Badboy 400 - Great MiniMag Mod! + Batt. Question

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I couldn't wait to drive back to the house this morning, expecting that the Badboy 400 and accessories would be in the mail. Sure enough, the little box was there. It took about as long to fetch my old MM from the nightstand as it did to install the Badboy. Instructions and FAQ on Wayne's page create the impression that a little tweaking might be required. No such thing. The lens assembly went together perfectly, the old socket popped out easily, the module dropped right in, and maybe 30 seconds fiddling with the retaining ring seated it perfectly. There was brief pause while I figured out how the Kroll tailswitch seal is supposed to mate with the flashlight end.

Off to the dark walk-in closet with a few other lights. I may run the comparison later on with fresh batteries in all lights, but all the batteries I was using were midway through their life - a more common situation than fresh ones. The Badboy obliterated my wife's unmodified MM. It matched my Impact II's hot spot but is vastly superior on account of better spread and a perfectly even beam. The Impact II had fairly fresh batteries, and it is unregulated, so the Badboy is probably much more useful. My 2D Maglite had clearly more power (to be expected since its bulb is something like triple the wattage), but the beam is horribly uneven and the flashlight weighs 6 times as much as the Badboy/MM. The Badboy's beam is a little on the purple side compared to my other LED lights, but I consider it plenty "white" and am happy with it.

This light is definitely going in my daily kit, and I'll bring it along next camping trip. Many thanks to Wayne for an excellent product and quick service! I don't have an Opalec Newbeam, but would guess that Badboy is the better buy unless you really just want broad illumination in close quarters, and longer battery life is important.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif Now for my question about batteries. I tried AA NiCads 10 years ago. Their 1.2V and short life flopped miserably in everything I tried. What is the deal with today's NiMH batteries? Am I correct to guess that my regulated LED lights (Arc AAA + the Badboy) will produce full output with them? What runtime will I get compared to Alkalines or Lithiums? Will the 1800 mAH Panasonics sold in the nearby drugstore with a charger for about $25 do the trick, or should I look to some particular battery/charger combo for best performance?

Thanks in Advance!

Dave, if I were you, I'd stick to NiMHs instead of NiCads. With the BBs, NiMHs are the ideal batteries (well, Lithium-AAs actually are, but they're still too expensive)...

You can go with the Panasonic charger and its batteries. It really comes down to cost and convenience. Since you're using 2 batteries at a time with the BadBoy, the dual channel charger won't be a concern. Otherwise, I would've recommended the Maha C401FS...

As far as battery preferences go, you can rarely beat the Panasonic 2100mah or Sanyo 2100mah or PowerEx 2000 batts in terms of watt-hours performance...

http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM

The 1800 and above Nimh should actually perform better in the Bad Boy then alkalines. Look at the review pages for runtime charts by Roy.

Thanks!

I appreciate the battery tips. Now that I look more closely, Wayne's graph appears to show the greatest total amount of light (area under the curve) when loaded with a Maha NiMH. I checked the specs closely, and ended up ordering a Maha C401FS. It sounds like a good unit, I consider the price to be reasonable against the long term cost of buying batteries instead, and (possibly most importantly) it can charge just 1 battery. I like that since the batteries don't have a lot of shelf life and I often need just 1 at a time.

I took a walk last night to gauge how the Badboy would do in situations like that and camping. No question - it has plenty of light for camping.

Dave,

Try here:

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm

I have this charger, and batteries and use it with my BB500 and it's great. Plenty of power, couldn't tell the difference from alkalines. Plus the 100 min quick charge is perfect if you need to use a lot of batteries.

I had a $30.00 charger for a while, but this one is much better. Spend the extra, it's worth it.

Thomas distributing is great, too. Received my order promptly.