Gladius - Like Night and Day

Well, I ordered a Gladius light on tuesday and it arrived today. 10 days ago I had never heard of Gladius. Thats before I ran into this forum by accident. I'm so glad I did.
After opening the box and reading the "manual" I popped the supplied batteries in and turned it on (during the day). I could immediatley tell it was brighter and stronger than my Taskforce 3W light but it was the middle of the day so I put the flashlights away until night time.

Night time arrived - and then I turned them both on, side by side. Unbelievable difference, like "Night and Day". I just stood there amazed....
The Gladius looks like it has at least twice the output of the Taskforce (I know both are 3 watt Luxeons) and maybe more. The center beam on the Gladius just washes the Taskforce beam out, completely. And the side spill on the Gladius is much wider than that of the Taskforce. I couldnt look into the beam on the Taskforce; theres no way I would even try with the Gladius.

I stepped outside (it's night time now) and checked the throw on a distant house. Wow - the Gladius beam is plainly visible when you cant even see the Taskforce.
Now I think I am puzzled. Reading the reviews that FlashlightReview.com put together I see that both the Gladius and the Taskforce are rated to have the same "throw" at 3000. Well, this cant be true as the Gladius is putting the Taskforce to shame in the "throw" department. They arent even close and I know my Taskforce is not defective.

The side-spill on the Gladius is way wider than that on the Tasforce but this was to be expected as Flashlightreviews rated the "Total Output" of the Gladius at 3800 and the Taskforce at 3170 but the difference between the two seems more than that.

So, I am extremely impressed and happy with the new Gladius even if it has less run time than the Taskforce. It's so much more powerful and its smaller.

Tonight I am my name.........

Thehappyman

Hey there, happyman, welcome to the CPF. What a fortuitous accident. Judging from your grasp of beam quality and light, I'd say it was meant to be I don't have either of those lights but your explanation enables me to picture the beams.

Many happy returns to you!

Welcome! You've made an excellent choice for a flashlight. I carry mine everyday. The throw on these lights are phenominal. The Gladius is my main hunting/camping flashlight. Multi-level lights are king (for LED illumination).

Jeff

I was going to get one, but I don't like how it drops down the output just to extend runtime (according to flashlightreviews), I don't want a light doing my thinking for me...

I guess there are different ways of looking at this. The regulated drop in output doesn't kick in until the light's been on for half an hour, according to FLR. The result is longer battery runtime, which could be very valuable. In practical terms, the Gladius is so bright on full output that there aren't too many situations where you'd want full output. If you're in one of those situations (SAR), you probably are using a different light anyway.

...And if the power drops down turn it off than on again.

thehappyman said:

I couldnt look into the beam on the Taskforce; theres no way I would even try with the Gladius.

Click to expand...

Awww, come on, try it you'll like it.....how can you truly know how bright a flashlight is until you've been blinded by it. :devil:

This is due to the Gladius having a much more collimated beam. A lux reading at a meter doesn't tell you how a torch will perform at twenty or forty times that. Also keep in mind that output of the Taskforce drops from the moment it's turned on.

thehappyman said:

I stepped outside (it's night time now) and checked the throw on a distant house. Wow - the Gladius beam is plainly visible when you cant even see the Taskforce.
Now I think I am puzzled. Reading the reviews that FlashlightReview.com put together I see that both the Gladius and the Taskforce are rated to have the same "throw" at 3000. Well, this cant be true as the Gladius is putting the Taskforce to shame in the "throw" department. They arent even close and I know my Taskforce is not defective.

The side-spill on the Gladius is way wider than that on the Tasforce but this was to be expected as Flashlightreviews rated the "Total Output" of the Gladius at 3800 and the Taskforce at 3170 but the difference between the two seems more than that.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies Guys,

Having just recieved my new Gladius flashlight yesterday I have been playing around with all it's modes.... I was wondering what I would ever use the strobe mode for. I still wonder about that but while I was playing around with it (in the dark) my two dogs passed through the room I was in and they were lit up by the strobe light. Unbelievable.... the strobe light was "freezing" thier motion as they walked... what a strange sight....... Does anybody know the frequency of the strobe on the Gladius ??? It appears to my eye to be somewhere inbetween 20 and 30 hz. In order to really find out I would have to setup a simple photocell circuit and check the strobing on my oscilloscope.

As to the replies on my post -
Jayflash - Thankyou for the welcome to CPF, yes Fortuitous it be.

Xpitxbullx - Whew, what a name !!! also, thanks for the welcome. And I am GLAD you recommend the Gladius (no pun intended). I think it was worth every penney I paid for it.

Kdog3, JNewell, and Kc2ouf - RE: The Power Dropdown Feature - This is no "Show Stopper" for me - I cant say that I like it, but maybe its for the best; I can always bring the light back to full power by turning it off and on again. And it may extend my runtime. Besides, I normally dont have the light on long enough to trigger that shutdown. I assume that the shutdown does not occur on low power.

Blazer - Awww , common yourself and You try it.......!!!!!
"Blinded By The Light" - Bruce Springsteen.

Archangel - I tested these two lights with fresh batteries; the Gladius and Taskforce dont even seem to be close. I cant imagine how the "throw" could have been rated the same for both lights. The Gladius tromps the taskforce.

Cheers all, Thehappyman

so you just keep feeding your direct drive lights every 10 minuts? dude the gladius is a superior light in almost all respects , i believe people have a hard time understanding how well this light does its job , iv got or had most of the best lights in its range,(meaning abilaty to be bright and run long time and be tuff and easy to use and reliable) if you can name 1 that is as good as it is in a 1 to 1 comparison the gladius will win the majoraty, note im a happy U-2 OWNER AS WELL but ill take the gladius if the chips are down every single time.

KDOG3 said:

I was going to get one, but I don't like how it drops down the output just to extend runtime (according to flashlightreviews), I don't want a light doing my thinking for me...

Click to expand...

strobe one of your friends at night, see what they think of that strobe feature, they wont like it all , it is designed to be disorinting , it works,
the drop down does not shut the light off it just lowers output by a little.hardly enough to know . go to the night ops site and go thru the fax section , also it only reduces power as it needs to , in fact ,if you want you can force it to stay as high as it can put out by a simple push of the tail button, on low it will blink to tell you you are getting low , it will not just not turn its self like most lights will. http://night-ops.com/Gladius-FAQ.htm

thehappyman said:

Thanks for the replies Guys,

Having just recieved my new Gladius flashlight yesterday I have been playing around with all it's modes.... I was wondering what I would ever use the strobe mode for. I still wonder about that but while I was playing around with it (in the dark) my two dogs passed through the room I was in and they were lit up by the strobe light. Unbelievable.... the strobe light was "freezing" thier motion as they walked... what a strange sight....... Does anybody know the frequency of the strobe on the Gladius ??? It appears to my eye to be somewhere inbetween 20 and 30 hz. In order to really find out I would have to setup a simple photocell circuit and check the strobing on my oscilloscope.

As to the replies on my post -
Jayflash - Thankyou for the welcome to CPF, yes Fortuitous it be.

Xpitxbullx - Whew, what a name !!! also, thanks for the welcome. And I am GLAD you recommend the Gladius (no pun intended). I think it was worth every penney I paid for it.

Kdog3, JNewell, and Kc2ouf - RE: The Power Dropdown Feature - This is no "Show Stopper" for me - I cant say that I like it, but maybe its for the best; I can always bring the light back to full power by turning it off and on again. And it may extend my runtime. Besides, I normally dont have the light on long enough to trigger that shutdown. I assume that the shutdown does not occur on low power.

Blazer - Awww , common yourself and You try it.......!!!!!
"Blinded By The Light" - Bruce Springsteen.

Archangel - I tested these two lights with fresh batteries; the Gladius and Taskforce dont even seem to be close. I cant imagine how the "throw" could have been rated the same for both lights. The Gladius tromps the taskforce.

Cheers all, Thehappyman

Click to expand...

The drop down feature is part of the Gladius thermal protection circuit and is designed to allow the 3 watt LED to remain at optimal temperature without prejudicing longevity of the LED. The activation period until the circuit kicks in is dependant on environmental and other factors and doesn't reduce the total output of the light significantly.

Remember that the Gladius is designed for intermittant use in close combat and not for continous running where the operator would be exposed to unnecesary risk. The thermal protection feature does however allow the operator to use the Light continuously without needlessly risking thermal degradation to the LED and reduces output to maintain LED longevity, not battery life. The same feature will protect the LED if the light is accidentally activated in a pocket etc where the risk of overheating the LED would probably cause failure.

The Gladius has the override feature for exactly the type of situation where you dont want any reduction in output to put you at a disadvantage. It doesn't want to 'think' for you it actually wants to maintain functionality and reliability for as long a period as possible.

Doug

dougmccoy said:

The drop down feature is part of the Gladius thermal protection circuit and is designed to allow the 3 watt LED to remain at optimal temperature without prejudicing longevity of the LED. The activation period until the circuit kicks in is dependant on environmental and other factors and doesn't reduce the total output of the light significantly.

Remember that the Gladius is designed for intermittant use in close combat and not for continous running where the operator would be exposed to unnecesary risk. The thermal protection feature does however allow the operator to use the Light continuously without needlessly risking thermal degradation to the LED and reduces output to maintain LED longevity, not battery life. The same feature will protect the LED if the light is accidentally activated in a pocket etc where the risk of overheating the LED would probably cause failure.

The Gladius has the override feature for exactly the type of situation where you dont want any reduction in output to put you at a disadvantage. It doesn't want to 'think' for you it actually wants to maintain functionality and reliability for as long a period as possible.

Doug

Click to expand...

Hi Doug,
Just how do you activate this "override" feature ??????? I saw no reference to it in the Gladius manual.....

Thanx
Thehappyman

just push the tailcap again,(off on) its on page 9 of your manual "auto temperture control" id like to state here as well that this feature will most probobly never need to be used by anybody ,except milatary and law enforcement and even then rarely,as it is a emergancy use only feature you can help yourself out buy just turning the light down just a little ,that will make a big difference in led temp

thehappyman said:

Hi Doug,
Just how do you activate this "override" feature ??????? I saw no reference to it in the Gladius manual.....

Thanx
Thehappyman

Click to expand...