Best Led for LEO

Just wanting suggestions for a sub $120 LED Light for a LEO friend for a birthday. Looking at a Pelican M6 2390, but it only does 60ish lumens. With the current round of new LED's out there, it seems a little low. Any help is appreciated.

With so many choices availible, it would be helpful if you could be more specific. What
will he use it for etc. The Pelican is a nice light by the way, I have 2 of them.

pelican is coming with a LEO duty light very soon. designed in conjunction with LAPD, i believe:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/160091&page=1&pp=30

it will bust your $120 bank though...

MARNAV1 said:

With so many choices availible, it would be helpful if you could be more specific. What
will he use it for etc. The Pelican is a nice light by the way, I have 2 of them.

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It'll be carried on the belt. So nothing too big, but doesn't have to be tiny either.

G2/or/P6D and a Cree dropin; and spend the rest of your budget on AW's protected rechargeables

RCatR said:

G2/or/P6D and a Cree dropin; and spend the rest of your budget on AW's protected rechargeables

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Not to be nosey or step on toes but after that suggestion, does your friend have experience with Lithium Ions? I am very very hesitant to build Li lights for friends who have no experience with them (or the only experience they have with Li is with me shining them up in the night sky).

At least be very sure to set the person up with a good charger and let them know the risks charging poses. They must be with the charger at all times. No charging while not home, sleeping, etc!

I apologize for the intervening of your post but I feel it is important!

The best light for you need will probably be the m@g mod by gene43. Go to www.malkoffdevices.com
This is probably the brightest single led flashlight made and in you price range. I have one. If I was a LEO, I would carry it. You can get the 2d cell version. The SSC P4 led is run to factory specifications, and you can use Nimh batteries. It is really a great light.

Since you are on the topic of the best LED for coppers, I am considering a new light, but I have a very mundane requirement, but it is very important to me. I am assigned an unmarked car and I do not have a vehicle mounted spotlight. The ability for me to light up a house number with a handheld flashlight is critical. I know that I can do it with a Tigerlight FBOP. Is it likely that I could do it with any of the LEDs on the market today, or do they just not have that kind of throw?

JAS said:

Since you are on the topic of the best LED for coppers, I am considering a new light, but I have a very mundane requirement, but it is very important to me. I am assigned an unmarked car and I do not have a vehicle mounted spotlight. The ability for me to light up a house number with a handheld flashlight is critical. I know that I can do it with a Tigerlight FBOP. Is it likely that I could do it with any of the LEDs on the market today, or do they just not have that kind of throw?

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JAS,
go to www.malkoffdevices.com, it is an incredible light for the price. Yes you can light up a house number from the street and way more.

Thanks for that optic nerve! I have already sent an email to see about one ;-)

Optic Nerve said:

JAS,
go to www.malkoffdevices.com, it is an incredible light for the price. Yes you can light up a house number from the street and way more.

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I just went there and it says they only sell drop-in modules now. When I clicked on the link for modules I saw that they they do not have any products listed at all. It's too bad, that is a huge copper heatsink.

Our cars don't have spotlights, the city believes the fixed alley and take down lights are enough for us. So, most of our 'morning' (that's 10:30PM to 7:00AM) shift officers have one of them cheap 12v cigarette lighter 'million' candlepower spotlights for that purpose. Cheap, easy, and bright. Did I mention cheap? The things are so low cost most of the officers just leave 'em in the trunk of the car instead of taking them home. If you really want a belt carried LED a look in the deal extreme 6p cree drop in thread there's some pretty impressive beam shots that would imply house numbers from the street wouldn't be a problem. I work evening shift and use a m90-13v (with 18650's) for the number spotting but I've still got one of them cree modules on order for my 17500 powered belt carried 9p.

I wonder why gene43 is not producing anymore flashlights? I wonder if m@g-lite threatened him with a lawsuit?

Art Vandelay said:

It's too bad, that is a huge copper heatsink.

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The heatsink looks like it would be relatively easy to make.

I use my Lumapower M1 Tactical at work to illuminate House-Numbers at night. It works great.

rolling said:

I use my Lumapower M1 Tactical at work to illuminate House-Numbers at night. It works great.

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Yeah. The Lumapower M1 is a great light for throw -- I use the textured reflector which acts to smooth out the beam a little bit, but it still throws very well. The new version of this with the tactical switch would be great, momentary button on the back, twist for permanent on -- for checking a number of something, the momentary woudl be very useful. That light would also be durable, and easily fit on a belt or in a jacket pocket. It also has a fair amount of useful spill beam, and good runtime on 18650 LiIon. It does take CR123, but runtime unfortunately isn't as long, so it may not be the best idea for a light to give as a gift. Although, buying a charger and 2x18650 is still doable within the budget (or giving a whole bunch of CR123 primaries)

Optic Nerve said:

I wonder why gene43 is not producing anymore flashlights? I wonder if m@g-lite threatened him with a lawsuit?

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I woudln't be surprised if they did. Although i dont get it. Every light that he sells, is considered a sale for mag though right?

Although i think another explanation is that he built a drop in module. He said the actual full modification of the light itself was too time consuming because he built them one by one. I actually own one of his creations and it was bought just before the drop in module was created. Him and i had a chance to talk on the phone. I asked him if there was a difference between the two (drop-in and full mod) and he said that he took them both out in the yard side by side and they looked identical. He said the only difference was that the two drivers were slightly different. He said the current was both the same that the LED's were driven at, but based on speculation, he guessed that the driver he uses in the full mod would have a flatter regulation. Although he did say it had never been tested side by side. So he isnt 100% positive.

These new Streamlight Stinger LEDs are becoming popular in the LEO community. I think they are around $120.00 also. Here is a comparison that I did..........


https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/150593

The Cree drop-in is a really nice piece. I had one in my 9P powered by 2x17500's, and it ran dead-flat regulation for just short of 3hrs! That is impressive runtime, did I mention it was spitting out 100 lumens out the front the whole time? I was very happy with that set-up...although lights like the D-mini would out-throw it easily.

Although i think another explanation is that he built a drop in module. He said the actual full modification of the light itself was too time consuming because he built them one by one. I actually own one of his creations and it was bought just before the drop in module was created. Him and i had a chance to talk on the phone. I asked him if there was a difference between the two (drop-in and full mod) and he said that he took them both out in the yard side by side and they looked identical. He said the only difference was that the two drivers were slightly different. He said the current was both the same that the LED's were driven at, but based on speculation, he guessed that the driver he uses in the full mod would have a flatter regulation. Although he did say it had never been tested side by side. So he isnt 100% positive.

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IMO it would be great if he actually hired someone to manufacture a whole bunch of drop-ins. I'm sure these boards alone would buy many hundreds of them, even thousands. As it is I think he was having a hard time keeping up with orders, as he was doing them himself, so he probably just wants a break if nothing else. Whenever he does start selling the drop-ins though, I will definitely buy one, and probably refer several others to do the same.