Need some sage advice:

New to this forum but I'm a long time flashaholic at heart. (If I can't obsess about it, it's not worth doing at all.)

What I am seeking is more lumens. A combination of throw and flood. Let's face it, the HID units are just about ideal in output, but my application is lots of momentary on-off activity and instant on is a must. (Security guard)

Now, I know that the perfect light has yet to be invented. However, I am very tempted to build my own light, optimized for my needs. I have seen the very interesting "Wall of Fire" lights and they certainly got me thinking.

My first pass thoughts are to use a set of nine Cree R2 single mode modules in a square grid, three rows of three. The built in reflector on these modules seem to give a nice balance between throw and flood. Total lumens on paper would be roughly 1800. Real world voltage drops and current limits from batteries will, of course, have their way with this.

For power, I was thinking of utilizing my nice set of Ryobi NIMH 18 volt power packs, since I have four of them and two chargers. I may revert to a circular pattern of seven for a more traditional look and better power consumption.

Anyone tried this kind of thing yet? I've seen the new Romissen 6 chip unit, but at 500 lumens and the use of a different set of batteries than I already own, I am not overly thrilled. It does have an advantage of relatively low purchase price - other than the extra cost for batteries and such. I have also seen a couple of other two and three head units, but again there would be batteries and chargers to purchase. (I also would not be able to scratch my "Mad Scientist" itch!)

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Best regards,
DGM

Simply buy the Malkoff triple drop unit for the 4 to 6 C or D cell maglight off of malkoffdevices.com. I am sure you have or can get and use a 4C or D cell unit and good rechargeable NiMH batteries and charger. that will give you a very nice 700 plus lumen light in a convenient form factor for you to use as a security guard. I have the triple drop and I use the one for 2 to 3 C or D cells and it works fine.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/205842

This is the link were I tested it and compared it to other flashlights and drop in modules. The 4 to 6 cell units will give you good run time.

My god... what are you using it for?

Sounds like you need someone to build you a custom jobby (or you could build yourself one).

Huge heatsink, 4 MC-E's, 2 blue board sharks (2 MC-E's all in series per shark), 18V packs. Looking at about 2.5 to 3A draw on the packs, and easily 3000 OTF lumens. Probably active cooling, since you're talking about 40 watts.

You could rig up a pot for continuous output options, balancing power and runtime. You could also add in an overdrive mode for silly power

Why so much light?

DigitalGreaseMonkey said:

I have seen the very interesting "Wall of Fire" lights and they certainly got me thinking.

My first pass thoughts are to use a set of nine Cree R2 single mode modules in a square grid, three rows of three. The built in reflector on these modules seem to give a nice balance between throw and flood. Total lumens on paper would be roughly 1800. Real world voltage drops and current limits from batteries will, of course, have their way with this.

For power, I was thinking of utilizing my nice set of Ryobi NIMH 18 volt power packs, since I have four of them and two chargers. I may revert to a circular pattern of seven for a more traditional look and better power consumption.

Anyone tried this kind of thing yet?

Click to expand...

Have you seen this?:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showpost.php?p=2170998&postcount=91

Oh and by the way- from one newbie to another :welcome:

MrGman said:

Simply buy the Malkoff triple drop unit

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/205842

This is the link were I tested it and compared it to other flashlights and drop in modules. The 4 to 6 cell units will give you good run time.

Click to expand...

Thanks to all who have responded so far, I have had a sudden rush of extra duty and am just now getting back to this thread.

Thanks for the information. The Malkoff units look very well made, but are also unavailable. I also looked at the competing unit (name escapes me at the moment - very tired) that seems less well made but is also half the price.

I am going to post some background info, since several people are understandably curious about why I want so much light. Need some sleep, so will tackle that and catch up with responses tomorrow some time.

Thanks again to all,
DGM

RocketTomato said:

Have you seen this?:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showpost.php?p=2170998&postcount=91

Oh and by the way- from one newbie to another :welcome:

Click to expand...

Thanks RocketTomato (Love the image that comes to mind with that name).

Yes, that is an incredible looking invention. I have seen some of his other ones as well. Most impressive!

Well, I have finally come to my senses, there is no practical way that I can cobble together something that will do the job as conveniently as a commercially available light.

I just ordered a Solarforce T700 (Thanks ever so much to Selfbuilt for your wonderful comparisons, you are a deity to me!). I paid $129.99 from Lighthound in Texas. It is a 3 Q5 light with one of those three lobed reflectors.

I looked at some drop-ins for my Mag, but they wound up being nearly as much as the T700, if not much more (depending upon which vendor you choose).

I was going crazy digging through the threads till I found gold in another thread asking for advice. (Thanks again Selfbuilt!)

This was the MVP comparison thread (another contender):
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/205174

And this is the link to the wonderful night shot comparison page:
http://www.ledmania.cz/fotky-venku

Thanks again to all for indulging a sleep deprived newbie!

Best regards,
DGM