PT 40 Brighter than Brinkmann LX: More Light Too

[nitelite]

I was surprised. Can anyone back this up? First the background and details.

I liked the Princeton Tec 40 because it was a good all around light for daily use. I use it with rechargeable nimh AA's because they are cheap and readily available. Same with the PR bulb and I can pick from a few at my local radio shack.

I was at the local radio shack and remembered somebody here at CPF said they thought the radio shack xeon 3 D cell bulb was best (sorry I can't find the post again to give credit). Slightly overdriven by 4 nimh AA's it gives excellent light in the PT-40.

The surprise came when I was in Salt Lake and stopped in wally world to find a legend LX for $19.95 and picked it up. I was impressed by the LX. Good Beam quality and bright!

I must admit I was using the 123's that came with the LX and I don't know how old they are. But, the nimh in the PT-40 weren't just off the charger either.

The PT-40/XPR-103 combo provides a little more light and matches the brightness of the LX. Ok, Shining the LX beam over the top on the PT-40 at 20' I just barely can tell where the LX is pointing. Just barely. After all, I can focus the LX tighter.

My observations are only on light output based on one set of batteries in an unknown state of charge. But I think it shouldn't be too hard for others to give this a more scientific test. Any others with experience with both lights care to try and confirm this?

I Don't know the bulb life of the XPR-103 but they are so cheap It don't really matter much. Any guesses on the bulb life?

 

[Kenshiro]

nitelite,

You read the posts right, but only partially.
Although xenon bulbs tend to be brighter than krypton bulbs if driven correctly, krypton bulbs are a bit more reliable when both are overdriven.
The suggestion was to buy a krypton 3D bulb (it should be the KPR-103). Your XPR-103 might blow pretty soon. But then again, you never know for sure.
Alan in Hong Kong said that after much experimenting, and a lot of bulbs blown, he found out that krypton bulbs seem to be less "fragile" when overdriven.

Now, for your observation.....
I have 3 Brinkman LX's and a PT Tec40 as well. My Tec40 has the KPR-103 bulb.

To put it simply, YES the Tec40 is a bit brighter and whiter as well. And with the dimpled reflector, the beam quality is quite good also.
I used the same bulb in my Dorcy Boss flashlight, which uses 4AA too. It has a faceted reflector that makes the beam REALLY good. Perfectly round. No rings or anything.

I am hoping to post some pictures in the future.

 

[nitelite]

Thanks for the confirmation and the info on the KPR-103. I guess I'll swap the XPR-103 back into my 3d cell maglite and take that KPR-103 and put it in the PT-40.

 

[Klaus]

XPR103 Xenon is speced at 3,6V 0,85A 45lu 15h
KPR103 Krypton is speced at 3,6V 0.75A 34lu 20h
HPR53 Halogen is speced at 4,0V 0,85A 60lu 25h

From this data I would assume the HPR53 would be a good if not best choice for 4xNiMh overdriving - as its much less overdriven and still would output most lumens and live longer.

Overdriven to lets say 4,4V (broad middle range of runtime) - I measured this to be a quite accurate voltage reaing for this load - the following changes for life and output can be theoretically calculated:

XPR 2,0h 80lu
KPR 3,2h 53lu
HPR 9,0h 80lu

I have no XPR or KPR bulb (should have some old Mag 3D bulbs I never used though) but following this data I think its not worth blowing them just to check if the theoretical math is right - I do have the HPR53 and as soon as the Tec40 shows up any day now I will give it a try - and I think this combo will work just perfectly fine.

Klaus

Oh and yes - the LX is speced at around 60-65 lumen or so - this overdriven bulb will be at around 80 lumens - so no wonder it looks brighter - and runs cheaper too.

 

[Alan]

Klaus,

By my experience, many of XPRs blown in less than 2 hrs (some in a few minutes) depends on your luck. Interestingly, up to now, I haven't blown any KPR yet (total 6-8 hrs on a Vortec and 5-6 hrs on 2 of Tec 40s).

Actually, one of them is Energizer KPR103 and 2 of them is with WhiteStar (krypton bulb for 3D maglit).

I have also tried HPR, it burns, not the bulb but the lens! HPR has a longer tip that doesn't fit too well and the tip touch the lens. I took it out right away so I didn't test its life span. By the way, HPR bulb project bigger beam.

Alan

 

[Lux Luthor]

I'm using the Whitestar for the Tec 40. It is a wee bit shorter than KPR103. I burned a tiny dot in the lens using KPR103. I've also tried XPR103, and it blew after a few minutes runtime. Nice while it lasted.

If any of you guys try soldering a Surge bulb to a PR base you will really freak. Brightest light from a Tec 40 I have ever seen.

 

[geepondy]

OK, was "englightened" by comments and bought and tried XPR113 bulb on my Arc White tonight. Slightly brighter, whiter and much better beam. Makes the crummy non fauceted reflector almost bearable. Tried the nimh's in the Arc White as well. Just as bright as slightly used alkaline's. I'm rapidly becoming a big fan of using nimh batteries in incandescent lights.

Next week will buy a tec 40 at local REI. Also would like to hear more results on using 3.6V XPR103 or similar bulb vs. 4.8V XPR113 in four cell lights. Really gotta think the XPR103 can't hold up very long even using lower voltage nimh's.

 

[geepondy]

Also for Alan or anybody else, I thought I've read that Xeon lamps produce whiter light then krypton lamps. Any truth to this? I assume that when lamp assembly number starts with X, you have a xeon lamp and with k, you have a krypton lamp.

 

[txwest]

You're right on the lamp code, but I'm not sure about the white light. Most of the time, I would agree, but the Tec 40 + 4 NiMH + 3D Krypton lamp puts out a very white light. TX

 

[Lux Luthor]

I'll 2nd that on the whiteness of KPR103, and the Whitestar. I don't remember about the XPR103. It blew so fast, I never had the chance to field test it.

 

[txwest]

For anyone that's going to run this combo, be it with the K or X lamps, let me make a suggestion. After you fully charge the batteries, put the original bulb back in & run it a few min. The NiCads & NiMHs will actually charge to about 1.4V. The extra voltage will fall off quickly, but for that short time, that extra .2V per battery X 4 is almost an extra volt. Enough to blow that lamp that you're already pushing hard @ 3.5 volts. Just a suggestion. TX

 

[JoeyL]

I agree with txwest. The NiMH cells, fresh off the charger can blow the light right away. I either leave them in a box for a few hours or put them in a different light to discharge them for a few minutes.

I find the glass on krypton bulbs start to get smoky colored after a 2 battery runs. So far, the xenons have not. The xenon looks whiter than a 6P with fresh batteries, but more rings and lines.

Otherwise it seems to be a pretty good setup with at least 90 minutes of runtime at a bright level from 1600 maH cells.

 

[Alan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by geepondy:

Next week will buy a tec 40 at local REI. Also would like to hear more results on using 3.6V XPR103 or similar bulb vs. 4.8V XPR113 in four cell lights. Really gotta think the XPR103 can't hold up very long even using lower voltage nimh's.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Done that before. KPR103 is MUCH brighter and whiter than XPR113 in Tec40. Don't try KPR103 on ArcWhite or any light with smooth reflector. The heat generated by the overdriven KPR103 melt a little coating of the smooth reflector. This little disformed reflector will create ugly beam but not noticeable with the texturized reflector.

Alan

 

[Alan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by txwest:
For anyone that's going to run this combo, be it with the K or X lamps, let me make a suggestion. After you fully charge the batteries, put the original bulb back in & run it a few min. The NiCads & NiMHs will actually charge to about 1.4V. The extra voltage will fall off quickly, but for that short time, that extra .2V per battery X 4 is almost an extra volt. Enough to blow that lamp that you're already pushing hard @ 3.5 volts. Just a suggestion. TX<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

A freshly charged NiMHs could be as high as 1.47v. During my test with SL4AA with SL3C bulb, I blew a few of them. It will be Ok if I leave the battery for a week or used it with other light for 1 minute or 2. The same problem happens on XPR103 on Tec40. I found that this practice is pretty annoying after awhile. I decided to test on Krypton bulb (KPR103) with different brands of freshly charged NiMH (1600mah Panasonic; 1600mah Sanyo and 1800mah GP) and none has problem so far.

By the way, did anybody try Energizer SKPR823? I couldn't get this bulb here. This should be very bright and longer life span but might not as white as KPR103.

Alan

 

[coolguy]

Hi guys, quick question... How would the 4.8v 800ma xpr-113 compare to the xpr and kpr 103 3.6v 800 ma with NIMH batteries. I've seen posts that mention people using the xpr 103 and 113 but never comparing the two directly. Sould someone share their knowledge and or experiences.

Thanks

 

[Klaus]

Alan,

yup - field testing certainly is better than theoretical calculation - on the length issue - when you first wrote about that I took my calipher and went to a shop with some good bulb selection and measured them - actually I did found quite a difference in length on the same type of HPR bulbs - it seems to me the glass is cut off at the tip when they mold it and the length is slightly different every time - the ones I have are not really longer than KPR ones - if you want to try that HPR (I think well worth it) you might do the same and measure them to fit in your flashlight.

Did you manage anything on those HPX bulbs - they still arent available around here - would really love to test-drive the HPX30 and HPX40/41 - you wrote you didn´t use the HPX41 due to the short lifetime - with NiMhs they would be actually underdriven and live quite longer than rated I could imagine.

Regards

Klaus

 

[redbird]

I appreciate the discussion on the PT40. I am looking for a more cost effective alternative to my E2 (Yikes

I can't believe I said that).

Would someone mind going into the quality of the beam with the dimpled reflector as compared to the Brinkman LX. How about the E2.

 

[Alan]

I don't think the shop owner allows me to unwrap its package and measure the bulb one by one before buying them

Anyway, I have a few HPR50s (85 lumens) and HMP15/HPR36s (100 lumens). All of them are philips made and all of them hit the lens of Tec40. Anyway, I found that over-driven KPR103 is also much brighter than the underdriven HPR50.

I don't have HPX30 so I couldn't be able to test it but after having blown a few XPR103, I won't try it even if I have it

. For HPX41, it is in the same range as HPR50 and lose out to KPR103.

Alan

 

[Chuen]

Alan, can u tell me how do u get all those bulbs in HK? Can I buy it retail?

 

[Alan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chuen:
Alan, can u tell me how do u get all those bulbs in HK? Can I buy it retail?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I didn't see any of them in retail. I got it directly from Philips Hong Kong and they don't sell to individual.

Alan