Stinger XT/HP and Ultrastinger tailcaps

[bmsmith]

LEDagent brought up a question at the bottom of my other thread titled "pictures of various lights" regarding the tailcaps on the Stinger XT/HP and Ultrastinger. Are they interchangeable? Well, yes and no. To illustrate, let's take some pictures.

Here is a shot of the tail ends of both lights. The Stinger XT/HP is on top and the Ultrastinger is on the bottom.

Here are the tailcaps removed from the barrels. XT/HP tailcap on top, US tailcap on bottom.

Another angle showing the tailcap innards. Ultrastinger tailcap is on the left. XT/HP tailcap on the right. The white thing in the center of the US tailcap is a non-conductive material that applies pressure to the battery pack to ensure good contact with the springs at the head of the light. I believe this might also act as a pressure relief valve in case the batteries vent as there is a hole drilled in the tailcap in the center where the white piece is located. The spring on the XT/HP tailcap makes contact with the battery pack.

Here are the battery packs installed on the lights. The Ultrastinger is on the left and the XT/HP is on the bottom. Notice that the US battery has a cardboard insulator. The white piece of material in the tailcap presses against it to push the pack into the head of the light to make good contact with the springs.

Here is the XT/HP tailcap installed on the Ultrastinger barrel. Notice the difference in width between the pieces. Since the spring in the tailcap is making contact with the cardboard on the battery, this is a useless combination unless some other modifications are done to the flashlight, battery pack, or both. Since the Ultrastinger doesn't use the barrel of the light for the negative contact of the battery like many flashlights do, it may take some work to allow this to work. Even then, the difference in diameter between the pieces is not very appealing even though the threads match perfectly.

- Brian

 

[LEDagent]

Hmmm...thanks Brian!!!

THis is very interesting. If the tailcap on the Ultrastinger is not making contact on the Negative end of the battery, then where is the negative end of the battery making contact?

 

[Rothrandir]

the top of the battery pack on the ultrastinger contains both negative and positive contact.

and yes, that white thing provides gasious relief for the batteries. if they are left for long, or in heat, their gases will get let out.

 

[bmsmith]

Excellent question!

This picture shows what it looks like inside both the Stinger XT/HP and the UltraStinger. This shot is actually inside the XT/HP barrel since it is shorter and lets more light inside to allow me to take a picture of the spring contacts inside. Actually, I'm surprised to see the outer spring inside there!

And here's a shot of the top of the battery packs.

So this is interesting. Both lights have the same battery contacts at the top of the barrel. Both battery packs have both the positive and negative contacts at the top, and the XT/HP pack also has an exposed negative contact at its bottom which is what allows the XT/HP tailcap switch to operate. So apparently the outer spring in the barrel of the XT/HP isn't connected to anything. I bet the standard Stinger HP uses the outer spring contact with the switch installed at the head of the light. Because the XT version has no switch at the head, the spring's there but unused. This makes sense so Streamlight can be modular in design.

- Brian

 

[LEDagent]

OOOoo...i wonder if the cardboard at the end of the Ultrastinger battery can be removed so that you can expose the negative contacts to the spring of the XT tailcap.

If you said that the XT has the same internal spring pattern as the Ultrastinger, then i'm sure that both switches will work.

This is exciting. If a tailcap mod is possible for the US, then this would be the ultimate rechargeable light. My only grip with the Ultrastinger so far is it's wiered switch position. I've gone camping with it once and i'd have to always search for the switch before i'm able to turn it on. Having a switch at the butt-end would make things much easier.

 

[LEDagent]

OH..BTW, thanks again for the pix!! I bought a digital cam too, one of it's purposes was to take pictures of my flashlights so that i can post them here on CPF...but now i'm finding that i need (want) more flashlights to take pictures of.

 

[bmsmith]

I just tried to test that idea. I don't think the XT tailcap will work in the UltraStinger. The UltraStinger doesn't use the barrel for any part of the electrical circuit so the tailcap connects nowhere.

What you'd want is a Stinger XT/HP head with an ultrastinger body with the anodizing removed from the inside threads of the tailcap end so it conducts. The inside of the XT/HP barrel is plain aluminum.

- Brian

 

[this_is_nascar]

Originally posted by LEDagent:
OH..BTW, thanks again for the pix!! I bought a digital cam too, one of it's purposes was to take pictures of my flashlights so that i can post them here on CPF...but now i'm finding that i need (want) more flashlights to take pictures of.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Which camara did you get? I'm looking for one that will allow close-up shots like yours.

 

[LEDagent]

I believe bmsmith and i have the same camera. I think we discussed it in a previous thread.

It is the Olympus C-700. For it's price and features, it is probably one of the best digital cameras out there. Unfortunately, however, the macro abilities of this camera isn't as good as some others that are out there, like the Nikkon 800 or 900 series. Craig has one and he takes SUPER macro shots! If you would like an example of the maximum macro capability of this camera, just let me or bmsmith know. I will personally send you a pic or start a new thread in the cafe.

But overall, this is the kind of quality that you will expect from the camera, AND you have the ability to use all it's manual features as well.

ANyway, this is an entirely different topic, so if there are any other questions about the camera, please start another thread in the cafe and i'll be more than happy to help you out there.

ANyway...back on topic...bmsmith, thanks for trying it out too. It was a good try anyway. MAN! If only Streamlight could make a tactical rechargeable-turbohead light.

 

[bmsmith]

I'm no photographer, but I really like the C-700UZ for the sheer number of features. The only drawback it its size. But it's the penalty you pay for 10x optical zoom. The lens is large to let lots of light in. I just bought the Olympus nylon case for it this week and I really like it.

All of the pictures here were taken without the use of any tripod. Purely hand-steady under a 60 Watt equivalent GE Fluo bulb. This is why some shots are slightly blurry - I moved.

Back on topic... I believe Streamlight could make a tactical model in about 30 minutes if they wanted to. I'm surprised they haven't. Take the XT/HP head and switch assembly, screw on the UltraStinger barrel and finally the XT/HP tailcap. Voila! A longer and brighter Stinger XT/HP. Call it the UltraStinger XT and you're done!

It looks like dano's looking into doing something similar in the other thread "UltraStinger vs. Stinger HP" using 1/2 subC cells in a Stinger HP.

- Brian

 

[LEDagent]

Originally posted by bmsmith:

It looks like dano's looking into doing something similar in the other thread "UltraStinger vs. Stinger HP" using 1/2 subC cells in a Stinger HP.

- Brian

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yeah...i'm real excited with dano's mod. Last i heard, the Ultrastinger bulb will fit in the Stinger HP/XT. If this is true, then the only obstacle left is the battery requirments for the US bulb in the smaller housing of the Stinger.

I wonder, if he does find a battery, how long the battery would last with the US 10 watt bulb, and if you can still charge it with the orginal Streamlight charger.

I'm real excited about this! It's about time the CPF started focusing on rechargeable lights (and spotlights). For the longest time now, the CPF has been real big on lithium powered lights. While lithium powered lights are okay for a thrill factor, extreme brightness, and there light density, they are, by no means, CHEAP to operate. The operating costs of recheargeable lights are very appealing!

 

[bmsmith]

If the original battery is 1800mAH and the 1/2 subC cells are 1300mAH, I figure about 40 minutes of runtime, maybe a bit less. But to have UltraStinger brightness in a Stinger HP form factor might be worth the trade off in runtime.

I'd guess that you could still use the Streamlight slow charger. It only puts out 180mA so I'd bet the 1/2 subC cells wouldn't have any trouble with it. Might not be a good idea to leave it on the charger indefinitely, but I would think it'd work fine for as a 12 hour charger.

- Brian