Sold/Expired Surefire E-Series MicroTower (E-MT) LED drop in

[Bullzeyebill]

Vincent, it takes about two weeks to receive Towers in States? Do insured packages get quicker delivery?

Bill

 

[KevinL]

Still waiting on mine..

Of more concern, my Winelight has run away, now I need to go and find it..

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Still waiting on mine..

Of more concern, my Winelight has run away, now I need to go and find it..

Maybe it is on the Wine Train. LOL. Wine Train is stationed in Napa, CA and runs up to St. Helena. The double decker is a restaurant, with fine cuisine.

Bill

 

[LED Zeppelin]

Received my F1 and F2 today, very nice and a bargain at the price.

Both tested and working great, but haven't had time to play with them.

I know I have many many suitable hosts somewhere, now I need to dig them up.

Very nice work Koala, hope your finger heals soon.

 

[Burman]

for 1 E-MT F1.

Thank you for making it!

 

[BSBG]

Mine arrived today :thumbsup:.

Looks good, well made and nice an bright in an E1e with an RCR123. A defined spot and a lot of spill. The spot has a tinge of yellow, while the spill is a pure white.

I like it, more to come when I get to play with it further.

 

[270winchester]

paypal sent for an F1

 

[LED Zeppelin]

Found time to play around with both the F1 and F2.

They do have a warm spot and cooler tint spill, but I like warm tints and it is not objectionable at all. Spill is bright and uniform, and the spot is surprisingly tight with good throw.

Both the F1 and F2 are nice, but I am partial to the F1 running on an RCR123. It's as bright a the F2 in a pocket size. The F2 will make my E2D now work as good as it looks.

 

[Nathan]

for (1) E-MT F1.

 

[qarawol]

I too have received my two lamps (on Tuesday), both the E-MT F1 & F2.

Nice machine work and an overall great product.

There is a big difference on the output using rechargeable RCR123 @ 3.7volt each as opposed to primary CR123's. @ 3volts. At 330mAh battery draw (average for both), this will have some descent run times.

As with LED Zeppelin, the F2 is in my E2D and the F1 will be going into my Surefire E1e.

Thanks 'koala' for making these possible. I can now switch between LED and incandescent on the same Flashlight.

Njoy…

 

[koala]

Vincent, it takes about two weeks to receive Towers in States? Do insured packages get quicker delivery?

Bill

Hi Bill :wave:,

Not sure about that, but yclo may have an answer for you, he ships a lot to the States. In bound on the other hand, first class airmail reaches AUS in about 5-7 workdays whereas priority mails takes 1-2 days extra. I believe it is the extra logging that delays them.

I shipped yours on Tuesday morning you should get it in a week or so. Two weeks is max but sometimes takes longer. AusPost has been pretty reliable to me. USPS is also good, but once I had a Priority package went to Brazil instead of Australia. I was worried sick, but it made it in 28 days time. That was a few months ago.

Recently, I bought a SW02 from cpfmp, the seller said it was shipped more than 2 weeks ago. No package takes more than 2 weeks from anywhere. So fingers crossed, my $ is probably down the drain, still a bit of hope since it's close to holidays. This will be the first time my package from the US gone missing :sigh: very discouraging indeed.

 

[koala]

To those who have posted their opinion thank for your comments. It's very positive and encouraging to me. May your E-MT serve you for many years to come. To the others who will be receiving the E-MT please do post back as soon as you have explore the performance of the E-MT. I would be glad if you could give me some feedback.


I would like to discuss a little bit about the E-MT build. The tower is cleaned, free of grease then Rebel stuck on the tower, with Arctic Alumina epoxy. Centering the Rebel is easy and not difficult. It is not important in E-MT application but I did take effort to center them as the AA settles.

The two blue wires are high quality Made in USA, high temperature, silver plated copper wires. Yes they are quite thin, any thicker is not quite possible because as you can see the little holes are too small. Current going through shouldn't be a problem, they are quite short. They are quite strong when soldered, but I felt that the connection pad on the Rebel is too small to withstand very strong tug so I had to coat the head+wire with ultra clear epoxy. So when settle it is pretty solid head. It will require a lot of effort to knock it off so I would be very surprised if someone tell me that it came out by itself. Having said that, please don't be stupid and try to pry it off, the hard gummy dome will probably come off first.

Regarding the aluminium tower, it isn't perfect, there is usual machining marks, if we op for a smooth perfect finish then it will cost more so we didn't as the tower will go into the light and you probably won't see it much. About the lettering, yes it's hand punched. I think it's ugly but it adds a touch of custom made I am sorry about that. If you think it's ugly you can use some alcohol and clean it off, the punch marks will still be there.

Finally, I am surprised that no one questioned us about where we got the premium Rebel 100 (which cost us a bomb), what sort of Bin it is... You know it took us a lot of effort to find them? At the moment Rebel 100 are so hard to find in medium quantity. Since no one cared about them I won't tell you all then :naughty::naughty::naughty:.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

Finally, I am surprised that no one questioned us about where we got the premium Rebel 100 (which cost us a bomb), what sort of Bin it is... You know it took us a lot of effort to find them? At the moment Rebel 100 are so hard to find in medium quantity. Since no one cared about them I won't tell you all then :naughty::naughty::naughty:.

Usually when someone gets uber rare LEDs and someone asks the answer is "if I tell you I'll have to kill you, it's top secret" so that could be the reason no one has asked.

-LT


. . . .um so where did you get them?

 

[KevinL]

To those who have posted their opinion thank for your comments. It's very positive and encouraging to me. May your E-MT serve you for many years to come. To the others who will be receiving the E-MT please do post back as soon as you have explore the performance of the E-MT. I would be glad if you could give me some feedback.


I would like to discuss a little bit about the E-MT build. The tower is cleaned, free of grease then Rebel stuck on the tower, with Arctic Alumina epoxy. Centering the Rebel is easy and not difficult. It is not important in E-MT application but I did take effort to center them as the AA settles.

The two blue wires are high quality Made in USA, high temperature, silver plated copper wires. Yes they are quite thin, any thicker is not quite possible because as you can see the little holes are too small. Current going through shouldn't be a problem, they are quite short. They are quite strong when soldered, but I felt that the connection pad on the Rebel is too small to withstand very strong tug so I had to coat the head+wire with ultra clear epoxy. So when settle it is pretty solid head. It will require a lot of effort to knock it off so I would be very surprised if someone tell me that it came out by itself. Having said that, please don't be stupid and try to pry it off, the hard gummy dome will probably come off first.

Regarding the aluminium tower, it isn't perfect, there is usual machining marks, if we op for a smooth perfect finish then it will cost more so we didn't as the tower will go into the light and you probably won't see it much. About the lettering, yes it's hand punched. I think it's ugly but it adds a touch of custom made I am sorry about that. If you think it's ugly you can use some alcohol and clean it off, the punch marks will still be there.

Finally, I am surprised that no one questioned us about where we got the premium Rebel 100 (which cost us a bomb), what sort of Bin it is... You know it took us a lot of effort to find them? At the moment Rebel 100 are so hard to find in medium quantity. Since no one cared about them I won't tell you all then :naughty::naughty::naughty:.

Will give you a full review when it gets in

Probably just caught in the Christmas mail logjam.. everywhere is crazy during Christmas season.

Time to dust off the 60mm macro for uber-closeups of the E-MT and Koala's fine handiwork

 

[christrose]

for one E-MT F1.

christrose

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Alright, please tell us where you got the Rebel 100's, what bin are they. You said low vf? Approximately, what is the vf? Is a low vf ok with your circuit, which is not current regulated, and low vf can pull more current?

Regarding my F1, (360mA's to led) is there a difference output wise between the 450+ version and mine, and is mine not so good to run a RCR123 if I choose to do that. Thanks,

Bill

 

[Eric242]

My E-MT F2 landed save and sound today, thanks a lot for building and offering these koala & yclo!!

Eric

 

[marcdilnutt]

Hi Vincent,
Please amend my order to just the two cell version, running out of money in the run up to Christmas! I hope this is ok, paypal to come in the morning.

 

[koala]

Hi :wave:,

To those who paid, all shipped today! Please check your order status click here!

. . . .um so where did you get them?

:nana: I give you a hint, it's Rebel 100 NXOD and it's $9.50 ea.



Hi again Bill :wave:,

There is slight visible difference between your 370mA and 450mA. Bare eye should be able to differenciate them when compared side by side. When comparing 1 light at a time it's quite impossible to tell which is which.

Not sure about low vf LEDs pulling more current, I haven't done any test yet. All I know is that the lower the forward voltage the higher the electrical efficiency. However, if doesn't tell if it's putting out the same amount of light.

What makes you think that your's is not so good running RCR123? Yours is as good as the others. Once the input voltage is higher that the LED forward voltage the circuit stop boosting, and go in to semi-direct drive. The diode and the inductor being the voltage drop and resistor/current limiter.

 

[KevinL]

Arrived today and the Winelight has resurfaced so here goes the testing!

This is the Review in a Nutshell after I have had a 14 hour day. Long review to follow later.

First impression: Superb craftsmanship. The words 'artisan' and 'craftsman' comes to mind after looking at the unbelievably tiny solder connections. I need to strain my eyes just to look at it, and I need a macro lens (true 1:1 macro, Canon EF-S 60/2.8) to photograph this little miracle.

Build quality and the way the parts fit together is incredible. Looking at the circuit board in the tower, you get the feeling this thing is hewn from one solid block of aluminium. It probably is, but the way the PCB is fitted leaves nearly no seam at all. Kudos to the two of you!


Beam: the best way I can describe it... have any of you ever worked with a BARE LED? ie. a Luxeon or something similar, with NO optics at all? What you get is a tremendously even, smooth flood of light, a lambertian beam pattern as LumiLEDs called it. This is the E-MT for you. A wide wonderful smooth flood. If you put a hand in front of it, shadows stand in sharp relief, which shows most of the light is being emitted directly and hitting your hand. A stippled, orange peel, or otherwise textured reflector will produce soft shadows rather than hard shadows.

THIS BEAM IS NEARLY ALL SPILL. Prospective buyers please take note.

This is also a good thing, because it means MOST of the emitter lumens do not have to bounce off an orange peel reflector and thus incur the usual reflector losses.

Then, take this 'direct' beam pattern, AND add a tiny little hotspot to it. However, this hotspot also seems to be similar in size to the KL1 3rd-generation with NX05 optic that I was testing against, so it is not so 'tiny' after all.

This is my frank and honest assessment of the beam, as I'm sure Koala would have wanted. I'm not saying it's a bad beam, but as he has warned many times, if you are expecting 'throw' from this light you have got to be joking. Leave the throw to the turboheads (love my SRTH!!). If any of you have worked with McGizmo's Mule, which basically has the emitter up front and NO secondary optics AT ALL, you can expect a similar beam pattern although in our case of the E-MT you do get some small hotspot.

To top it off, the E-MT, as advertised, is superbly useful at short range. This is a light that casts a huge wide spill beam (most of the beam is spill after all) indoors. If you are wandering around your house at night or someone else's house (let your imagination do the walking as to why), the huge wide swath of light illuminates everything in your path and pretty much everything else. If you're tinkering with stuff at close quarters, the beam is really useful. I'd say the optimal working range for this beam is 3-6ft, where it really shines (pun not intended).

If you want throw, look elsewhere, maybe look up LumensFactory and one of their superb bulbs. This is a LED spill light and it makes no pretensions otherwise!

What comes to mind where this little light would be perfect - the interior of a tent. If any of you camp, this would make a wonderful light to hang from the roof of the tent and provide area illumination.

Congratulations Koala and yclo.. great job on the E-MT and building one of the nicest LED retrofits that allow you to retain the stock E1e/E2e bezel. :twothumbs:twothumbs:twothumbs

Pretty pictures to follow later.