Night Ops Gladius question. battery related.

Hi, I have purchased night ops gladius about 1 month ago. I paid about 145 shipped with mod u lock holster (which is the cheapest price I got to find).
I like the light for its features.

Question:?
I have just put cr123's in it from batterystation (brand). And I noticed that the light is blinking every 15 seconds or so. Is that normal ? I thought that this only happens for the pila rechargeable? I will probably keep the light until i use up most of my batteries, and might get something else ( rechargeable) ie strion, stinger. I really likes the throw of the Stinger XT Flashlight, . It really outshines and outrows the gladius, but it is 3 times bigger and charge lasts only for 1 hour. Other choices might be the 7w golston (not sure how reliable), L4, striker VG (with rechargeable setup), or just keep gladius and change butteries every month or so.
Any Ideas why the batterystation brand battery causes the light to flash every 15 seconds ( indicating that the battery is dying?)
thanks in advance.

What I did not like about gladius: when I am locking out the light from turning on, it keeps going on, The contact is probably very close so when I press and turn it turns on before it gets locked out or locks out turned on( but its not a huge problem). Another thing, when checking roofs in dark , the lights spill ain't that great, so you only get to see where the light is focuses to.

thanks

The double flash is the low battery warning.

I run Batterystation's CR123A in my Gladius with little problems. It should not give the low battery warning with new batteries.

However, I have some short runtimes with BS CR123As. The problem seems to be related to mismatched cells. Since I bought a ZTS battery tester and match cells before putting them in, I have nearly no problems at all.

The lock-out can be tricky, especially one-handed. Training helps. It should easily be possible to lock out the light without turning it on when doing it two-handed. Turn the ring till it stops (do not use to much torque). Then carefully press the button until it slips into lock-out. Light should not turn on.

Side-spill: That's the nature of the beast. It's designed for tactical purposes, not for illuminating an attic. If you want a lot of flood, check out the Surefire L2 and L4.

There are always the Fenix lights with the New cree's they are pumpin gotu U2 power in a smaller package.

I haven't tried BS cells in my Gladius, but it works great with a pair of 3.0V Tenergy 900mAh (or other 3.0V) Li-Ions. I would guess that AW's LiFePO4 RCRs would work as well. Do you have a DMM, or better yet, a ZTS to test the BS cells?

elgarak, your method for locking out the tailcap is pretty much the same as mine.

If you want flood, try SF's FM34 Beamshaper. It's very nice on the Gladius.

I have had some SUPER short runtimes w/ BS 123 cells. Ever since i switched to Surefire cells or nite ops cells Ive had no problem. He is right bout the traingin for the lock out...it took me a while also..... change your batteries and I bet your blinking goes away.... Did you get a book w/ your light? It explains all the features extremely well...IE Blinking meaning low battery.....If you didnt get one let me know I have a friend that works for NIGHT-OPS Ill get you one.

My lockout is the same way - it turns on before I get to the lockout notch. I have to turn it on, then press again to turn it off and very quickly slip it into the notch while RELEASING the button. Not easy to do. It absolutely will not reach the notch without turning on. It took practice to lock it out and still takes a couple of tries each time. But I found that just unscrewing the whole tailcap (not just the plastic, but the metal grip-star too) even the tiniest amount will lock out the light. It has to be tight to be able to turn on. The first time, I thought it wasn't working because the tailcap was not tight enough.

Spill is only ever useful at close to medium close distances unless you have a very high output LED. The Gladius is 80-90 lumens, so it's not a slouch by any means.

Overall, fantastic light. Love the UI and ergonomics. Very well designed.

yeah the lock out ain't bad once you get used to it... i do it subconsciously now... i'll use the light... put it back in my pocket... and then pull it back out and realize that i locked it without knowing it! (working on cars so i use it a lot daily)

however i haven't noticed a short runtime with the BS cells... they last about 2 weeks before they start to flash(see's mostly daytime use) and then i continue to use it for a little while longer and then i'll swap out the batteries... according to the ZTS they are usually past 20% and do not even register on the scale... though i recently removed one that showed 100% 6 different times but the other was below 20% and they both went in at 100%

I tell ya if you call Blackhawk and tell them that u are unable to get your light to lock out w/o it turning on...there service is really great....I would guess that they will send you a new tailcap.....might give it a try - 800-694-5263
email: [email protected]

A darn fine light, the Glad.

I also had a problem with the small hot-spot, but only when reading with the light at night.

Problem solved with a SF FM34 beamshaper - a beautiful seamless flood of white light now makes it very easy to read with.

It is such a versatile light. The beauty is that it can almost all be controlled one-handed (except for the lockout) and also programmed to start from dim or vice versa.

Ergonomically, you can see they have put a lot of thought into this light.

Can't wait for the Cree version though... should be a blast!

Love my Gladius too and the lockout is achievable fairly easily with a little practice. Maybe production variations make it a little harder on some lights, but if it's not that, then you gotta just keep at it!

I'm gonna try modding it with a Cree instead of waiting for a Cree version to come out because then I'd have to get a whole new light and my old Gladius would be relegated. It wouldn't sell for much either since the release of the $120 Typoon and also when the Cree version is released, it would drop even further. Maybe worth $80?

I bought it for $180 and I'm sure some have bought it for $200+. I guess I'm stuck with it!

As for the batt problem, that's the low batt warning indicator. Shouldn't happen unless you are using a single li-on cell or the batts are really low. Maybe you have a bad batch or something. Try different cells.

LEDcandle said:

I'm gonna try modding it with a Cree instead of waiting for a Cree version to come out

Click to expand...

Anxious to know how you go with this - do please let us know how it works out.

Hey, thanks for all the responses. I thought it stopped blinking, but I was wrong. Today I will just put new BS in and see if it stops. What is this cree version every one is talking about?

I will play around with the tail cap some more, now I am able to lock it out with 2 hands w/o turning it on, but it still happens once in while. One handed is much harder. I don't think I will bother night ops for new tail cap unless I have more problems. I did email them about the extra rubber retention strap for mod-u-lock holster , that I ripped first day ; ( .

The beam shaper would probably be great, but that means I would have the light facing down in holster, so grabbing it and using it fast would not be possible (which is disadvantage) . Even now it takes a little time to pull it out, lock in (turn off lock out) and turn on. But it is mostly because of jacket and many layers of clothing preventing me from moving fast enough.

rkboyer911 vbmenu_register("postmenu_1841243", true); Yes , I have the manual, thanks though.

NO I dont have the batt tester, but I have digital volt meter, can I use that to test?


Ilya

There isn't actually a Cree version in the works that I've heard of - it's just wishful thinking.

Without the FM34, the Gladius can go bezel-up or bezel-down in the holster (pics show it bezel-down), but with the FM34, it can only go bezel-up. I, too, have found that the rubber retention strap degrades quickly and isn't really necessary anyway. I don't use it on either one of my MULs.

A DMM by itself can't give a reading of voltage under load. When you're actually using a cell, its voltage "sags," which brings down its useful voltage. For alks, open-circuit voltage is a merely okay indicator of capacity, but for lithiums, it doesn't mean much at all, since alks vary from 0.8-1.6V while lithiums only vary from 2.8-3.1V (or thereabouts), and the OC voltage only really drops at the very end of the lithium's capacity.

If you're having trouble operating the Gladius, I would be happy to post a little "training video" ( :laughing: ) or two.