Nite Ize drop in module?

I was in EMS on Friday and saw the Nite Ize drop in led module and clickie kit for the Mag 2AA. Anyone have experience with this one yet? I did search here for Nite Ize but nothing popped up.


Chris

I have one and I believe that PlayboyJoeShmoe has one. I picked my up at a Bass Pro Shops in Myrtle Beach, SC. It's a neat upgrade and will run forever. It seems to be a little brighter to my eyes than the regular minimag bulb up close and its flood of light is more useful. The clickie is kinda strange, easy to push on and off but no real resistance when you do.

I use mine around the house and sometimes I put it in the car as a glovebox light. I wish I could compare it to other minimag upgrades, but I don't have any at this point. It's a bit brighter than my Surefire A2's led's and has a tighter beam out to 10-20 feet. Beyond that its not too useful. A good upgrade overall for the Minimag, but a luxeon upgrade might be more useful depending on your needs.

You're in luck, I bought one Saturday and to say the least it works great!! Better light than the regular Mag bulb and EASY to install. I went to small Dorcy lights because of the expense of batteries. Now I can retro my Mags to this. guy

I got one of those a few weeks ago, and liked it so well I immediately went and got a second, for my wife's minimag. I padi $10 for each, here in Juneau, Alaska, where every thing is higher except your paycheck.

First, about the light:

The beam is broad, even, reasonably bright, and not too blue. There's not much throw. It'll let you see the trail 10 or 15 feet in front of you, or dimly light up the far end of the cabin, but you're not going to be lighting up the black numbers on the black house across the street (one of the things I used to use a flashlight for). It seems to be completely unregulated, but what do you expect for $10?

We went on a church retreat, staying in cabins with no electricity or plumbing, and used that to see our way to bed at night, and to the toilet building. It worked well for walking down paths in the dark, for lighting up the cabin enough to see the bunks and get undressed and for reading to the kids.

The LED module is nothing really great, but it puts out about as much light as the minimag (maybe more, but minus the throw), and for $10, it's worthwhile.

Now, the clickie:

It's aluminum, with a plastic button. Looks much more solid than the pictures I've seen of the kroll switches. The edges are knurled. It's neatly done, but a much rougher knurling than the rest of the light. It's good, but looks slightly out of place. Not a strong criticism at all.

The switch protrudes enough that it _might_ turn on if you stick it in a pocket with some other junk. I've carried it in my hip pocket, tailcap down, without it switching on. The switch seems to push very easily, but makes a slight but definite click on or off. I don't get the feeling that it's fragile. You can't stand it on its tailcap because of the switch, but you really couldn't do that with the original tailcap, either. The new reflector is just right to let you stick the butt of the flashlight into the head, just like the stock candle mode.

It has an o-ring where it belongs to seal the cap-to-body threads, and it may be adequate to seal out water if it gets dunked. The plastic switch button doesn't feel as if it has an o-ring, so the switch mechanism would probably get wet if you dunked it (note to self: don't fall in the water). The hole where the spare bulb is kept in the original tailcap is filled with what looks like black epoxy or so, with the spring rising from it. If the tailcap-to-body o-ring does its job, there won't be any water getting into the body when it's dunked.

This switch would be pretty high priced at $10, compared to the $5 or so I've seen the kroll going for, but I suspect it may be more solid than the kroll. I've heard they have a short lifespan, and I could imagine that this one won't (and I could be wrong). With the LED module, it's a great deal.

Summary:

This isn't a high end kit, but it's so cheap that I don't care. It really improves the minimag. If the switch turns out to be short-lived junk, I won't feel badly cheated.

You'll find a review with pretty pictures here: http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10528 . He liked it. He's wrong about no candle mode.

If you guys like the Nite-Ize (I was under-impressed with their quality) you should really look at the Opalec NewBeam. They've been around a little while now and frankly the Nite-Ize seems like a cheap imitation.

FLR has a nice review of them I believe.

Jon

I have this product evaluated at http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/third/niteize1.htm if you're interested.

Countycomm sells them for $9.

I picked up the Nite ize conversion at Fry's Electronics a couple of weeks ago for $6.95. I put it in an old cammo mini-mag that i've had for decades. I really like the conversion. I took it camping and it was the main light my Wife used. I think it is a huge improvement over a standard bulb.

Tail cap is the RAM switch

Almost forgot REI is carrying this also, but I've only seen the module pack, not the switch and module pack. If I remember right they're around $10.

I bought one of these units (sans clickie) yesterday for $5.84. I like it for the price. I'm sure there are vastly superior units out there, though.

Indeed I do have one and concur with most of what has been said.

It is a very nice deal. Only thing wrong, and not THAT wrong... it has some artifacts outside of the central blob of nice light.

You have to get pretty close to a white wall, and it isn't noticeable in use.

I also have several "old" or different manufactured RAM switches, and this one seems better built by far. That said, I don't like RAM switches much and keep the Minim*g with my NiteIze as a twisty.

EDIT: I just used a black "Sharpie" marker to black out the shiny "reflector" (really just a spacer gadget to push the light off) and the artifacts are much improved!

I bought one two weeks ago. I thought it was a great idea but
the light output was disappointing. Sent away for a Terralux MiniStar2 TLE-5
upgrade and the difference was unbelieveable. This high dome
led makes the minimag focusable again while the output made the
Nite Ize /Ram look sad.

The Opalec and Nite-Ize are not about tactical levels of light. They are designed to meet or beat the stock level of output and last for 8+ hours. I don't think the Terralux will do that (not sure though).

Jon

Bought combo for $8.95 at Bass Pro. Have read posts on CPF of under $5 at WalMart. No luck at WM around here.

Great product for the money. Almost as bright as the Terralux. Not the greatest beam but very servicable and you can have several for the price of the Terralux or Opalec.

The clickie is less than satisfactory - pretty cheesy actually.

BIGIRON said:

The clickie is less than satisfactory - pretty cheesy actually.

Click to expand...

I agree, the tail cap is much to be desired. Again Terralux has a Tail Cap
for the MiniMag but I cannot find out who is selling them online.
The MiniStar2 TLE-5 claims 40 Lumens with a 6 hr runtime. I don't think
mine is near the 40 Lumen claim. I like the Opalec Newbeams low Battery
indicator that in itself almost swayed me from the Terralux.

:thumbsup:

I bought one here in Montreal (couldn't believe that I found it!) and the beam was ok. The edge of the reflector is thicker than the original which left a 1 or 2 mm gap where the bezel (the part that the lens fits into) screws onto the head.

The switch didn't screw into the MM all the way either and it didn't seem to sturdy. My MM is about 10 years old so I wonder if that had something to do with the parts size mismatches.

It turns out that all of that is meaningless because after about two weeks the module stopped working (no, no magic smoke). It only cost $9.00Cdn but from what I read I was surprised that it died so early on.

I give it a 2/5 for the LEDs/battery life only. Mine failed so I cannot recommend it. :thumbsdow

Of course your mileage may vary.....

The Nite-Ie drop-ins just shopwed up at one of my area's Wal-Marts. Just picked up two of them at $4.92 each. I haven't located my Mini-M*gs yet but I'll mod them as soon as I do. The modules do look cheap, but it's going to be a tremendous improvement in runtime, light output and durability, especially for the price. Those Mini-M*gs would have otherwise juest been forgotten about in the wake of the new Dorcy MetalGears, Nichia Jupiters and others that are starting to show up in the retail chain.

Thanks for the input guys. I picked up a new mini mag at Wal Mart for $8.78 tonight. There was no sign of the drop-ins there but EMS has the kit for $9.95. I'll try and pick that up tomorrow.


Chris

I just got one of these from my local Walmart for $4.92. It has brought my old Minimag back to life. For the price, it's a great little upgrade.

Thanks,
Ken