Niteye Eye15 Owners

I recently got a Niteye Eye15 Flashlight. While in theory it has an infinitely variable magnetic ring, there are a dozen click stops (one off plus 11 brightness levels) that practically limit it to 11 brightness levels. Thats still pretty good but on my light the first four brightness levels after off all seem identical (and they are pretty bright) then there is a large jump at the fifth position and the rest get incrementally brighter as I would expect.

Is this normal for this light or is there something wrong with mine?

Thanks for your feedback

Short answer: your light is fine. I don't have the Eye15 but have/had the Eye 10 and many Jetbeam/Niteye, and Sunwayman IV mag control ring lights and most all (for several reasons) exhibit the same non-linear ramping effect that your experiencing, where most of the light seems balanced on the high end of the scale. Just one of the quirks of the design...

cyclesport said:

Short answer: your light is fine. I don't have the Eye15 but have/had the Eye 10 and many Jetbeam/Niteye, and Sunwayman IV mag control ring lights and most all (for several reasons) exhibit the same non-linear ramping effect that your experiencing, where most of the light seems balanced on the high end of the scale. Just one of the quirks of the design...

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Unfortunately I'm not describing simple non linear brightness adjustments (which I am familiar with and don't mind). I'm talking about 4 of 11 settings producing the same brightness. I have an Eye10 and it doesent behave this way. I have a V10r and a v11r and they don't behave this way. I have an RRT-01 and it doesn't behave this way. I had an SRT3 and it didn't behave this way.

So I'd appreciate feedback from folks that own or have owned an Eye15 and can comment on their lights behaviour.

thanks!

I have an EYE10 which I opened up.

The detentes in the ring aren't electronic. Instead they're drilled into the inside of the ring. A tiny ball bearing with a spring then runs into and out of the holes.

I haven't tried it myself, but I suspect you can remove some or all of the detentes by filling the holes in with epoxy resin. If it works it should then function as a true infinitely variable light like the Jetbeam RRT-01.

Fireclaw18 said:

I have an EYE10 which I opened up.

The detentes in the ring aren't electronic. Instead they're drilled into the inside of the ring. A tiny ball bearing with a spring then runs into and out of the holes.

I haven't tried it myself, but I suspect you can remove some or all of the detentes by filling the holes in with epoxy resin. If it works it should then function as a true infinitely variable light like the Jetbeam RRT-01.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback. It's not really the detents that are bothering me. Eleven settings is great. It's just that four of them seem identical which doesent seem right. I don't have an integration sphere but do have a LUX meter. I'll try and measure the LUX at each setting over the weekend but to the eye they seem identical.

jimboutilier said:

Thanks for your feedback. It's not really the detents that are bothering me. Eleven settings is great. It's just that four of them seem identical which doesent seem right. I don't have an integration sphere but do have a LUX meter. I'll try and measure the LUX at each setting over the weekend but to the eye they seem identical.

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I broke out the LUX meter last night and sure enough the first four settings have identical output with a big jump on the fifth. Pretty much what my eyes were telling me. I have come across an old review that shows and measures similar behaviors so I guess my light is not defective and this is normal for this light.

While its it's a minor disappointment that there are not as many brightness levels as I hoped, I really like the light overall. Thanks for everyones feedback.

Jim,

It's a shame to read of the UI having this imperfection as I have been considering this light as one of the few that have an OFF/Standby on the same ring with the brightnesses. I have a V20C and it leaves something to be desired as well in terms of linearity and length of travel of the control ring. Which is sad considering how beautifully the V11/V20A lights seem to operate from those I've seen or owned. Except those all lack the standby on the ring.

Some questions I have:

Where is the strobe located? Hopefully it can be avoided in normal use and invoked only when needed...

About how dim would you say the 4 low settings are on this light? Ideally I'd like about .5 lumen but I'm gathering it's quiet a bit brighter than that?

Also does it look like it could be swapped to a Nichia 219 without impossibly complicated gyrations?

Thank you!

I am hoping that Fireclaw18 will share how he took apart the Eye10 as I would like to get rid of most of the detents. I like detents only at strategic locations that correspond to 0, 50, 100 % of output.

Regards

lyyyghtey said:

Jim,

It's a shame to read of the UI having this imperfection as I have been considering this light as one of the few that have an OFF/Standby on the same ring with the brightnesses. I have a V20C and it leaves something to be desired as well in terms of linearity and length of travel of the control ring. Which is sad considering how beautifully the V11/V20A lights seem to operate from those I've seen or owned. Except those all lack the standby on the ring.

Some questions I have:

Where is the strobe located? Hopefully it can be avoided in normal use and invoked only when needed...

About how dim would you say the 4 low settings are on this light? Ideally I'd like about .5 lumen but I'm gathering it's quiet a bit brighter than that?

Also does it look like it could be swapped to a Nichia 219 without impossibly complicated gyrations?

Thank you!

Click to expand...

The strobe is hidden taking a few quick bright-dim cycles to engage. Highly unlikely to happen accidentally.

The dimmest setting is rated at 5 lumens (not 0.5lm). Not startling but a bit bright for middle of the night dark adjusted sight use.

I don't mod my lights myself but I've had several done by Vinh over in the modders forum and he says an LED swap is not a problem. Such a mod will considerably reduce output across the board unless you get a current boost as well. It will likely drop from 500lm with the stock XML to closer to 200lm for a 219A or 300lm for a 219B.

MY said:

I am hoping that Fireclaw18 will share how he took apart the Eye10 as I would like to get rid of most of the detents. I like detents only at strategic locations that correspond to 0, 50, 100 % of output.

Regards

Click to expand...

Here's how to disassemble the Niteye EYE10:

1. Unscrew the stainless steel bezel. Mine came with no threadlocker on the bezel, but if you do find threadlocker, use a strap wrench or rubber jawed pliers. If you're like me and don't own either you can make simple rubber jawed pliers by cutting out strips of rubber indoor stairway grip tape and attaching it to the jaws of some regular pliers. Place one pliers on the bezel and the second pliers on the part of the head ABOVE the ring and turn to unscrew and remove the bezel and lens.

2. With the bezel off, remove the reflector. It should fall right out.

3. Remove the plastic centering disk over the star, then desolder the leads to the star.

4. On the inside of the head, use a very small phillips screwdriver to unscrew the driver retaining screw. The type of screwdriver used for glasses repair works.

5. Remove the contact plate and the driver circuitboard from the head of the light. They should lift out once the retaining screw is removed.

6. Unscrew and remove the top section of the head. The remainder of the head consists of 3 sections: The top portion above the ring, the ring, and the bottom portion below the ring. the top and bottom portions screw into each other below the ring. They even have an o-ring for waterproofness. This join is threadlocked, so you're definitely going to need the rubber jawed pliers or strap wrench described in step 1.

7. You should now be able to lift the ring out. Be very careful not to lose the very tiny ball bearing and spring on the side of the ring that triggers the detentes.

Suggested modifications:
(a) Notice the row of holes in the side of one of the head sections next to the ring. The ball bearing goes into those holes triggering the detentes. If you want fewer detentes, use soap and water and clean out all the grease out of the detentes. Then fill in the detentes you don't want with some kind of hard glue or resin. Arctic Alumina might work, or maybe something stiffer and harder like Norland. I haven't tried this mod myself, but see no reason why it wouldn't work.

(b) Replace the stock aluminum star with a direct copper star (Noctigon, Sinkpad, or Illumination Supply brand), and your choice of emitter. I prefer 5,000k neutral tint XM-L2.

(c) Replace or augment the grease around the retaining ring. You can adjust the feel of the ring by using a different grease or adding a different grease underneath and around the sides of the ring when the light is disassembled.

WARNING: It is very important to follow the dis assembly steps described above in order. If you accidentally unscrew the top section of the head (above the ring) and the bottom section (below the ring) while the driver is in place you WILL DESTROY THE DRIVER!!! The twisting action will break the driver leads. Worse, the driver itself is sandwich of 2 boards with the leads soldered to the inside of one of them. It's virtually impossible to solder new leads on if you break the original ones.

These same instructions can also be used to disassemble the Jetbeam RRT-01 and TCR-01. They have the same internal setup.

jimboutilier said:

The strobe is hidden taking a few quick bright-dim cycles to engage. Highly unlikely to happen accidentally.

The dimmest setting is rated at 5 lumens (not 0.5lm). Not startling but a bit bright for middle of the night dark adjusted sight use.

I don't mod my lights myself but I've had several done by Vinh over in the modders forum and he says an LED swap is not a problem. Such a mod will considerably reduce output across the board unless you get a current boost as well. It will likely drop from 500lm with the stock XML to closer to 200lm for a 219A or 300lm for a 219B.

Click to expand...

Thank you Jim,

That hiddenness level for strobe sounds fine to me!

Yes I've had that experience of reduced output from swapping my V20C. Not only does the LED have considerably less output natively but I suspect the higher Vf may be reducing the current the driver is pushing through it. On the V20C it's still bright enough for my needs, and likely would be on the EYE15, but I'm not sure this would still be true on the EYE12? On the other hand, the output reduction would make the low end more palatable for me on the EYE15!

Since the EYE12 starts out at 1lm minimum, a reduction to .5 or .6 that value would put it right in the butter zone for my needs.

I assume this Vf effect is also the reason for the difference in the lumen values you quoted for the 219A versus the 219B being a lot more than the expected 10%.

Mike

Fireclaw,

I for one will also be very grateful for the instructions you posted if and when I purchase one of these lights as the solution I'm looking for! I hope the EYE12 and EYE15 also follow the same construction. I would love to purchase a RRT-01 or an EYE10 (and may do so anyway for when I have to run unobtrusive) but those lights wouldn't be able to suffice as my main light since either would be way too short for my hands.

One more important question, one I have had trouble finding a concise answer for:

Do all three of these Niteye lights (EYE10, 12, and 15) share the RRT-01 UI feature of having a low-current standby at the low end of the control ring? I'm not too concerned whether or not there's a tailswitch as I almost never use the one on my V20C.

Thank you!

lyyyghtey said:

Thank you Jim,

That hiddenness level for strobe sounds fine to me!

Yes I've had that experience of reduced output from swapping my V20C. Not only does the LED have considerably less output natively but I suspect the higher Vf may be reducing the current the driver is pushing through it. On the V20C it's still bright enough for my needs, and likely would be on the EYE15, but I'm not sure this would still be true on the EYE12? On the other hand, the output reduction would make the low end more palatable for me on the EYE15!

Since the EYE12 starts out at 1lm minimum, a reduction to .5 or .6 that value would put it right in the butter zone for my needs.

I assume here this Vf effect is also the reason for the difference in the lumen values you quoted for the 219A versus the 219B being a lot more than the expected 10%.

Mike

Click to expand...

There are a number of reasons for the difference in output, the largest just being the effeciency of each LED. The original XML is the most efficient of the three and will have the highest output at a given current level. The 219A is the least efficient and the 219B is in the middle.

lyyyghtey said:

One more important question, one I have had trouble finding a concise answer for:

Do all three of these Niteye lights (EYE10, 12, and 15) share the RRT-01 UI feature of having a low-current standby at the low end of the control ring? I'm not too concerned whether or not there's a tailswitch as I almost never use the one on my V20C.

Thank you!

Click to expand...

All electronic switches require a system that has some parasitic drain. Magnetic rings are electronic switches so do require some parasitic drain. To avoid this some lights also have a mechanical tail cap switch like the V11R and there is no parasitic drain while the mechanical tail cap switch is off. Many modern lights with electronic switches have very low parasitic drain not much worse than the self discharge rates of batteries but not all lights are this good so you have to check the specs or tests.

jimboutilier said:

All electronic switches require a system that has some parasitic drain. Magnetic rings are electronic switches so do require some parasitic drain. To avoid this some lights also have a mechanical tail cap switch like the V11R and there is no parasitic drain while the mechanical tail cap switch is off. Many modern lights with electronic switches have very low parasitic drain not much worse than the self discharge rates of batteries but not all lights are this good so you have to check the specs or tests.

Click to expand...

Yes, and I find my V20C to be entirely satisfactory with regard to standby current. I have an original D10 from before the ramping bug fix, and that has about 1~2mA standby current over the long term. A 40-day-plus recharge cycle on an Eneloop even without usage is a bit steep for me, but not by much.

If the standby current were as much as 500 microamps I could easily tolerate it. I use my light so often that this level of drain would be totally negligible. And I hear most lights nowadays are significantly lower than this, like an order less.

So I'm basically just wondering if all three of these Niteye lights in this line (the EYE 10, 12, and 15) have the same UI incorporating the standby position. Do they all have the 11-detent brightness control also?


Thanks!

jimboutilier said:

The 219A is the least efficient and the 219B is in the middle.

Click to expand...

I had heard the 219B was approximately 10% more efficient than the 219A. Is the difference actually more than that? :naughty: :twothumbs

lyyyghtey said:

Yes, and I find my V20C to be entirely satisfactory with regard to standby current. I have an original D10 from before the ramping bug fix, and that has about 1~2mA standby current over the long term. A 40-day-plus recharge cycle on an Eneloop even without usage is a bit steep for me, but not by much.

If the standby current were as much as 500 microamps I could easily tolerate it. I use my light so often that this level of drain would be totally negligible. And I hear most lights nowadays are significantly lower than this, like an order less.

So I'm basically just wondering if all three of these Niteye lights in this line (the EYE 10, 12, and 15) have the same UI incorporating the standby position. Do they all have the 11-detent brightness control also?


Thanks!

Click to expand...

They all share a similar magnetic ring technology that has some parasitic drain. The detent count is different between the 15 and 10 (the 10 has one fewer) and I can't speak to the 12. The 10 also uses a circuit closer to the RRT-01 in that it's lowest settings are in the sub lumen range. The parasitic drain is fairly low in the 10 and 15 with my lights going months between recharges (and then not because they are getting dim but because I like to top up LiIon batteries every three months or so).

lyyyghtey said:

I had heard the 219B was approximately 10% more efficient than the 219A. Is the difference actually more than that? :naughty: :twothumbs

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I don't know the percentage difference but believe its 10-20%. Some design changes may allow the B to be pushed harder as well. I'm just going by modded lights I've seen with the A and B and see the B versions pushed more than that efficiency boost would account for.

jimboutilier said:

I don't know the percentage difference but believe its 10-20%. Some design changes may allow the B to be pushed harder as well. I'm just going by modded lights I've seen with the A and B and see the B versions pushed more than that efficiency boost would account for.

Click to expand...

Thank you, both of your posts sound quite promising. I will likely be in the running for one of these lights, probably the 12 as it is long enough for my hands while providing the sub-lumen goodness and a floodier beam. It sounds like I'll be needing to do the detent mod as well. Not that I think 10 or 11 levels aren't enough, even if some of them are the same, but rather I see myself spending too much time counting detents in an almost obsessive way instead of just turning the light up till it looks right.:shakehead But I'll have to try it to know!