Re: Pila Codex
I just got the Codex 3 this morning in the mail from JonSidneyB, and as usual he gave lightning fast shipping. It only took 2 days to get to my house from his, so I'm beyond happy!
When I opened the package it came in a plain white box, minus the fancy black paper Pila usually wrap their boxes in (I'm not complaining, though).
The Codex itself was wrapped in red bubble wrap. The first thing that came to my mind was "how can you program this thing with three buttons?!", but I remembered you can also program digital watches in a similar fashion. As I installed it on my GL3 I noticed there was no lube on the O-rings, so I applied some Nyogel to them (for whatever reason this isn't unusual for factory Pila flashlights (in this case I can understand because the O-rings were exposed). I turned the flashlight on and the LCD screen on the Codex lit up in a pretty blue color (cool!). After a second or two the light turned on as usual and the LCD read "6P" (it turns out the "6P" stands for "bypass", or "bP'. At first I thought this was a strange reference to the SF 6P! lol
As per usual with any cool new gadget I immediately wanted to start programming it, but I didn't know how to get it to work! lol I immediately started reading the instruction manual, and step by step I started to learn how to program it. It's actually a fairly easy process, holding the main switch for five seconds gets you to the programming screen, from which you can select one of four (a, b, c, or d) settings. What I like about the Codex is there are selectable light intensities, 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 99%. I programmed mine so a, b, c and d correspond to 0%, 25%, 50% and 75%, and since bypass mode is already 100%, it all works out! Now I don't have to reach all the way back to turn my light on and off, a simple push of the button does the job.:twothumbs I think most Pila owners can relate to the difficulty of depressing the tactical tailcap switch.
If I had to be picky there are a few things I pointed out, both factual and opinionated-
-The
Low Battery Warning with automatic power reduction isn't working with the
Pila Li-ion rechargeable batteries for some reason, I don't have a clue why. However there is an interesting quirk, the light lasted about 20 minutes longer than it would've without the Codex. Strange.
UPDATE: The manufacturers told me this behavior is actually normal when using the
Pila Li-ion Rechargeable batteries, that the low battery indicator would come on very briefly. I guess it's a quirk they have to figure out, for now I'll have to see when the batteries are low the old fashioned way. I'll have to try it out with CR123's when I get some in the future.=)
-When Pila stated you can cycle through the light intensities, I was under the impression this can be accomplished by simply pushing the arrow buttons. While it's true that I can
program the light to do this, it takes up all four program sequences. In this instance it leaves me no room for further programming.
-I think the light intensities (25%, 50% and 75%) weren't as bright as I think they should be, specifically from 25% to 50%. They kinda looked the same to me. Of course this is my subjective opinion, check out the beamshots below and you be the judge.
Here are a few photographs, this is my first time doing this so you'll have to bear with me:
Codex 3 LCD screen on:
SF 6P & GL3
SF 6P & GL3 w/Codex
Comparing the Codex variable light output to the 6P, I know these aren't the best comparison shots but my house isn't very big:
25% Output w/Codex
50% Output w/Codex
75% Output w/Codex
99% Output w/Codex
Here are a few night shots:
25%
50%
75%
99%
Again these are my first beamshot pics, I tried my best. I did all of this on dial-up so I admit I'm pretty proud of myself.
Hope you enjoyed my review,
Dudemar
:rock:
