Arc-AAA Premium observations, comments and wishes

I received my Arc-AAA Premium flashlight in late January. It quicky became my EDC light mainly due to it's small size. I find it rugged - I've dropped the light several times and had no observable damage. I don't have to worry about carrying spare batteries with me for the light since, in the first place the runtime is phenomenal and in the second place I can buy AAA's almost anywhere.

It does not work well for reading or for those middle of the night trips to the bathroom while avoiding kicking the cat who likes to sleep in the middle of the walkway since for those tasks I find the light is too bright. Also, I find the blue tint to the hotspot bothers me when using the flashlight to read something.

At work I use the flashlight to help me inventory items in darker areas and find myself wishing the light was brighter. But most of the time I use it I wish it was dimmer.

For me, the Arc-AAA would be my ideal EDC if it had a whiter, brighter led with a two-stage twisty switch where the low was in the 1 to 2 lumens range with a high that was say 10 lumens in output. Battery life on low would be phenomenally long while on high it would be shorter. I would expect that with my expected usage of the two light levels I would see at least an equivalent runtime with the Arc AAA as it currently exists.

Could this be the same bwm from phyrexia?

When I use mine it's kind of like emergency gotta have light. So I dont notice the blue spot or that it's too birght up close (just hold back further or use side spill). You can put your finger over the tip so only some side spill escapes for when you need to read for extended amount of time..

I would take a new one with nichias next 100 lumen/watt led. If I calcuated right, overdriving the new led they will come out with to 60ma, should produce ~12+ lumens of light!!! I'd rather have too bright than not bright enough! :rock:

I love my ARC AAA's and I have about ten of them that I actually use. Two of these just went out to Millermods for a 2 stage mod. I will be posting my impressions of these here after I get mine back.

IsaacHayes said:

When I use mine it's kind of like emergency gotta have light. So I dont notice the blue spot or that it's too birght up close (just hold back further or use side spill). You can put your finger over the tip so only some side spill escapes for when you need to read for extended amount of time..

I would take a new one with nichias next 100 lumen/watt led. If I calcuated right, overdriving the new led they will come out with to 60ma, should produce ~12+ lumens of light!!! I'd rather have too bright than not bright enough! :rock:

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same here, i can't wait to see the brighter led come out in April, and towards the end of the year!!!!

I wish... (since this is a Arc Wish Thread)... that....
1) Keeping all parameters same (even the LED) ... it had a Photon Freedom Interface with AutoShutoff feature
2) Nichia (hiFlux) / Cree (absolutely white) (not 1 Watter), the one with 4 connection terminals... at the business end with Photon Freedom Interface with AutoShutoff feature

3) 2AAA (Side by Side) with 2 Nichia CS / Cree / HiFlux LED's & with Photon Freedom Interface with AutoShutoff feature

ok... that's about it for now

(AA, CR123, CR2 .... and others are of course the choices apart from AAA) but i will leave it there... since it's a AAA Wish

I think 2AAA side by side would be a great form factor.

Chris201W said:

Could this be the same bwm from phyrexia?

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No.

colubrid said:

I love my ARC AAA's and I have about ten of them that I actually use. Two of these just went out to Millermods for a 2 stage mod. I will be posting my impressions of these here after I get mine back.

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I would be very interested in the results.

Brian

I spoke to the Nichia rep (Jason Rudolph) yesterday about their upcoming products. They plan to release a 85lm/w part in April but it is limited to a side firing surface mount device intended for cell phone backlighting. The package and die are so small that the lumen output is less than the regular 5mm CS series.

I asked him when the 5mm would be upgraded, he said that nothing is planned until next year. No changes have been made to the 5mm process for awhile now and he has not shipped a V bin to anyone, nor has he seen any in stock. He does not know when V bins would start to be more common.

Peter

My wish is that the Arc-AAA will be equiped with a white LED. My latest Arc-P projects a light with blue and brown tints, but not white. Ugly, ugly, ugly. First I thought this flashlight should be repaired due to the ugly color of the LED, but apparently it's common with the newest generation :s

I'm perfectly content with my Arc Rev4. I don't really notice that the beam is a little blue in the center because I focus on what the beam is illuminating, not the beam itself.

For what model is the new LED coming out in? And when in April if anyone knows. I would wait to order if that is the case.

Thanks

striwa88, I think you misunderstood my post.

Peter

bwm said:

For me, the Arc-AAA would be my ideal EDC if it had a whiter, brighter led with a two-stage twisty switch where the low was in the 1 to 2 lumens range with a high that was say 10 lumens in output. Battery life on low would be phenomenally long while on high it would be shorter. I would expect that with my expected usage of the two light levels I would see at least an equivalent runtime with the Arc AAA as it currently exists.

Click to expand...

Honestly, this is exactly why the Arc has not replaced the Photon Freedom on my keychain. I wish it was at least a two-stage light. There have been many times, like reading the menu at a restaurant, where full-on brightness of the Nichia CS is actually too bright. I use the Freedom because I have the ability to change that. I put it on 1/3 or 1/4 power to be able to read but not get night blindness. Its a shame the OEM Arc-AAA P doesn't have some sort of multi-stage brightness ability. The color of the Nichia CS is not an issue for me. I have never found it to interfere with reading or anything else.

Sub_Umbra said:

I think 2AAA side by side would be a great form factor.

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Ditto. That would be a MUST-HAVE.

colubrid said:

I love my ARC AAA's and I have about ten of them that I actually use. Two of these just went out to Millermods for a 2 stage mod. I will be posting my impressions of these here after I get mine back.

Click to expand...

was millermod's mod increasing the high of the arc? or just providing a low setting? Thanks!

Peter: Thanks for the update. I was wondering about the recently announced high lm/watt chip.

Everyeone else, perhaps someone should make a thing where it clamps 2 ArcAAA side by side. There ya go, 2AAA form factor! lol