Trip to Frys... YIPPEE!!!! and DRAT!!!!

Made the long (why so much traffic on Saturday?) trip across town to Frys. I want a bumber sticker that says "Is it a full moon, or do you always drive this bad?"

Anyhow, I got myself a Peli Super SabreLite module and am M6 module.

First up, the YIPPEE! The SSL module in my Stealthlight with NimH batts is NICE. It is a bigger spot of light than the standard module, and is pretty good even without resorting to Writeright or something!

Thanks to Alan L for the info on doing this!

Now for the DRAT!!! I looked at maybe 12 different packages of M6 bulbs, turning them this way and that, looking for the straightest one I could find. I thought I found it. REALLY I did!!!

The package must distort the view JUST enough. I got it out, and found it leaning to the side a bit. I tried it in my M6, and get a football shaped beam with the brightest area at one end. ARGH!!!

It is still usefull for sure, and I'm going to leave this module in the light until it blows (so I'll have a very straight one to put in then!).

So, one Homerun and one STRIKE! for this trip.

I've had that happen to me a few times too, so here's a trick to try for that mis-alignment of the bulb filament:

Look at the bulb filament closely in decent light and note the side that the filament is bent towards. Then, with the bent side upwards, Rap the bulb down on a hard surface-like a tabletop.
Gently,at first..-then just hard enough to jar the filament towards the center of the bulb-where it should be.

This little inertial force method has worked for me most of the time.

Good luck.

It isn't that the filament is crooked in respect to the bulb. It is that the bulb glass is crooked in respect to the screw in base.

It is one of the things some folks have found to dislike about the M6.

But it still makes a LOT of light, even if the beam isn't Perfect.

But I shall try what you say on some bulb or another!

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PlayboyJoeShmoe said:
It isn't that the filament is crooked in respect to the bulb. It is that the bulb glass is crooked in respect to the screw in base.


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Bummer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif -one of the joys of mass production. If it costs over a coupla bucks, Ida taken it back -if it wasn't across town, that is....

People have me given me strange looks at places like Radio Shack when I would hold a bulb pack up against the ceiling lights in the store-just trying to avoid getting a crooked bulb.

Glad you liked the Stealthlite 'mod' idea. I really think it makes it one of the better lights for AA NiMH's, only because I have problems with making reliable electrical contacts with a TEC 40. The beam is probably the whitest of any of my incandescents. Now if only Pelican would make a orange peel reflector for the SSL, it would really be great!