Red Light Options

[MerlinXIX]

Evening gents,
Have a couple questions for you all:

First, I need a light with a strong RED light that throws a long distance and is strong at range. I do a lot of land navigation at night and even with my eyes fully adjusted to night time, I am blind as a bat. Thus I need a very good red light flashlight. And yes, red is my only option.

I've seen adapters for things like the Fenix lights but did a bit of reading and found that such adapters cut heavily down on the distance and power of the light. Also, I've tried headlights and such, but the pissant little 5mm bulbs aren't working well for me in groups of 1 or 2.

Then I found these:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/diamond_magbulbs3w.htm

They seem like the best option at hand so far? If someone has something better in mind I'd greatly appreciate the info.

I have no problems with commissioning/buying a custom light but doing said work is a no go for me. I'm no electrical engineer for sure :shakehead .

Thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

 

[ambientmind]

i've never tried those led dropins you mentioned, but you can get a red P60 size dropin here. its a cree so it should be brighter than the lux III in the mag dropin. although, a bright enough red light will still ruin your night vision.

 

[Nyctophiliac]

The mag drop ins might be very good for throw, but I haven't tried them. I have a couple of those in white LED and they are very good throwers. Generally the red Lux III leds are brighter than the white so you should be on to a winner.

ambientmind - I also noted that Kaidomain has red cree drop ins for 6P Surefires. Might also be brighter than the white versions.

I guess to see at any real distance you are going to have to be significantly brighter than white. The brightest red I have is my old Lux III Orb Raw, which is an absolute scorcher! Mostly flood but effective for 50 - 100 feet easily in dark woodland etc. Trouble is it only has a short runtime and gets fairly hot pretty quickly - mostly used for burst or those 'That's a small torch for a big guy...Wow, my eyes!' kind of moments.:devil:

Good luck and post your success stories.



Be lucky...

 

[MerlinXIX]

i've never tried those led dropins you mentioned, but you can get a red P60 size dropin here. its a cree so it should be brighter than the lux III in the mag dropin. although, a bright enough red light will still ruin your night vision.

Excuse my noobness but I must ask the question... You say that it is P60 sized, yet the link you provide says P4? Bit confused here...

Also what would you recommend as a base unit for it?

Nyctophiliac-

-Got a source on those Orb Raws or are they out of production?

Thanks guys

 

[hopkins]

Hey Merlin - the new red LED replacements bulbs for car tail/brake lights
are bright. I bought 2 for fun, to make a bright red flashlight also.

May be some work to wire them up to a Li-ion 12v+ battery in a fannypack
I was thinking of mounting them into side by side reflectors to get more of a
spot light that I could hold as one does a flashlight and clip to hang it on the pack harness beam forward.

But its amazing what epoxy and cable ties plus some sawing can do to 2 cheapo plastic 2D cell flashlights!

http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

 

[Beaky]

You say that it is P60 sized, yet the link you provide says P4? Bit confused here...

Also what would you recommend as a base unit for it?

Hi Merlin!
P60 means that it is compatible (in size, not voltage in this case) to the Surefire P60 lamp module, which will fit in a number of Surefire flashlights as well as some cheaper alternatives!

P4 specifies the "quality" (loosely defined) of the LED. "Higher" letters (closer to Z in the alphabet) means more efficient LEDs. For two LEDs with the same letter, the one with the higher number is (slightly) more efficient.

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Hi Merlin,

The ORB RAW Lux III's are indeed out of production, but the Raw NS or Raw Al are in stock at lummii's site, if you contact Rob there, he will get you the latest brightest red cree leds you wish and install them for you. (He did me proud with a Royal Blue and a Green Cree a couple of months ago. I live in the UK and turnaround from order to delivery was only just over one week. He didn't have the Led's in stock when I ordered too!

Try him.

Actually, it won't be long before I order one of those myself!



Be lucky...

 

[Casebrius]