LS3 Offering this Saturday!

At 9am MST, this Saturday (the 8th), we will activate the website for LS3 orders.

I will post the URL here shortly.

The LS3:

- $200
- 5watt Luxeon Star LED driven at 2.5 watts
- Current regulated
- Standard LS (rev2) housing
- Waterproof
- 2x123 battery
- Push button Tail switch
- All rev2 improvements
- 2-3 hour run time
- 10 year warranty (for similiar dollar value)

There is only about 3 dozen of these available. Once they sell out, we have absolutely no plans to make any more. These are being sold direct via our website only.

Peter Gransee

Peter,

Thanks for the heads up, I can't wait. I hope Im able to get one.

::crossing fingers::

Any idea what bins the emitters are? I am sure they are the best you got but would like to know the actual bins used.

Cheers.

U and V flux, 3 and 4 tint.

Peter

Boy, wish I could get one of these. I hope that you lucky few will post pictures and beam shots when you get them!

Somebody please post. Just how much brighter are these lights as compared to a current typical LSL offering, say LS, KL1 or BB500 for example.

I have a few of the V3 flux 5W in a KL1 and KL3 that I bought as stars from Arc. I also posted beam shots compared to a stock KL1 so you should get somewhat similar results. Click on link below. Note the KL1 is driven at about 2.5W and KL3 at 3.4W. The V flux is the brighter so bear that in mind, and also the 3-tint is whiter (less blue) than 4-tint. As usual, YMMV

KL1 and KL3 5W mods

CM, thanks for the link. Don't know how I missed it the first time. Judging by the photos, the 5W's are brighter then a standard KL1 by a good factor of four or five? Is this an accurate assessment?

It's difficult to judge really since the beams are so different so it has to do more with your beam preference. The 5W LS are more of a flood, so the hotspot may just be a bit brighter as the hotspot of a low dome. However, the area is three to four times as large, in my estimation. Judging by power and given the same flux rating, 2.5 to 3.4 times the power is not that big of an amount. Just take two equal LS's. Shine one towards the ceiling. Now take another one and do the same and see how much more light you get. Now do it with a third light. Noticeably brighter, but not *dramatically* so. Having said that, I find the mods that I did turned some mediocre (maybe that's too strong of a word?) lights into something very utilitarian. I really enjoy the modded KL1 and KL3 a lot more, since their relatively large size, especially the KL3, dictates a proportionate increase in output.

To answer your question, an accurate assessment is a factor of 2.5 to 3.4 With a 5W driven at these levels, you wouldn't have to "pan" your flashlight to view a relatively large area compared to a low dome. To me that's very useful.

Dear Mr. Gransee,

Had you considered "raffling" one off for the benefit of the CPF?

I'm certain that no one would mind if you kept back a portion of the proceeds to cover the cost of the unit and allowed the "surplus" to be donated towards defraying bandwidth costs, etc.

It would be quite fun and would benefit everyone!

What an "e-vent" it would be!

Just an idea . . .

Good Idea?

or

Bad Idea?

"Lux" Luther-an

CM thanks again. I see your points. Unfortunately my KL1 is just as purple as yours. Tough decision. Stayed poised at the computer keyboard and hope to be one of the ones to get in and then fork out $200 or wait and hope that Wayne or one of the other modders come up with something similar for a lot less cash.

Peter,

Will there be a limit on how many LS3's you can buy? Due to the fact that there were so many CPF members who did not get the chance to purchase a Grey Kit. I think a limit on the LS3 would give everyone who wants one a fair chance.

Just a thought,
Thanks!

Yeah, I think I'll order 100... Kidding of course.

Mo

Peter,

Thanks for the update. I guess I'll have to wake up early to try to buy one.

I want to look at the perfect appearance of LS3.
Please give a photograph.

Working on getting a photo.

Seems there is more demand than there are lights.

We already have received 4 emails from people saying that they will not be near a computer at that time and want me to make an exception for them so that they can get one. But then not being in front of a computer would give them an unfair advantage.

We are trying to make this as fair as possible obviously. But we are at a great risk of some people being angry at the outcome.

I think a more fair way to do this would be to auction them all off. But then the people who got them would probally pay more for them and then they would feel bad about using them as an everyday tool like they were intended.

So how about half and half?

We could put 15 up for auction and 20 up for sale on Saturday.

The auction would be on the yahoo system only. Starting price would be $200 of course. This would not be to charity.

I will be in Orlando while this is going on so I will have to find a way to administer the auction from my laptop.

What do you say?

Peter

Peter,

I still think that a limit of (1)per customer will assure that more people have a fair chance to own one. It is unfortunate that there are some that will order 3,4,5+ units either out of excitement or for profits later on Ebay.

I have a suggestion. How about an A.M/P.M sale?
1/2 the units to be sold during the early morning and the other 1/2 in the evening. This will assure that more people will have a chance to purchase one.

Thank you,

Peter,

If the demand is there, why wouldn't you consider building more LS3 lights in the future? I would assume at $200, the profit margin is fairly high at least in terms of manufacturing costs. Is it strictly an LED issue, such as quality/availability? I know Lumileds are having trouble with the five watters but do you feel the issues are so substantial that you do not have any expectations they will be rectified in the future? I just remember your mission statements about Arc being on the cutting edge and I know at one time, not that long ago, the plans were for the Arc LS3 to be your only LS light offering. At one post you even recommended that someone buy a KL1 if they wanted a low dome LS light. It saddens me to think that a number of people are going to be hung out to dry regardless of what method you choose to distribute the lights. I hope that you will reconsider your decision of not having any plans to build anymore LS3 lights in the future.

At 9am MST, this Saturday (the 8th), we will activate the website for LS3 orders.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Could someone please explain to this ignorant Brit what 9am MST translates to in GMT ? Also, What MST actually stands for.

Mountain Standard Time. Its one hour ahead of Pacific Standard Time (PST), which is the west coast (Kommiefornia, Oregon, Washington). It is two hours behind Eastern Standard Time, which is the east coast (New York, Maine, Georgia, Carolinas, Florida, etc.).

You're lucky Peter didn't do this in the summer, 'cuz we don't do daylight savings in Arizona. Effectively we'd be PST, but if you look at something like the MS Windows OS or other stuff that tracks worldwide dates/times, for the most part you'll see we have our own time zone! We want the sun to go down early when its 115 F out.