'm going to recommend [EDITED] for your Q-III. Amazingly for $17 shipped you are getting 2 rechargeable cells and the charger. This will make your Q-III brighter as they are higher voltage (3.6v - 4.2v peak) cells that have been confirmed to work without damaging the Luxeon in the Q-III.

This will be your best value in the long run not only for cost ($5 retail for 123 batteries in the store) but for the added brightness performance. The only disadvantage is they are only 580mah cells which means shorter runtime (40 minutes per charge)

P.S. the pocket clip is useful if you simply tighten it. This can be done by taking the battery cap off and pressing down on the clip, however if you wear a belt the added holster that comes with the Q-III is pretty nice...I prefer just to put my Q-III straight in my pocket though it is small enough where there is not much of a bulge and it is unbothersome sitting down and walking around.

--UPDATE-- After more tests I am finding I am only getting 9-15 minutes of battery life on the Q3 with this charger. Now they may have sent me junk cells or the charger is not charging them fully. As of this time I am no longer recommending this charger as a low-cost alternative until I find out what the problem is.

-beam_me_up

 

[KevinL]

[ QUOTE ]
beam_me_up said:
I'm going to recommend THIS for your Q-III. Amazingly for $17 shipped you are getting 2 rechargeable cells and the charger. This will make your Q-III brighter as they are higher voltage (3.6v - 4.2v peak) cells that have been confirmed to work without damaging the Luxeon in the Q-III.

This will be your best value in the long run not only for cost ($5 retail for 123 batteries in the store) but for the added brightness performance. The only disadvantage is they are only 580mah cells which means shorter runtime (40 minutes per charge)


[/ QUOTE ]

Those look familiar....where have I seen them before?

 

[beam_me_up]

Sorry about your trouble with the charger Kevin, but wasn't it true you 'tweaked' it prior to the 'explosion' ? Could this have been an isolated issue caused by this? You sure have put some scare into a lot of people. For the Q-III I would suggest charging 1 cell at a time rather than two and keep an eye on your charger while charging and there should not be an issue.

 

[KevinL]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif True enough I cannot conclusively say the tweak did not cause the problem, agreed. It might be an aggravating factor. Other lithium ion gurus with more wisdom and sense than I am have commented on the charger issue (both with and without addressing the voltage adjustment) and that's what scares me, not so much the charger... s2k mentioned that he tried a deep-discharged lithium ion in the charger and measured current rising to dangerous levels before terminating the test.

I'm not against lithium ion, even unprotected lithium ion, as the kind folks have gone the distance to point out to me, it's the charger, and the general advice at the end is "avoid that charger (in particular) and get a real charger".

Just don't want to see it happen to anybody else, close shave or not. Protected cells allow people (me included) to sleep better at night, but here I am back in the hot seat with 18650 unprotecteds (bigger, better, and more bang.. hopefully NOT! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

If that charger is only safe at a 3.8V cutoff, that means you are getting a tiny fraction of the capacity available to you as I observed both with that charger and my current Maha C777+2. Watching the Maha in action shows the bulk of the charge voltage is delivered at 3.9-4.1V.


It's a little expensive but I recommend Jon's $42.50 charger/2-cell set. I conducted the cleanup in the minutes that followed carrying my C2.. with two of those cells /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Stay safe this Christmas /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/santa.gif

 

[beam_me_up]

Well I am going to knock on wood and cross my fingers and watch closly as it charges....I will probably get another charger sometime but I'd like to wait a little longer until the technology develops more....