milkyspit
Flashlight Enthusiast
[size=+1]7/29/2006 Project-M Thread Available...[/size]
Knight Lights has posted a Project-M thread that serves as a kind of master clearinghouse for all project-related photos, runtimes, specs, and other info. The M180-KL2 is a member of the Project-M family. Link is over here...
Project-M by Milkyspit: Long-Running High Output LED: Availability, Info, Photos
[size=+1]7/27/2006 Update: A few more photos...[/size]
The M180 is the baby of the Project-M family. It comes in at lesat two flavors, and maybe more. Here are a few photos of the M180-KL2 as it compares to an M180 housed in a hard anodized black Mag 2C...
Close cousins...
The two variations don't look that different sizewise... but that's only because I've installed an SW02 tailswitch on my personal M180-KL2. With stock tailswitch the M180-KL2 is markedly smaller than the Mag 2C, not to mention more robust.
Piggyback...
The Mag 2C platform affords a couple more capabilities... for one, it throws farther by virtue of its larger 20mm reflectors... for another, it packs a pair of 18650 cells, which increase runtime to 4-5 hours at a constant 180 lumens of output.
M180-KL2 fired up...
M180-KL2 still pumps out one heck of a lot of light! Runtime on a pair of 17500 cells will be in the 2-2.5 hours range at a constant 180 lumens of output, in a smaller and tougher host.
[size=+1]Original Post[/size]
Once upon a time there was an old lady who had a lot of cats and lived alone in her unobtrusive little country cottage. Seriously. In those days I used to revel in snow days, not so much for not having to go to school, but because they represented a financial windfall! In a good morning's work I could earn $20 shoveling snow at three of the neighbors' homes... and my biggest customer was Mrs. Allmansberger, the elderly cat lady.
I can read your mind, kind reader! "So what the heck does Milky's crazy cat lady have to do with high end lights?" Please, pull up a comfy chair and let me tell you, dear friend.
My father was cut from old-school cloth... "there's a right way and a wrong way to EVERYTHING, son..." even shoveling snow. I won't bore you with details but suffice to say, I was out there laboring hard, doing quite the professional job of hand shoveling (which to this day I'll defend as totally superior to any plowed or snowblown work! although also far more laborious of course) as my father had so expertly taught me... and out came Mrs. Allmansberger, clad in her signature weatherbeaten coat and black rubbers (when "rubbers" most commonly referred to footwear for inclement weather, and NOT anything sexual)... this itself was unusual as typically my sole interaction with the woman was when she reached out her split-level window to reach down with my payment... she watched for a time, then made this infamous statement: "We don't need an engineer on the job."
I later graduated from Princeton University with an engineering degree.
"So what does this have to do with FLASHLIGHTS! Show me the beef!" you say. Please, read on!
I've long been overshadowed even at PhotonFest, my own event for goodness sake! because the lights I design tend to be ENGINEERED and don't impress... my personal definition of engineering is the study and application of compromises to achieve the most desirable whole. So my lights aren't brightest, nor largest, nor smallest, nor the strangest colors, nor capable of igniting one's hair... no mine are only reasonably compact lights with good output and decently long runtime, the sort I personally prefer for a good walk through the woods or down to the quarry behind my house. The PhotonFest attendees, God bless them, are very polite... they take the requisite time thoughtfully examining my creations... then move on to the Thors, crazy supercharged HIDs, teeny Larry-inspired lights, big 22x18650 bird cooker headlight-on-a-stick mods (seriously, this exists!), and many, many more. And those lights are impressive, they're fun to play around with! I love seeing all the great stuff folks bring around. Sadly, my small milky fleet gets left far behind.
Now given all the above, which hopefully was at least mildly entertaining...
Project-M is a family of engineered lights.
I've been working on what I call Project-M for a while now, developing the concept bit by bit... folks at PF6 saw the M180, an early prototype. A few of you have even, very quietly, purchased M180s though they haven't even been officially announced prior to now. The concept is this: build an LED light that combines bright output with extreme efficiency and very long runtimes. It's not about this or that magic component, but rather the synergies possible in a well-engineered (hopefully!) whole.
Now I am proud to introduce the smallest member of the family, a very rare breed, built into some pristine long-defunct SureFire LED heads and suitable for attachment to an M3 or M6 body...
The M180-KL2.
Some basics: the M180-KL2 generates, on average, 180 lumens overall output continuously, in perfectly flat regulation, for at least 2.5 hours off 3x123 primaries or 2x17500 protected 1100mAh Li-ion rechargeables. The beam tint is XO or WO depending on specific choice of emitters. (I personally prefer the XO tint.) The head is very efficient and although it's well heatsinked, will tend NOT to generate much heat at all... in fact, even including converter inefficiency, it draws only 3.7 watts or so of power, which is less than many single LuxIII mods consume. :naughty:
Some photos...
The head is more-or-less identical from the outside to a typical M3 incan head, but inside is another story. The M180-KL2 won't win any throw contests against the SureFire lamp assemblies and yet it IS a good thrower... on the straight stretch of road in front of my home, I can illuminate a good 100 yards or so down the road, maybe more. What's interesting here is this head ALSO pumps out quite a bit of bright sidespill, and the tint is about as neutral white as any LED that I've ever had the pleasure of seeing... was extremely fortunate to source a terrific little stash of emitters for this project.
For comparison, SureFire rates the M3 LOLA at 125 lumens for 60 minutes, and the M3 HOLA at 225 lumens for 20 minutes. The M180-KL2 compares favorably with its 180 lumens regulated for 150+ minutes.
In the photo above of my front porch, the image to left is of course the baseline, unilluminated porch, while image at right shows the M180-KL2 in action. Worth noting that these photos took place during midday on a bright, sunny summer day, so the M180-KL2 was competing with quite a bit of ambient light to begin with! For reference, the distance across the front porch is something along the lines of 20 feet from where I was sitting during the test. BTW, the beam color really IS that white. Note the hotspot hitting the valence over the far window.
The ceiling (not floor!) beamshot does a decent job of showing the combination of flood and throw in the M180 beam. The three emitters do a nice job of collimating into a single, beefy superbeam, and even from 3 feet out, the hotspot looks perfectly round, with nothing to give away the fact that three emitters produced it.
The posterized views (above and below) show falloff of intensity from the central hotspot outward... the photo below is a bit more closeup than the one above. Note that the oval, off-center look is NOT an artifact of the light, but rather an artifact of ME! I was holding the light slightly crooked while trying to juggle both that and the camera to take the shots. Please excuse!
For closers, a shot of the M180-KL2 doing its best to burn a hole in the carpet. It will fail of course.
I can honestly say the M180-KL2 is a true workhorse light. Best testimonial on my part is that I instinctively find myself reaching for this light more than for any other... and believe me when I say there are some excellent choices around here! But there's something very compelling about the M180-KL2. The whole really is more than the sum of its parts, and a certain synergy takes over...
It's a product of some decent engineering I guess... hope Mrs. Allmansberger won't mind!
Or maybe put in the simplest terms: I like it.
Thanks for sharing... and for the stamina in reading to the very end! CPFers rule.
:bow: :bow: :bow:
Knight Lights has posted a Project-M thread that serves as a kind of master clearinghouse for all project-related photos, runtimes, specs, and other info. The M180-KL2 is a member of the Project-M family. Link is over here...
Project-M by Milkyspit: Long-Running High Output LED: Availability, Info, Photos
[size=+1]7/27/2006 Update: A few more photos...[/size]
The M180 is the baby of the Project-M family. It comes in at lesat two flavors, and maybe more. Here are a few photos of the M180-KL2 as it compares to an M180 housed in a hard anodized black Mag 2C...
Close cousins...
The two variations don't look that different sizewise... but that's only because I've installed an SW02 tailswitch on my personal M180-KL2. With stock tailswitch the M180-KL2 is markedly smaller than the Mag 2C, not to mention more robust.
Piggyback...
The Mag 2C platform affords a couple more capabilities... for one, it throws farther by virtue of its larger 20mm reflectors... for another, it packs a pair of 18650 cells, which increase runtime to 4-5 hours at a constant 180 lumens of output.
M180-KL2 fired up...
M180-KL2 still pumps out one heck of a lot of light! Runtime on a pair of 17500 cells will be in the 2-2.5 hours range at a constant 180 lumens of output, in a smaller and tougher host.
[size=+1]Original Post[/size]
Once upon a time there was an old lady who had a lot of cats and lived alone in her unobtrusive little country cottage. Seriously. In those days I used to revel in snow days, not so much for not having to go to school, but because they represented a financial windfall! In a good morning's work I could earn $20 shoveling snow at three of the neighbors' homes... and my biggest customer was Mrs. Allmansberger, the elderly cat lady.
I can read your mind, kind reader! "So what the heck does Milky's crazy cat lady have to do with high end lights?" Please, pull up a comfy chair and let me tell you, dear friend.
My father was cut from old-school cloth... "there's a right way and a wrong way to EVERYTHING, son..." even shoveling snow. I won't bore you with details but suffice to say, I was out there laboring hard, doing quite the professional job of hand shoveling (which to this day I'll defend as totally superior to any plowed or snowblown work! although also far more laborious of course) as my father had so expertly taught me... and out came Mrs. Allmansberger, clad in her signature weatherbeaten coat and black rubbers (when "rubbers" most commonly referred to footwear for inclement weather, and NOT anything sexual)... this itself was unusual as typically my sole interaction with the woman was when she reached out her split-level window to reach down with my payment... she watched for a time, then made this infamous statement: "We don't need an engineer on the job."
I later graduated from Princeton University with an engineering degree.
"So what does this have to do with FLASHLIGHTS! Show me the beef!" you say. Please, read on!
I've long been overshadowed even at PhotonFest, my own event for goodness sake! because the lights I design tend to be ENGINEERED and don't impress... my personal definition of engineering is the study and application of compromises to achieve the most desirable whole. So my lights aren't brightest, nor largest, nor smallest, nor the strangest colors, nor capable of igniting one's hair... no mine are only reasonably compact lights with good output and decently long runtime, the sort I personally prefer for a good walk through the woods or down to the quarry behind my house. The PhotonFest attendees, God bless them, are very polite... they take the requisite time thoughtfully examining my creations... then move on to the Thors, crazy supercharged HIDs, teeny Larry-inspired lights, big 22x18650 bird cooker headlight-on-a-stick mods (seriously, this exists!), and many, many more. And those lights are impressive, they're fun to play around with! I love seeing all the great stuff folks bring around. Sadly, my small milky fleet gets left far behind.
Now given all the above, which hopefully was at least mildly entertaining...
Project-M is a family of engineered lights.
I've been working on what I call Project-M for a while now, developing the concept bit by bit... folks at PF6 saw the M180, an early prototype. A few of you have even, very quietly, purchased M180s though they haven't even been officially announced prior to now. The concept is this: build an LED light that combines bright output with extreme efficiency and very long runtimes. It's not about this or that magic component, but rather the synergies possible in a well-engineered (hopefully!) whole.
Now I am proud to introduce the smallest member of the family, a very rare breed, built into some pristine long-defunct SureFire LED heads and suitable for attachment to an M3 or M6 body...
The M180-KL2.
Some basics: the M180-KL2 generates, on average, 180 lumens overall output continuously, in perfectly flat regulation, for at least 2.5 hours off 3x123 primaries or 2x17500 protected 1100mAh Li-ion rechargeables. The beam tint is XO or WO depending on specific choice of emitters. (I personally prefer the XO tint.) The head is very efficient and although it's well heatsinked, will tend NOT to generate much heat at all... in fact, even including converter inefficiency, it draws only 3.7 watts or so of power, which is less than many single LuxIII mods consume. :naughty:
Some photos...
The head is more-or-less identical from the outside to a typical M3 incan head, but inside is another story.
The M180-KL2 won't win any throw contests against the SureFire lamp assemblies and yet it IS a good thrower... on the straight stretch of road in front of my home, I can illuminate a good 100 yards or so down the road, maybe more. What's interesting here is this head ALSO pumps out quite a bit of bright sidespill, and the tint is about as neutral white as any LED that I've ever had the pleasure of seeing... was extremely fortunate to source a terrific little stash of emitters for this project. For comparison, SureFire rates the M3 LOLA at 125 lumens for 60 minutes, and the M3 HOLA at 225 lumens for 20 minutes. The M180-KL2 compares favorably with its 180 lumens regulated for 150+ minutes.
In the photo above of my front porch, the image to left is of course the baseline, unilluminated porch, while image at right shows the M180-KL2 in action. Worth noting that these photos took place during midday on a bright, sunny summer day, so the M180-KL2 was competing with quite a bit of ambient light to begin with! For reference, the distance across the front porch is something along the lines of 20 feet from where I was sitting during the test. BTW, the beam color really IS that white. Note the hotspot hitting the valence over the far window.
The ceiling (not floor!) beamshot does a decent job of showing the combination of flood and throw in the M180 beam. The three emitters do a nice job of collimating into a single, beefy superbeam, and even from 3 feet out, the hotspot looks perfectly round, with nothing to give away the fact that three emitters produced it.
The posterized views (above and below) show falloff of intensity from the central hotspot outward... the photo below is a bit more closeup than the one above. Note that the oval, off-center look is NOT an artifact of the light, but rather an artifact of ME! I was holding the light slightly crooked while trying to juggle both that and the camera to take the shots. Please excuse!
For closers, a shot of the M180-KL2 doing its best to burn a hole in the carpet. It will fail of course.
I can honestly say the M180-KL2 is a true workhorse light. Best testimonial on my part is that I instinctively find myself reaching for this light more than for any other... and believe me when I say there are some excellent choices around here! But there's something very compelling about the M180-KL2. The whole really is more than the sum of its parts, and a certain synergy takes over...
It's a product of some decent engineering I guess... hope Mrs. Allmansberger won't mind!
Or maybe put in the simplest terms: I like it.
Thanks for sharing... and for the stamina in reading to the very end! CPFers rule.
:bow: :bow: :bow:
Last edited:
:bow:
