Introducing THE ALPINATOR

This is a short story about a long build with (hopefully) a happy ending!

A looooooong time ago, sometime late last summer to be exact, CPFer 'D MacAlpine' requested a Project-M build specially suited both to his specific needs (as a police duty light, if memory serves) and his budget. His requirements were to put lots of light on the target, with some throw but also quite a bit of bright sidespill... and to achieve a reasonably compact size as well as decent runtime... and compatibility with rechargeables... and MULTI-BRIGHTNESS capability so the same light could be used in the car, or while completing paperwork, or for other close tasks... and a tough, weatherproof housing... without going crazy on the cost. Initially it looked like SureFire-based builds were out of the question due to cost concerns, so Don suggested the host be a Wolf Eyes light... seemed like a decent idea, so he had the light shipped directly to me.

What ensued was a perfect storm of component unavailability, size issues, vendor miscommunications, and all manner of other annoyances that brought the build to its knees! Until now. :naughty:

Short digression on WHY this one took so long to take form. First hurdle was the multi-brightness circuit, which at the time I was hoping to develop based on a commonly-available enthusiast board. All looked good, but a hardware glitch kept the underlying circuitry from ever stabilizing enough to support customization for Project-M purposes. As the end of the tunnel perpetually looked to be just ahead, Don directed me to wait for it... and wait... and wait some more... and still, the end of the tunnel never appeared.

Somewhere in all the waiting, Cree mania hit, then Seoul mania, then the Cree-vs-Seoul question, all of which made the emitters for the build come into question. The light was originally to be an M180! That's changed somewhat, as we'll see below.

Finally Don and I spoke via phone, and agreed that the build ought to take a different form, so with new marching orders in hand, off I went.

Then I realized the Wolf Eyes host wouldn't actually fit what we'd decided to do.

Then for a change, some good news! Thanks to a joint project with Leef (all will be revealed soon), I came upon a different multi-brightness board, one with a completely different ancestry and based on a proprietary board I'd had made for my Milky Candle MC2 project. Meanwhile, Don had settled on a specific LeefBody that suited his needs and a rechargeable configuration he decided to adopt.

Now as I'm far from infallible, any and all the above details could be completely jumbled! But that's the story as I know it to be, and I'm sticking with it.

What is Don's new light?

[size=+1]The Alpinator (a.k.a. X550.4)[/size]

The Alpinator is hereby named in honor of D MacAlpine and the extreme patience he showed in sticking with me! Hopefully it's the answer to his needs. In Project-M terms this one is an X550.4. Some might recognize by the naming convention that the light is spec'd to deliver max output of 550 lumens continuous... as for the '.4' tacked on, that refers to the FOUR brightness levels the light supports, all digitally regulated. There's high (550 lumens), medium (183 lumens?), low (30 lumens?), and ultralow (5 lumens?), all driven off a pair of 18500 LiON rechargeables, with estimated runtimes of 80 minutes, 4 hours, 27 hours, and 160+ hours, respectively. In a pinch the light should also be capable of running on 3x123 primaries with nearly the same runtimes. There's reverse polarity protection. There's a new design of McR16 reflectors that McGizmo graciously took from my own conceptual request and turned into reality (THANKS MCGIZMO!). :bow: Then just for giggles, there's a new version of the ever-present Milkyspit white tape which oddly enough, isn't white in this case!

The body is a LeefBody C-C 3x123 hard anodized natural, with a LeefDapter M-C at the head end and a LeefClicky round, scalloped, hard anodized black at the tail end. IMHO it's a surprisingly good-looking combo for the flat-bezel KL2 head.



The business end delivers the first-ever Project-M 4-emitter KL2 head! Those nifty new McGizmo reflectors fit in the slightly bored-out head nicely, despite a marginal bit of sidespill lost to the retaining ring itself. This particular iteration of the McR16 reflector is designed for Seoul SSCP4 emitters to deliver improved throw over previous McR16's while still providing a relatively gradual fade from hotspot to sidespill, which has come to characterize all the Project-M KL2 heads to date.



This light seems to be a good and versatile performer, too. It's certainly no beauty queen! But it does the job and that's hopefully what counts above all else. A quick comparison against some well-known lights, not necessarily because they're similar, but rather because many will be familiar with them... distance is perhaps 20-25 feet...

Top Left: Baseline (no lighting other than ambient)
Top Right: SureFire A2 incandescent
Bottom Left: SureFire L5
Bottom Right: ALPINATOR X550.4 at max output



In terms of the software, the light activates at the brightness last-used. From there, each level change goes to the next-brighter level in circular fashion, low to medium, medium to high, high to low, then repeat. Ultralow isn't in the main operating loop but is always available with two taps on the tailswitch... the idea here being that in most cases ultralow would get in the way, and yet, it needs to be accessible without jumping through too many hoops.

I knew getting a computer science degree would come in handy!

IMHO all the above didn't turn out too badly in a 19cm package head to tail. Hope Don likes it! :sweat:

Thanks all for reading, hope it wasn't overly boring!

Talk about a 'Floodmonster'

thing looks sick

GOOD.. LORD... Scott, you WILL hear from me about this light once I scrape my funds together. I need a duty light like that. The SL-20X has to be retired now.
Nice work!!!!!!! x infinity.

Why am I always the last one to hear about these things???

My version of the story is pretty much the same as Scott's, except he seems to have left out the bits about me requesting things he didn't know were possible/didn't yet have the technology for.... and how he kept agreeing to give it a try!

In the end I think that he was determined to hold out until he could come up with something I hadn't thought of yet - he succeeded. (right down to sneaking in new reflectors and an extra output level at the last minute!)

I look forward to trying this particular "American Beast" out on the streets of London. I'll yet you know how I get on.
:devil:

Wow, you have done it again sir !!!! oo:
Good to hear you got the multi-level boards worked out.
And I thought my M375 was nice !

~John

You are truly the ModKing:bow:, the light looks too sick, and I pity any crook at the business end of it...:wow:

The Milkynator strikes again
:twothumbs

jtice said:

Good to hear you got the multi-level boards worked out.

Click to expand...

To save Scott a bit of time here's what I gathered from my conversation with him;

The "Alpinator" :rock:does not use an M-series board, the electronics are something else that Scott devised :bow:. This setup matches the power source (2x LiIon cells) to the emitters. I believe that the emitters are in two parallel pairs.
In short - as I understand it the electronics in this build will not translate to a three emitter setup and they don't cover the range of input voltages that the M-series boards do. The multi-level M-series board is still pending.

On the other hand, if my interpretation of the tables is correct, this new setup is slightly more efficient - and I'm sure that Master Milky can build a good few variations on this theme.

skalomax said:

Talk about a 'Floodmonster'

thing looks sick

Click to expand...

Is that good or bad "sick"?
It does have a slightly medieval look to it, but nothing to compare with these! So long as it illuminates suspect packages/vehicles etc. I'm happy, I don't need it to double as a weapon....

:twothumbs

:thumbsup::bow::thumbsup:

Don, your light is on its way over the pond.

DROOL!

It's not like I NEED (or can afford!) such a light....

But me want!!!!!

OK, I've had this light "in service" for a few months now so it's about time I added some comments. I hope they're of some use to anyone considering this or a similar build.

Build - pretty well faultless. The Leef parts are a match to the Surefire head for machining and finish. The chequering on the body is grippy without being too sharp for either bare hands or gloves. The switch seemed to need a little running in (initially it seemed slightly stiff, or maybe that was just me?), but has the feel of a quality part. Other than what you can see through the glass the head looks completely unmodified. Were it not for the black switch (my fault, I wanted that design and Scott only had one in black) the light would pass for something made entirely by Surefire. It has frequently drawn comments about how expensive it must have been.
What you can see of Scott's work (I haven't opened it and do not intend to do so) likewise looks like it could have come out of the factory. Everything is spotlessly clean and the black covering under the reflectors (PVC insulating tape?) is a neat finishing touch.
The 2 x 18500 (3 x CR123A) body balances the head off quite nicely (half a cell shorter would have been about perfect for my hands). I have found that this size format actually reduces fumbling (in comparison to a P3D for instance) in some circumstances - like tucking it under your arm or chin.

Operation - after a bit of playing with it the UI is simplicity itself. Should the light come on in the wrong mode a few taps will get it to the right one - no need to change grip as there is only one switch. I have considered whether a "tactical" setup (where it always comes on in high mode first) might be better, but I do sometimes want the lower modes for prolonged periods - so no complaints here. I haven't had any problems with accidentally changing modes, but I do occasionally find it comes on in a different mode to what I thought I had set (probably my fault).

Performance - very, very nice. I do sometimes find myself thinking that it could be brighter - then I remember that I'm using it in daylight! On high it makes a G2 look a bit like a MiniMag and has certainly saved some battery power for my colleagues as they usually just turn their lights off when I bring it to bear. The various modes have all been used and cover all my needs such that I haven't resorted to a second (smaller) light for anything.
The hotspot is smooth, even and quite broad. I measured it at about 52cm (21" or so) at 2m (6'6") from the light, with a spill more than 3m wide. This compares to 44cm/3m for my Orb RAW NS (McR 16 reflector) and 33cm/2.3m for a Fenix P3D CE (smooth reflector). On turbo the P3D hotspot was slightly brighter (you could just see it inside the Alpinator's hotspot). I find this beam much more useful for me than a "laserbeam" spot.
Playing about a bit I reckon that it will throw a visible spot at least 60m (that's on a tree behind my house which is clearly visible in the ambient light at night). I haven't yet had a chance to try this light out in "proper" darkness, but it does a great job of lighting up a shadowy back garden or the inside of a house from the street.
When I first got the Alpinator I tried running it to see how much it warmed up. At an ambient temperature of 27° celcius (about 80° fahrenheit) the outside of the head reached 38° celcius (about 97° fahrenheit) after 10 minutes of running on high lying on a table. At 25° celcius (77° fahrenheit) it only reached 37° celcius (96° fahrenheit) after 15 minutes on high in a closed top nylon pouch. Thus even the head was not too hot to hold, the body stayed cooler. On a cold night I ran it for at least this long and the head hardly became warm to the touch (of my cold, ungloved fingers!), likewise I have accidentally left it on in its pouch on my belt in chilly weather and it hardly warmed up.

This is quite a light and it should serve me well for the foreseeable future.

Could it be improved on? Of course, we all have wish lists; slimming down a bit closer to a C2/G2 etc. in size, "warming up" the colour a bit (see my comments here) or even adding a UV mode! (I don't need IR at this time...)

In the mean time I would just like to thank Scott once again for the effort and consideration which he put into building this for me.

Cheers! :goodjob: :bow:

Milky, where do you come up with so many KL2 heads?