What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase?

What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase?

I have noticed that a disproportionate number of people are selling their Kerberos/Overready/VanIsleDSM triples and quads (P60 drop-ins) within days of purchasing them. What's up with this? These things are $150 to $250 USD for one drop-in, so it's not like the buyer doesn't know what they are getting into. On top of the drop-in's themselves there are often additional investments in hosts/cells/high current switches, etc..



I have a VanIsleDSM Quad XP-G in the mail as we speak so maybe I'll be able to better answer this question soon. And maybe I'm just more aware of them since I have one in the mail, but still it seems like a lot of WTS posts?



Sellers reasons for selling don't give many clues. Usually money or slightly dissatisfied with tint. Need for money and tint are both totally subjective reasons.



Anybody have insight into this? Runtime impractical, bad beam pattern, too bright for practical real world use? Subliminal PWM that whines Sell Me upon turn on... :tinfoil:

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I would say, its the bigger is better philosophy, I wouldn't mind having one (or two)

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

Not everyone realizes just how floody these dropins are, to really know the true beauty you should stand behind a nonflashaholic with his light on in complete darkness and then turn yours on :naughty:
I have the Vannisle 5.6amp aluminum r5 coolwhite.
The Overready triple in neutral white and a custm modded E2e with triple xpg's.

I think I can honestly say if your selling it within the first week it's because you didn't have a host and batteries ready.
I didn't but I stuck it out and had to wait for my AW 18650's and bored body to arrive for the Quad.
I considered selling the first week, I also considered boring out one of my Surefires (and I did) 3 days before the host arrived.
It's also a temptation to trade for the next new thing, even though it's not as bright.
I'm trying to limit the number of lights I own (to less than 40) right now.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I personally think it's because the lights are so floody, that it has a dissipating effect on the beam strength to the eye, so people think "so what's the big deal?. You have to get the big picture with these lights- they are very floody and light up a huge area, and they don't give you the gratification of a nice hot spot in the middle where you can see your lumens. I find the best way to appreciate these lights is use one in an area with no ambient light (as dark as you can get) then see just how much of the peripheral area it lights up. AIMHO.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I've never even considered one due to the fact they all of the ones I've seen come on in high first, which I find useless, and I've never needed that much light before. Also, the run time is pretty short. Basically, I don't need one. I think a lot of people, as said above, see the lumen numbers on paper, want one, and then realize they're just not that useful.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

warmurf said:

I personally think it's because the lights are so floody, that it has a dissipating effect on the beam strength to the eye, so people think "so what's the big deal?. You have to get the big picture with these lights- they are very floody and light up a huge area, and they don't give you the gratification of a nice hot spot in the middle where you can see your lumens. I find the best way to appreciate these lights is use one in an area with no ambient light (as dark as you can get) then see just how much of the peripheral area it lights up. AIMHO.

Click to expand...

Dead on! That's why they're so popular with people that "clear rooms".

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

You guys have it all wrong...:shakehead

Once the wife/significant other finds out..

Wife: Wow thats bright! What did you buy now?

CPF Member: Its a (insert tri/quad) module.

Wife: How much did it cost?

CPF Member: silence...

Wife: How much?!?!?

...well you get the story.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I agree with most people here... even a cheap XR-E based light puts out a ton more lux, and these big tripples and quads don't have the lux at distance to really impress. Also, if I show this to people inside, even with the lights off, they just aren't impressed. However, when I am out in the yard, this thing just smashes through the darkness. It really depends on why you buy the light in the first place.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

warmurf said:

I personally think it's because the lights are so floody, that it has a dissipating effect on the beam strength to the eye, so people think "so what's the big deal?. You have to get the big picture with these lights- they are very floody and light up a huge area, and they don't give you the gratification of a nice hot spot in the middle where you can see your lumens. I find the best way to appreciate these lights is use one in an area with no ambient light (as dark as you can get) then see just how much of the peripheral area it lights up. AIMHO.

Click to expand...

Yeah this is pretty much why I sold mine. It's just not dark enough where I live for this to be very useful outdoors, and for indoors I was not comfortable leaving it around where my daughter could play with it.

That said, when these guys start doing XML triples/quads I'll probably get suckered in again

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I had a very sought after triple and sent it back not because it was too bright rather not bright enough (IMO) to be worth the money (I don't doubt it put out close to 1000 lumens however without a hotspot it didn't look very bright to me when used in an area that had some ambient light) . It got very hot very fast and due to the lack of a hotspot it actually looked dimmer to me than some drop ins with far less output. Pure flood is only good at very short distance in pitch dark from my experience. I am a flood fan but I found I do like a hotspot to direct light to a particular spot in a room or the forest.

Of course some folks may be selling now to build a nest egg for purchasing triple XM-L's

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I thought triples and quads looked cool but this thread made me realize I will probably never buy one.

I have quads & triples from all our top makers and im also positive its the floody factor. I relate it to camera megapixels... everybody wants the camera with the most megapixels but most dont understand the tradeoff with cramming that many pixels onto a small chip.. as you get bragging rights with your 1600 lumen p60 sized light, there is a tradeoff to cramming that many diodez in a small head.. and that tradeoff is throw.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I think the relatively strong WTS sections of CPF help to reinforce this. We know that we can try interesting stuff out and then resell it without taking too much of a loss. I've been able to try a lot of lights that I wouldn't have been able to afford if I wasn't able to play a little catch and release.

Right now, I've got a few multi-emitter set-ups that I do not plan on selling.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

Z-Tab said:

I think the relatively strong WTS sections of CPF help to reinforce this. We know that we can try interesting stuff out and then resell it without taking too much of a loss. I've been able to try a lot of lights that I wouldn't have been able to afford if I wasn't able to play a little catch and release.

Right now, I've got a few multi-emitter set-ups that I do not plan on selling.

Click to expand...

I agree with that too. Furthermore even though I appreciate a good throw more than anything, I have a neutral triple or two that you'd have to pry from my cold dead hands..

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

To add on to the above excellent comments, I think no one mentioned heat. Once you get heat into the system, efficiency goes down, so sort of walk forwards 4 steps but backwards 1 step.

Besides, one can resell it after trying out, everyone likes pocket rockets.....as long as there is demand. Also besides those XM-Ls P60 are really cheap and driven at about 3A do a great job also.

Solarforce L2m, you can do lego with it, just below 100mm length, drop in a XM-L, alu foil + HS compound, cheapo trustfire flame unprotected 16430, you can do near 2.5A for 30s. IMR 16430 will be safer to do longer periods till heat saturation.

BTW, the thread start date is like right just before XM-L era?

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

Another reason is that luxrc updated the driver that Oveready use in the newer version so that it doesn't have the pre-flash and the time intervals between the different levels is less.

I assume some people wanted to sell their earlier versions to buy this updated one.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

even a cheap XR-E based light puts out a ton more lux, and these big tripples and quads don't have the lux at distance to really impress.

It really depends on why you buy the light in the first place.

Click to expand...

Yes. For myself, the practical "street" reason trumps all: what matters is how much the guy hiding in the shadows gets impressed with how quickly he is seen and visually fouled up within reasonable threat distances, not the brightness of the white wall over yonder. But then, that's just me. To each his (or her) own.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

recDNA said:

Of course some folks may be selling now to build a nest egg for purchasing triple XM-L's

Click to expand...

Yes... Triple XM-Ls... Someone needs to release triple XM-L PCBs 20mm or smaller in diameter!!! Fun stuff!

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

shao.fu.tzer said:

Yes... Triple XM-Ls... Someone needs to release triple XM-L PCBs 20mm or smaller in diameter!!! Fun stuff!

Click to expand...

You won't be over-driving them ! That's a lot of heat to pull out through 20mm or less.

Re: What's up with all the Quad & Triple XP-G drop ins WTS immediately after purchase

I think the comments above are pretty accurate, the big quads and triples are a love them or hate them affair. I also own most, if not all of the big name ones and they do what they say they can, which is run bright, hot, and not so long on high.

The other piece that I think that comes into play here is the total cost factor of these rigs. It's not just the light engine, but the bored out tube, the cryos cooling bezel, switches that can handle the amps, batteries. These become $500+ lights in a real hurry!! And if you bought single level one, thats $500 for 5 minutes of max burst runtime... not a huge return on the investment, whereas a close to that price McGizmo Mule gives you much more flexibility vs. the cost.

But as also said above, at night with very little ambient light, they WILL light the whole yard/campsite like it was daytime, it's an awesome effect!! I've also found the oveready triple to be the ideal EDC package for a number of reasons, but mostly because of the three levels and seamless flood. It's not the only light I carry, but it's the one that lights the whole joint when I need it to.

Me? I like the little suckers, so mine are staying.