Titanium Makai

[shado]

Its coming September 20th

 

[nfetterly]

Erased earlier bit - hadn't finished reading thread ....

I wish my car didn't need front & rear brakes this weekend, & I didn't have time to do it myself....

I've got a few high powered lights & drop-ins - while I appreciate the high power I also find myself having to switch to a second light sometime to allow the other one to cool off. Looking forward to when I can get one of these!

Neale

 

[Obijuan Kenobe]

CONFESSION of a NEWB: I just got this light a just few days ago. I only registered a few minutes after I ordered it from Don.

About a week to Norway from Hawaii...not bad.

After a night with my first McGizmo, I have to admit that I love it. :twothumbs

I am impressed that the light is so small. I will say this again later. You might never need more than this light. Don has done a near perfect job with balance between throw and spill IMHO.

I have had loads of Mag and other flashlights. But recently last year, I finally got a great LED light that woke me up. This light is a (XP-E Q5?) Suprabeam from Denmark. GREAT light. 3xAAA. Throws very well, but it cannot compete with the Makai. In daylight, it's harder to see the difference of course, but at night...whoa. The Makai spot is brighter, much more symmetrical and round (perfect), and the Suprabeam has almost no spill in comparison (i.e. all its light is in the spot and it still doesn't outshine the Makai). I never realized how useful that spill would be until my first night dog walk with the Makai. It's wonderful to have a very usefully bright spot WITH uniform spill rather than a few bright concentric rings only.

I also have to admit in my newbieness...this is my first CR123 light. I had never noticed how small these batteries were. When I went to buy them, I thought I was mistaken. When the Makai showed up, I was VERY happy with the size. Not sure I'd want the 2x123. The dimensions of this light are so appealing...it sorta lacks obvious scale in pictures. Could be huge, but it's tiny.

I am 6'6", and I have long basketball hands. With the head resting in between my thumb and index finger, the rest disappears into my hand and it feels like I am holding a metal ball. This light is perfect for them. And it fits just fine in my front pocket clipped. Maybe my pants are baggier than yours, but I see no issues whatsoeva with carrying this light everyday...foreva.

Finally, I work with microscopes, fluorescent dyes, and lasers, so I work in the dark alot. The three modes are ideal (although I know not unusual for Don's line up) and help make it nearly inexcusable for me not to have it at all times.

Not sure what Don's other lights are like, but this is one hell of a nice piece. If it's par for the course, I am going to be playing a few holes I think.

Thanks Don!

obi

 

[Codeman]

My Makai 6V is my 15th McGizmo designed and built light. It is par for the course for Don. He simply has unbelievable skills in the art of design compromise which lead to highly functional, clean lights.

Regarding my Makai 6V...

On two new Surefire cells, I measured 10 calc'd lumens on low, 60 on medium, and 219 on high, give or take 5%.

On two AW RCR123A cells, I measured 11 calc'd lumens on low, 63 on medium, and 230 on high, give or take 5%.

Hot crap, that's more output than my MR-X! Seriously, I can't believe a 2x123 single LED has knocked my [email protected] hotwired MR-X off the output podium. The MR-X still reigns for color temp, but the Makai 6V's beam is just as gorgeous as the light itself. Reminds me of an Aleph 3 on steroids, with great flood to boot. :bow:

Using the 2xAA body with Eneloops, it runs either on low or out of regulation, probably out of regulation. Using a fresh pair of Energizer Lithium L91's, though, gets low and medium.

Teamed up with my Sundrop-3S and Haiku XP-G, the Makai 6V makes for a near perfect trifecta of lights. The weight feels great, too!

Don - did you go with 25/125 mA for low/medium?

 

[easilyled]

I'm curious to know whether these 2-cell converters will be offered separately?

They will be a useful addition of kit for those that already have a single-cell Makai set-up.

 

[Codeman]

I woke up early this morning, about 2 hours before sunrise, so I decided to take my Makai 6V out to try my 200 yd torture test. I wanted to see how it compared to Don's last real "throw" light, an Aleph 3 2x123 DB917 Lux III TXOJ.

Using my equipment (5% error), the A3 puts out 61 calc'd lumens and the Makai 219, both on fresh Surefire cells. The A3's spot is slightly tighter, but from a practical use standpoint, the only real difference in beam pattern is the amount of flood from the Makai 6V.

My test target is a tree that's 200 yds away. Along the line of sight is a typical street utility light at 95 yds. To further handicap the lights, I did not wait for my eyes to adjust to the dark.

The A3 was just barely able to light the tree. If I didn't know that it was a tree, all that I would be able to tell is that something was there, but not what it was. The Makai 6V lit the tree well enough to see individual branches clearly. Plus, the Makai light up the entire street and front yards of the houses. My black and green swirl Aleph 3 will always be a special light to me. Not only is it a great looking light, but it was my first McGizmo. Put simply, the Makai 6V blew it out of the water.

The Makai 6V has done for the 100-200 yd range what the Haiku XP-G did for the 0-75 yd range. And it's still useful for closer distances with the low and medium settings.

It's been over a 5 year wait since I got my A3, but it was well worth it. Thank you, Don!:twothumbs

 

[McGizmo]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Ray,

The 6V LE has apparent LED drives levels of ~ 40, 200 & 1000 mA. Since the converter uses PWM, the actual current is higher than stated on med and low but duty cycle less than 100%.

easilyled,

If and when I get caught up with stuff in the works I might offer the Makai LE's separately. I have a fair amount of LE's to build that will be going into some new heads and that takes priority. If someone is in actual need of a LE, I can always be contacted by e-mail.

 

[Codeman]

Thanks for the info, sir!

 

[tshirley]

I have the standard Makai and love it, so much so I am considering a 6v Makai but was wondering if there is really that much noticeable difference between the two. Hope someone chimes in here who has both!lovecpflovecpf

 

[coloradogps]

The 6V Makai is brighter.

It also feels better to hold with the longer body.

:twothumbs

 

[PoliceScannerMan]

I have the standard with the 2 x AA. It is great as well.
hard to believe all that light is from AA's.

The 6V Makai is brighter.

It also feels better to hold with the longer body.

:twothumbs

 

[Good day]

Hey tino_ale,

You think you guys are confused, how about us poor guys that are just reading from the sidelines trying to keep up

Yes ,cann't agree with more ,it is also not easy for me to read so many Technical knowledge .English is not my native language ,i must re-read several times to absorb these helpful infomation

 

[easilyled]

Makai (1x123, 660 mA) - 10900 lux
Makai (2x123, 1450 mA) - 18500 lux

What about:-

Makai (2*123, 1000mA) ?

 

[McGizmo]

What about:-

Makai (2*123, 1000mA) ?

I did measure one at ~14000 lux.

I don't like to provide hard numbers as I know YMMV and with these XP-G LED's driven at the higher currents, the measurement will obviously vary as a function of on time. This has been reported and discussed elsewhere on the forum and I didn't really appreciate it until I started working with drivers capable of taking the LED to these higher drive levels.

 

[McGizmo]

I added a new iteration of Makai to the offerings, HERE. With the XM-L LED this light is about lumens on high power more than it is about Lux. In bench comparisons with the XP-X it was obvious that this new LED is more "stable" in light output as well as more efficient at a drive level of 1.5 amps. The LED has a larger image size and is somewhat reminiscent of the Luxeon 5W LED but without the obvious donut hole.

I can't introduce the Makai head to my integrating sphere because it is too large in diameter but I did do some comparisons of a XP-G LE and XM-L LE in a Mule head. Both used the 3S Buck converter with a current drive of ~1400 mA:

LE I-in I-out Lumens
XP-G 940mA 1375mA 212
XM-L 930mA 1395mA 330

I and I gather others have noticed that the XP-G when driven at these current levels tends to drop in flux rather quickly. The XM-L seems to hold on much better and given that it is producing more light it is producing less heat than the XP-G.

 

[eyeeatingfish]

Greetings from Oahu
I saw this light and I am thinking this might be right up my alley.
I wanted a 18650 size (2xCR123 is handy but not key) light with a bit head for throw, have it fit on a belt holster and have it be made in America. A low modes are nice but reliability is key. The closes thing I could was a Peak light but it uses an plastic optic rather than a reflector so while it had good throw it had poor flood.
I could get a new Lumapower MRV or a Jetbeam RRT-1 but then that wouldn't be supporting an American (and in this case luckily a Hawaiian) company!

So here is my question, is this light made in Aluminum too? I need a new work light but I cannot justify spending the amount you charge for the titanium. You will have to forgive me if this is not how Mcgizmo works, I have not ventured into the custom makers area much.

Is this the right place to ask McGizmo about this? I did not see a contact link on his profile.

 

[easilyled]

Greetings from Oahu
I saw this light and I am thinking this might be right up my alley.
I wanted a 18650 size (2xCR123 is handy but not key) light with a bit head for throw, have it fit on a belt holster and have it be made in America. A low modes are nice but reliability is key. The closes thing I could was a Peak light but it uses an plastic optic rather than a reflector so while it had good throw it had poor flood.
I could get a new Lumapower MRV or a Jetbeam RRT-1 but then that wouldn't be supporting an American (and in this case luckily a Hawaiian) company!

So here is my question, is this light made in Aluminum too? I need a new work light but I cannot justify spending the amount you charge for the titanium. You will have to forgive me if this is not how Mcgizmo works, I have not ventured into the custom makers area much.

Is this the right place to ask McGizmo about this? I did not see a contact link on his profile.

No, this light is not made in Aluminium.

 

[eyeeatingfish]

Does he do custom orders?

 

[McGizmo]

Aloha eyeeatingfish,

There are some custom variations I can offer within the bounds of the titianium components and LED's I currently work with but beyond that, I don't do or offer custom lights or modifications. I haven't worked with aluminum components now for a few years. There are probably any number of options and alternatives available to you out there. One that comes immediately to mind is Gene Malkoff. Have you looked at his offerings? Have you posted a thread elsewhere on the forum with a punch list of desirable features and asked for suggestions?

 

[jellydonut]

Greetings from Oahu
I saw this light and I am thinking this might be right up my alley.
I wanted a 18650 size (2xCR123 is handy but not key) light with a bit head for throw, have it fit on a belt holster and have it be made in America. A low modes are nice but reliability is key. The closes thing I could was a Peak light but it uses an plastic optic rather than a reflector so while it had good throw it had poor flood.
I could get a new Lumapower MRV or a Jetbeam RRT-1 but then that wouldn't be supporting an American (and in this case luckily a Hawaiian) company!

So here is my question, is this light made in Aluminum too? I need a new work light but I cannot justify spending the amount you charge for the titanium. You will have to forgive me if this is not how Mcgizmo works, I have not ventured into the custom makers area much.

Is this the right place to ask McGizmo about this? I did not see a contact link on his profile.

As Don suggested himself, Gene Malkoff:

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop/malkoff-devices-hound-dog-flashlight-p-92.html

Ordering the Hound Dog head with the MD2 body will give you an 18650 size light. The HD head requires 5V of input to run in regulation, however, so an 18650 would give you less than the rated power. You'd have to run 2 x CR123 or 2 x rechargeables.

Malkoff products fulfill your absolute reliability requirements (they are pretty much unbreakable) and feature a low mode that is accessed by twisting the bezel outwards. They are also made in the USA. The Hound Dog, with what is actually Don's own 38mm reflector, is considered a throw-type light. I have one myself and it packs a good punch!