In another string several of us discussed Streamlight's CP ratings.
I had asked about the amperage draw of the 6C. Attached is a response by Charlie Craft, Streamlight's chief engineer. Being a good flashaholic, I pleaded for some HOLA options to their product line.
Hello, Charlie:
Thank you very much for your answer. I understand and appreciate your answer.
I would also think that you might offer higher output bulbs for the Stinger and Stinger HP that could be sold with battery packs constructed with 3000 mah Nimh or 2400 mah NiCad sub C cells (high discharge sub c cells currently used for racing cars). A person could keep high output and standard output Stingers simultaneously ready for use quite cost effectively.
I enjoy my Scorpion and my Streamlight 2AA. The Scorpion is peerless among 2*123 flashlights for wide flood useage.
I would gladly use a higher amperage Stinger bulb with a high drain battery pack in a Stinger or Stinger HP in situations where I currently use my Surefire 8X.
When you offer replacement bulbs that aren't widely interchangeable with aftermarket options (the 2AA, 4AA, and 3C) I encourage you to offer brighter bulbs that customers using individual rechargeable batteries can use. Perhaps you know what percentage of flashlights not sold with rechargeable packs are operated by consumers with separate batteries.
I'm going to post your response to the Chat Room at the Candle Power Forum for the benefit of other current and potential Streamlight customers.
Clark
-----Original Message-----
From: Charlie Craft [mailto:
[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: Streamlight 3C
The 3C lamp draws about 785 mA.
The efficiency of the reflector has a much reater effect on CP than the actual power of the lamp.
The Scorpion lamp is only about 20% less ower than the Stinger, but the Stinger has double the CP because of the deeper reflector which intercepts more of the light.
Our new Stinger HP lamp is identical in power to the standard Stinger lamp (the earliest ones were the SAME filament), but delivers 2-1/2 times the CP, solely because of a more efficient reflector.
Remember that lamp power = heat, and heat means more expensive materials.
In addition, the current draw of the lamp must be matched to the current capacity of the batteries, not only to deliver an acceptable run time to the majority of our potential customers, but more importantly to
operate in the "plateau" area of the voltage vs time discharge curve. A flashlight is at it's peak CP at the moment of turn-on with fresh batteries, and goes downhill from there (except for lithium primary cells which actually deliver MORE power after about 10-15 minutes of run time because of internal heating). Using too high a current lamp results in a very steep discharge profile.
Charlie Craft
Chief Engineer
>>> "CLARK" < 04/02/02 10:10PM >>>
Hi:
You mention the peak CP on the 3C which is exceeds that which you claim for the Scorpion and is almost as high as that of the Stinger. Is this because the beam is narrower than the focused Stinger beam or does your bi-pin xenon bulp draw close to an amp. Your specs don't show the amperage
draw onthis lamp. Please advise. I find xenon lights drawing .70 amps much less
appealing than those drawing .85 amps or more.
It would be nice if you had a version of this light that would allow customers to use rechargeable NIMH C batteries (currently available with capacity up to 3.8 ah which is more than double that of the Stinger)
It would also be nice if this version allowed us to use the 6 watt Stinger
bulb which presumably draws 1.7 amps or more.
