CMG Reactor 3AA owners, opinions needed!

Hi! What do you think of this light? I got one a couple of weeks back, and I think it is great! How is the battery life of this light? Is it anywhere near to the advertised 20 hrs of peak brightness? I am still on the original set of batteries, and do not get to use it often... so far, I have only used it to blind myself. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Anyway, I've seen quite a number of posts talking about the color of the light. Looks like quite a number of flashaholics got an 'ugly cat/dog urine green' or blue tint, but mine seems to have a hint of yellow tint to it. May I ask if that is normal? No matter, I enjoyed myself very much with this light!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

My Reactor 3 has a very slight bluish cast, which I consider perfectly normal for 1.2 watt Luxeons. A slight yellowish or greenish tint is also normal for these LEDs, but definitely not that "rotten cat urine green" color like I have in my first Reactor 2.

As far as battery life, I haven't used the Reactor 3 long enough to get a good guess, so I don't have any answers here.

My Reactor III also had a "rotten cat urine green" color, it was an early model ... hopefully they improved them.

I could be wrong, but I suspect 20hrs of peak brightness is a little optimistic.

I got two Reactors 3AA. One has a terrible green color, the other is a much nicer bluish white, more typical of good 1 W LS.

The Reactor 3AA draws 350 mA from fresh alkalines. It has a series resistor in the tailcap.

The 3AA produces an intense light for about 10 Hrs. After this period, the luminosity starts to decrease slowly, lasting for at least another day.

I replaced the resistor in the tailcap to have 200 mA instead of 350 mA. It is less bright, but the LS run much cooler and I doubled the battery life.

A note about the ruggedness of the Reactor. It is tough, very robust. The only problem is the switch, at least on the two I own: after long idle periods, it make the LS flicker due to some bad contact inside, and is not possible to clean it.

Anthony

I love mine. It is slightly green, but very bright. It is brighter and whiter now that I put a Reactor2 tailcap on it.
I don't know what this does to the life of the batteries or the LED, but would love to get thoughts on that.
I can say that it really blew a neighbor away last night as he was using a pathetic little keychain light to find his dogs poop. I turned my Reactor on and lit up the entire lawn!

*sigh* good times....

T.

TECH, The reactor 2 tailcap has no resistor...right? How much brighter???? Have you run it for extended periods...?

I have a Very green Reactor 3... but I got it for 20 bucks so I've not been overly disappointed. I love the feel and design of the light. Even though it's only half as bright as my wonderfully blueish white SL 3AA, it's substantially smaller and easier to stick in a back pocket or back-pack.

I wish I have the SL's light in the Reactor's body...

I removed the resistor on my Reactor 3AA.

It is now pulling 800-900 mA. WOW way too much. I must have a low Vf.

I experemented a little and 2.5 ohms give 250mA. 5 ohms gave 110mA.

I think I will try 1-2 ohms and see what I get.

me reactor3 has a purplish hotspot with yellow/green corona. very nice beam spread, not as bright as i expected for some reason.

Mine is very green. Happier with the SL TL3 Led which has a much whiter light output (would make quite a useful impact weapon too).

Harebawl, and others.

I'll try to take some pictures of my Reactor 3 with the original tailcap and with the Reactor 2 tailcap. I am not very good at night photography...so we'll see what happens.

I can say that it is brighter and whiter...but not pure "ArcLS" white.

I have not done long-run tests, just bursts of 20-30 seconds.

Anyone here care to theorize what this 'mod' will do to the battery life or LED life?

T.