Re: Regalight® EDC Mini Review - Pics Beamshots UPDATE: Now with more throw shots...
I got in early, and got one of the original batches (arrived last week). Tested it for throw, and a 14500 blew the switch on the second measurement (i.e. within about ~5 secs of total operation). 🤢
Was going to leave it aside until the lower-driven replacement module came, but whc's info on the NDI switch replacement got me toying with it tonight 😉. The NDI switch is indeed a perfect fit, with a couple of extra 16mm o-rings to raise the switch boot cover/assembly higher.
I suspect Stefan is bang on - the original switch can't handle the current of a 14500 battery. It's possible it could do fine as long you stuck to regular alkaline/NiMH. :shrug:
The NDI switch seems stable enough for now, but I don't plan to do runtimes on 14500 on this light for a simple reason - it is the most heavily-driven 1x Li-ion light I've seen yet! According to my lightbox, overall output is ~100 on my relative scale (higher than any other light). Oh, and throw with the Hawk head is indeed higher than my DBS R2-DI pill (@1m, Regal EDC is 26,000 lux vs DBS 23,900 lux).
I think I will do NiMH/alkaline runtimes on this current module, so that I can compare it to the replacement pill. 14500 runtimes will definitely wait until the replacement arrives. I'll post everything altogether in one review when I'm done.
Thanks again for all excellent info presented here whc! :wave:
EDIT: To clarify my use of numbers above:
My overall output measure indicates that the EDC is certainly being driven to a higher than normal level. Note that this output level is >20% higher than my Jet-II PRO or NiteCore Extreme, which are good examples of maximally-driven pocket lights. Regardless of switch stability, it is most certainly *not* appropriate to drive a light at this level with a 14500 cell, since that is bound to produce a >3C discharge rate. That is not good idea for a Li-ion. Even the "safer" Jet-II PRO or NiteCore Extreme can sometimes exceed a 3C discharge rate on RCR (depending on emitter Vf), so the abnormally short runtimes reported for the EDC on 14500 makes perfect sense. All of this is to explain my comment above as to why I won't do a runtime on 14500 on this sample, but will wait and see how the revised pill performs on 14500 (which will need to be driven at a lower level before I would consider doing runtimes on 14500).
The point of giving the peak center lux values at @1m (which I referred to as "throw" only for brevity) was not to suggest that the malfunctioning first batch EDC is better than a properly functioning DBS. My point was to illustrate that there is *no way* a properly functioning EDC with a more normally driven emitter will possibly compete with a DBS. For example, should the revised EDC be run at similar drive levels as the Jet-II PRO/Extreme, I would expect center lux @1m to drop to <17,000 on my meter (i.e. a ~20% drop, adjusted for inverse square decay of peak "throw"). Time will tell ... the actual values will be reported in my eventual review of revised EDC, but I think it's important to calibrate expectations in advance.
