Will W/A bulbs damage my Magcharger?

I just posted this in the groupbuy section, but thought I'd get more response here.

I am on order for a Magcharger, and am looking to join the group buy for W/A 01111 and 01160 bulbs for it. My understanding is that they are much brighter, but will result in less runtime. My question is, will the heat from these bulbs damage the Magcharger? I've seen one vote yes from Dano on the bulb pedestal. Anyone else with this setup care to share? I would like to run the 01160 as a full-time replacement bulb, i.e. runs of 45 mins at a time before recharging.

I am using a similar bulb in my MC - an Osram 20W bulb with 3,5A current draw (type HLX 64250). I did a runtime check on it once with a 45-50 minutes continous run. This caused no harm to my light. YMMV though...

Bjorn

Spectre, thanks. You got that runtime from the stock Mag batteries?

Those bulbs can melt the plastic reflector, I've heard. But there's a Carley aluminum reflector that won't melt.

paulr, I believe the Magcharger has an aluminum reflector and glass lens. Anyone know the measurement of the lens for UCL purposes?

Yes the MagCharger (at least mine) has a metal reflector (but is held in place by a plastic retainer) and a glass lens. The runtime was measured on stock batteries.

If you want to see the specs for the bulb I use do a search for HLX 64250 here:
http://catalog.myosram.com

Bjorn

i noticed some scorch on the socket of my mc with the 1160
it seems to be bakelite so probably wont hurt it anytime soon

What are the specs of the W/A 01111 and 01160 bulbs?
(Watt, Voltage, Current, lumen).

Bjorn

WA01111, 6V, 3.35A, 20.1W, 465 bulb lumens
WA01160, 5V, 3.45A, 17.25W, 327 bulb lumens

Note: running the WA01160 at 6V in the MC puts the bulb in a state of severe overdrive. While some have estimated 500 lumens output at 6V and around 3.5A, the rerating formulas are probably well past their safe extrapolation range at that power. The upside is that the WA01160 seems to be built quite robustly. A rated life of 550 hours is significantly longer than that of any other of the high output bulbs we're talking about.

Wilkey

Judging by these specs (and vs the stock bulb 175 lumens), wouldn't the 01111 be preferred over the 01160? Much brighter without being overdriven, so I'd think there'd be less heat as well. Does overdriving the 01160 really push it brighter than the 01111?

jtivat reports that the WA01160 is brighter than the WA01111. The WA01160 will definitely run hotter than the WA01111 as even run at spec, it is 0.1A higher. On the PS MC pack, it's probably around 6V, 3.6-3.75A.

Keep in mind, work done here by PaulW shows that the actual lumen output in a torch is about 60-65% or the bulb output. So, the 465 Lu WA01111 would be expected to make around 300 lumens. Still significantly more than the Mag bulb.

Wilkey

Anyone know what amps the Mag bulb pulls? Watts?

I did measure it once, I am sure I wrote down the result somewhere, but cant find them...
If I remember correctly it was 10-11Watts, with a current of 1.7A or so.

Bjorn

Hi!
Since I didnt find my measured results I measured the magcharger again:

MC HLX64250 bulb 3,20A 5,85V 18,7W (Supposed to be 20W 6V 480 lumen)

MC Original New type 1,35A 6,17V 8,3W (175 lumen according to mag web)

MC Original old type 1,70A 6,13V 10,4W

MC Original old type#2 1,65A 6,15V 10,1W

It surprised me that the new mag bulb is lower powered. Comparing the old and new type shows that the new bulb have a smaller and more compact filament which should give a tighter beam. This means it should have a brighter spot and more runtime (as they tell here) ), but probably not more light in total (lumens) compared to the older one.

Bjorn

Yes the WA01160 is brighter than the 01111 and I have been running for some time with no ill effects. I have done quite a few full on runtime test also. The 01160 will not run 45-50 minutes with the stock battery as it only gets 35 to 40 with the PS batteries. Also I would not recommend using the stock battery with this bulb as I don't believe it can handle the draw that the 01160 puts on it and you may damage the battery.

jtivat, I understand the PS batts having greater overall capacity, but why would they have a greater ability to provide a high current stream? Too high a drain can damage a nicad? I didn't know that. I thought it just brought the voltage and current down.

[ QUOTE ]
Phaserburn said:
jtivat, I understand the PS batts having greater overall capacity, but why would they have a greater ability to provide a high current stream? Too high a drain can damage a nicad? I didn't know that. I thought it just brought the voltage and current down.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had an older Mag battery and it died shortly after getting and using the 01160 (may have been its time) it also seems brighter with the PS batteries. I also no the PS are designed for a higher currant draw.

I didn't know they were designed for more current as well as more capacity; that is a major difference. Anyone know the numbers on this?

[ QUOTE ]
Phaserburn said:
I didn't know they were designed for more current as well as more capacity; that is a major difference. Anyone know the numbers on this?

[/ QUOTE ]

POWERSTREAM 1/2 D NiCADS

My WA 11110 and 01160 of course are much more powerful than the newer standard Magcharger bulb, but the Mag bulb beam contains a "hotspot within the hotspot" that is remarkably focused and concentrated and is superior in that respect to the brighter bulbs. In fact I was disappointed enough with the amorphous (though admittedly powerful) beams that I went back to the standard issue bright bulb which will burn for over two bright hours(after several charges) using Powerstreams.

Brightnorm

The powerstram cells look impressive. Who sells these 1/2D cells?

My original MC battery is made by moltech.

I found a specs page page here
If you look at the pdfs linked from the table it looks like all of them should handle a current of 1,5C fine. (I dont know which one are used in the MC pack though, maybe mag use a cheaper version not shown /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

Bjorn