Malkoff drop-ins

Does anyone have a Malkoff Triple Drop-in? If so, how do you like it?

I have one of the first 10 out there. It is awesome. I have just started testing it tonight. Be jealous.

I have it, you will want it. More to come later.

fishmanstan said:

Does anyone have a Malkoff Triple Drop-in? If so, how do you like it?

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I have been wondering the same, and so have others.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/204320

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/204295

Fixed 2nd link.

Your second link doesn't work.

I was testing my unit last night and the Moon called and said shut it off, your putting me out of a job. It is really bright.

More to come later. It will be a while before I can post pics.

MrGman, when is The Triple taking the trip to your IS at work??? Gene rates it at 750 bulb lumens on 4 NiMH cells. My Mac Custom P7 is now ready to test ... Mac figures around 800 lumens on one C-cell LiIon

Mr P I have a dilemma, you should already know what it is. The maglight head will not fit into the opening port of the Integration Sphere. Its only 1 inch diameter opening and its a solid machined aluminum sphere, so I am not going to open it up anytime soon. The triple drop head is as wide as the reflector housing is minus just a fraction, so taking the Bezel off of course won't do a danged thing for me in this case. I would have to make a styrofoam sphere that I am willing to make a wider diameter opening and use that. But I don't think its necessary.

My calibrated eyeballs tell me that it is literally 3 times as bright as my M60 plus just a little. The M60 is a real 220 lumens out through the special optic, the Triple drop has a Fraen Reflector not an optic in front, I am guessing its 230 lumens per unit times 3 so thats 690 real output. Since I have tested numerous lights and some repeatedly into a real integration sphere I know what 100, 160, 200, 220, type lights look like and since I have put 2 and 3 200 lumen lights together at night to look at the total output I have a good known reference.

It fits into the C or D heads the same. I ran it with 3C, 4C and 4D batteries, Its got a lot of spill and a wide but definite hotspot. A bit of a dark ring around the hot spot, but that dark ring is brighter than a lot of flashlights by themselves, so I have no problem believing I am getting a real 690-700 lumens out. I plan on buying another ultraclear lens for the Mag and a Borafloat glass one that I can experiment with (ultra top secret at this time).

It truly is drop in. Nothing to try and screw into the threads of where the lamp goes, simply remove the reflector from the front, drop it in and screw down the front of the bezel which pushes it down and the spring loaded center contact sits in the lamp socket and voila, a wall of light.

I really like it in the 3C size flashlight, it fits underneath the Glock 35 very well. Since the Maglights have forward clicky, I have momentary on type operation without having to click on the switch, so it works very well as a tactical light.
:twothumbs :twothumbs :twothumbs

I have only one problem now. It makes all my other lights look sickly weak by comparison, I almost thought for a second something was wrong with them and I had to stop and say to myself, self, you can't compare them to a 700 lumen light and wonder why they appear dim.

I brought two friends into the secret chamber of photons (separately) and showed them the lights starting with a 100 lumens Inova T5 (07 version) and worked my way up. When I jumped from the 220 Lumen M60 to the Triple Drop....
Response one was: "Oh My God!"
Response two was: "holy cr@p!!, that is unbelievable"!

Pictures will come later.

I almost bought one of the triple drop ins last night while they were available. I'm sure Malkoff makes some great products. My dilemma is for just a little more money, I can get an AE PL-14 power light brand new in the box. I like the reliability of the LED, but the AE comes with a rechargeable battery and is ready to go. I can't really find much information on that light, though.

How does this compare to Electrolumens P7 Thrower? The other is cheaper and the price is for the whole light.

What is the AE-PL-14, who makes it?

I cannot say how it compares to the Elektrolumens unit, don't have one for a side by side comparison. I specifically did not want a unit that was all "throw" I want lots of side spill. So for my purposes it has a great combination of a wide hot spot and lots of spill besides that.

This thing lights up my entire back yard side to side, one shot.

This unit is a Malkoff. Its ridiculously well built, buried in epoxy and a solid heat sink tub. From what I have seen Gene makes sure what he builds is rock solid and reliable and that the electronics will work and deliver the output in the power range he states. To me its worth paying extra because I am not buying it twice.

MrGman said:

It truly is drop in. Nothing to try and screw into the threads of where the lamp goes, simply remove the reflector from the front, drop it in and screw down the front of the bezel which pushes it down and the spring loaded center contact sits in the lamp socket and voila, a wall of light.
...
I have only one problem now. It makes all my other lights look sickly weak by comparison, I almost thought for a second something was wrong with them and I had to stop and say to myself, self, you can't compare them to a 700 lumen light and wonder why they appear dim.
lievable"!
...
Pictures will come later.

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Good to hear it works very will as a tru dropin. As expected of Gene.

LOL @ poor sickly weak lights.

I look forward to your pictures. :thumbsup:

The 4-6 D single drop in is a great thrower. Would it be safe to assume the triple has the same throw with a whole lot more spill?

We're starting to get into whole light territory with this drop in.

Freddy said:

The 4-6 D single drop in is a great thrower. Would it be safe to assume the triple has the same throw with a whole lot more spill?

We're starting to get into whole light territory with this drop in.

Click to expand...

I don't expect it to have as much throw since it doesn't have the one large reflector, somewhat less throw/more spill.

Looks like I'll wait for a Mac run of P7 mags, or when Gene perfects his. Thanks.

I have the Electrolumens Quadlight running in a 3D Maglite body with 4C MH batteries. The thing is insanely bright(at least to me) But I wonder how it compares to the Malkoff triple or the Terralux triple dropin. I don't know if anyone has made a comparison but I've got a couple more Maglite's that are begging to be altered.

Mr. Gman- I briefly had a Universal Drop In that was a "double". I had to run it off a AA battery pack in a two D body but it was supposed to put out over 700 lumens in that configuration.

I have to admit I wasn't happy with it. The trouble of a battery pack and bulk of the light was not worth what appeared to be the slight gain in brightness over my M60 drop in package. My testing was completely unscientific and was backyard and basement based. I also expected it to smoke a 400 lumen Magcharger, which it didn't.

I am curious how the triple compares to a Magcharger or Ultra Stinger. That is my personal flashlight frame of reference. My ultimate goal is to replace one of those lights with something brighter, better runtime, more "bulletproof" Are we there yet? Could you comment?

Use simple bounce with a light meter to compare the output of the M60 and the output of the Triple. You won't get lumens but you can measure the difference between the two lights and come up with an approximate lumen rating for the Triple. CPF'ers using various measuring devices such as light boxes or home made IS's are finding similiar results using bounce for comparison purposes.

Bill

Westwind I can't really answer your question. I don't have the magcharger or ultrastinger, have no intention of getting them.

I don't think you ever gave your Malkoff module a fair run with that modified battery pack. Besides possibly cash, what is stopping you from dropping the Malkoff you have in a longer maglight that will take it to the appropriate voltage levels and have the current to drive it to full power? Surely a host is only $18.00. What should it really have a 3 or 4 D cell host?

I can only say that my triple drop has lots of light in the spill which is what I wanted and a good solid hot spot. I am still waiting on the 5000mAH batteries to arrive to really run it through its paces. Should be here today. When I put it in the big 4 D unit with NiMH batteries and get it up to full power it outshines 3 of my 200 plus lumen lights. I don't just look at the hot spots, I look at the entire envelope of light and how much is in the spill because that is what total lumens is.

Malkoff is using 3 of the same great Cree's he puts in the M60's. He told me he is running them at 1.0 amp each from the driver. My current draw from the 3 NiCad (yes Nicad) C cells is 3.2 amps, my current draw from 4 NiCads or 4 NiMH (D cells in the larger host) is 2.3 amps. I am sure the LED's are somewhere in the 235 lumen range each. Out the front is definitely over 660 lumens.

Since I have measured the other individual flashlights in the integration sphere of truth and know that this one is 220 and that one is 202, etc, I have a good reference to compare to. If you just look at the hot spot of one light that has a big parabolic reflector and concentrates it down into a hot little beam and ignore all that side spill, that you aren't making a good comparison.

That is why a IS is really important. It collects all that light and tells you what you got. Unfortunately I can't fit this Maglight head into one with a 1 inch port.

Although lights with great throw are nice, I don't really plan on lighing up buildings 500 yards away, I want to light up 50 feet across and 100 yards deep in one swath of light and see it all.

Gosh, I felt like I gave the Universal a fair chance. I ran it at 7.2 volts which was the max for that unit.

I sold it. It didn't suit my needs in any way. No larger hosts for me. I saw no advantage in the Universal over my M60.

I'm no flashlight expert even though I've lugged them around for many years. The funny thing about "lumens" is they don't seem to tell you much about how a light performs. It made no difference that the Universal had almost double the lumens of my Magcharger, it wasn't as effective.

That's why I was trying to get more info on the Triple. I think it may be what I'm looking for but I'm hesitant to make the same mistake I made with the Universal. I took a bath on it.

I'll keep watching your test results.

This is in no way a criticism of Mr. Malkoff's products. I love my M60 and a M-60L is in my future. The Universal just didn't suit my needs. Maybe the Triple will.

Westwind, your confusing voltage with power. Having 7.2V initially from I am guessing 6 AA batteries in series doesn't mean you can supply a steady 11 watts of power. Trying to deliver the necessary current from those batteries, the voltage is going to sag, the batteries are going to get hot and deplete even faster. One weak cell in series can put a serious hurt on the overall performance as well. Typical current draw should have been 1.5 amps to start and only go up from there as the batteries got weak.

So its a tough call to say you provided it with enough of an energy source to let it draw the power it needed just because you had the initial voltage.

Any way if you sold it, no loss. But can't say it couldn't perform up to par with how you drove it.

MrGman, I'm quite sure he used rechargables, and they should have no problem supplying enough current.