Saved by the E1E

I've been EDC'ing a light ever since a friend taught me it was a good idea to carry a Maglite Solitaire on my keychain more than 5 years ago. The little AAA light is a great idea, with a not-so-great beam. There are more times when I simply don't use it because the beam is inadequate, than when I do. I figured it was better than nothing.

In search of the ultimate answer to the Solitaire, I came across the E1E six months ago and ordered it despite considerable difficulty (I'm halfway round the other side of the world). It replaced the Mag as my EDC light immediately.

A few weeks ago there was a thunderstorm, and for some strange reason, when it started raining, I had a really strong feeling that I should go and grab the E1E, which I did.. put it on my keyboard. Never done this before, no matter how heavily it's rained.

Fifteen minutes later, a lightning bolt hit so hard it went straight through my APC BackUPS Pro 650 (uninterruptible power supply with multistage surge suppression), frying computing and non-computing equipment and sending the UPS into emergency shutdown. My lights are cabled to the UPS as well, and naturally, all of them went out. The rest of the house was left in complete darkness as well, not spared by the lightning bolt. It took us around half an hour to get power restored, and in the meantime, the tiny E1E out-shone and out-threw every other light in the house. I can tell you there is something truly wonderful about the light, in pitch blackness, it is more than enough light to see by, and work on electrical panels. The only regret I had was that my 6P would arrive just 48 hours too late to be of use.

Days later, I was ordering another E1E for a family member who was truly impressed by the size-to-brightness ratio of the light, enough to put down the money for the light without thinking twice. My E1E's bulb also quit a few days later, so I was trawling the Net in search of LED head information since I use the E1E regularly - computer innards are dark places. And what better place to obtain the real lowdown on the KL1 LED than the Source: CandlePowerForums. Incidentally, the guy who sold me the E1E, 6P and KL1 head is a CPF member as well. Thanks dude /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Since then, I've ordered more and more lights and I'm now working on reading the older posts on CPF. I'm now working on modifying my 4D mag.. will share the results when it's done. I should have seen it coming, as a kid I loved playing with aluminium foil, lights, wires, and batteries. I still remember when I got my first battery holder something like 18 years ago. I never did imagine that one day it would be more than aluminium foil and PR-type 3V bulbs - it'd be 11-axis CNC machined aircraft aluminium with HA3 finish and 65 lumen P60 lamps or regulated 1W LEDs..

I've been truly impressed by both the technical knowhow as well as the quality of the discussions on this forum - the CPF community is one of the rare, rare few online communities with this kind of civility, generosity, expertise and helpfulness. I've only run into one other in all my years online and that place is no longer what it used to be. I've learned an incredible amount by reading and I figured I should thank you guys for it.

Oh and BTW, my wallet hates my newfound interest in lights.. I comfort it by saying that it's cheaper than computer parts - I actually spend LESS by switching to lights, and that in itself is a great help /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Welcome to CPF KL1! I'm sure you will find heaps of helpful suggetions here.... reading your "case study", I'm really jealous that I have so many lights but have never had a chance to really try them out.... Sometimes I wonder if I will ever use my 123A's before their 10 year lives are over!! Damn CLP, the power is too reliable here!! Having said that, does anyone know that HK airport lost power for an hour??!

What you really need to go with your E1e is one of these & I just happen to have one for sale here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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maverick said:
Welcome to CPF KL1! I'm sure you will find heaps of helpful suggetions here.... reading your "case study", I'm really jealous that I have so many lights but have never had a chance to really try them out.... Sometimes I wonder if I will ever use my 123A's before their 10 year lives are over!! Damn CLP, the power is too reliable here!! Having said that, does anyone know that HK airport lost power for an hour??!

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Hope you weren't in the air then Don /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Welcome to CPF!

GregR

Another greetings to you, KL1. Nice, entertaining, story for your introductory post. Be back soon.

Hey maverick, come to dominican republic, you will find a lot of opportunities to test yout lights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif...
i can't pay a single cent for an incandescent light, because their short runtime. i'm getting right now, 6 dayly hours with power, the others, usualy at night, i'm in total darkness /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif. that's why i found this new interesting hobbie, that it's also usefull.

BTW, last night, i was following some firetrucks to se what was happening. it was a car accident, at 2:00 am. i took my PM6 LED and a TT3C, to see the whole accident, and i was surprised that everyone was looking at me . the fireman that was trying to help the people inside the car, had to ask me for help. he had the most cheap light i ever seen /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif (at first, i was thinking it was a lighter), and was the only light they had. another one, was trying to see with te light emited by his cellphone screen. they where amazed with the brightness and the whiteness of the PM6 (LED) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif.

So Boris, you are the hero for the day har? Congrats!

I have yet to encounter any power failure that see my lights in action but i always visit this island north-east of Singapore to play with my flashlights. It is rural amidst modern Singapore and it is pitch dark at night unless a full moon is there.

Welcome to CPF, KevinL1, and why dontcha stay awhile!

I recently got my KL1 back from Chop, with a lovely TV0J installed. Now instead of sickly green and around 400 lux (at 3ft), it punches out about 1000 lux in a nice warm white.

Welcome again,
daloosh

Thanks for the warm welcome guys /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I think I'll be staying more than awhile, I think I'm already addicted. Must have daily dose of lights. One week without my E1E (no bulb) and I'm already feeling the withdrawal symptoms. *shudder*

That custom LED head sure is pretty.. some day, some day. I'm working on buying my way up the scale one light at a time. Just yesterday, the E1E seemed almost too much to pay for a light. I still dare not look at the M6.. or more like the 10X. (10X are easier to feed). Just today I had someone trying to fend me off as I was showing him the Surefire catalog: "don't tempt me!!" Yeah, coming from the guy who bought not just one, but FIVE Nitrolon G2s. I have no idea what he wants to do with them all.

It's good to have a light when you need it. I figure that your EDC light will see the most use since it is the one that is most likely to be nearest you when things happen and therefore the one you will reach for first. I definitely know that if the lights go out again, first light I'll grab is the E1E, and if necessary, use it to find other lights.

Well fortunately it was only the lights inside the passenger terminal that went out. All the runway lights were still operational and so was the control tower. I wasn't flying anyway! Argh I'm finding that my desire to test out my lights has "forced" me into considering one of the following 2 actions:

1) Move to the Dominican Republic (as Boris suggested)
2) Sabotage my local power station

All other suggestions are welcome! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

I carry a L4 digital lumamax as My EDC, I too had a very hard time justifying the cost but about 3 weeks ago (and about a week after I got the light) We had a major storm come though and knock out the power at my place of work. They made fun of that little light up till that day! Was pitch black and I had the only light in the manufacturing area, When We moved to a safer area they had 2D maglights for illumination and My L4 put them to shame ! Just like your E1E my light proved it's self by a trial-by-fire test!
If I recall a KL4 head will fit onto a E1E body but at 5 watts that will run down quick but just think of the light output from sutch a little guy!

My E1e provided temporary 'mood lighting' /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif for diners at a 5 star restaurant I was at when the lights went out during a storm. I killed two birds with one stone: Not only did I assist the wait staff in finding candles and prevent any panic in the pitch darkness, but I also legitimised the cost of the little fella in the eyes of my girlfriend /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

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lightemup said:
My E1e provided temporary 'mood lighting' /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif for diners at a 5 star restaurant I was at when the lights went out during a storm. I killed two birds with one stone: Not only did I assist the wait staff in finding candles and prevent any panic in the pitch darkness, but I also legitimised the cost of the little fella in the eyes of my girlfriend /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

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As long as you can afford to take your girlfriend to a 5 star restaurant for diner I'd ask her not to bother about you buying a light even in this price range. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Just take care you're not buying too much lights, so you can only take her to McDonalds in the end.

Chrisse

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maverick said:
Well fortunately it was only the lights inside the passenger terminal that went out. All the runway lights were still operational and so was the control tower. I wasn't flying anyway! Argh I'm finding that my desire to test out my lights has "forced" me into considering one of the following 2 actions:

1) Move to the Dominican Republic (as Boris suggested)
2) Sabotage my local power station

All other suggestions are welcome! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

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Wait for night to fall, maybe around 4AM. Draw curtains, shut windows, hide under blanket or in bathroom, then take some nice beamshots I am working on a few shots from my admittedly tiny collection of lights.

My KL1 LED head arrived today, just in time to accompany me into a dusty, dirty, foul false ceiling that a client wanted some cable run through. The KL1 is just awesome compared to the MN01, it instantly justifies every cent of the pricetag. No green/blue/purple tinting, at least none that I can see. Now I understand all the talk about the L4 LumaMax and how LEDs seem more dazzling than incandescents. The perfect WHITE beam from the Luxeon HD emitter is just.. awesome. Color rendition is A-OK. I just had the opportunity to gash a finger on a sharp edge (my carelessness) and light it up with the KL1. Blood looks real red, same as daylight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I've learned to love regulated lights too, I don't have to worry about the color of the bulb, or whether the batteries are performing at their full potential, and I can use cheapo cells or cells that will no longer light an incan without worrying too much. Frankly, I can't recall the last time I was ECSTATIC about receiving a package in the mail either.. but today was different.

The MN01 needs all the help it can get; all of it. The day Surefire decides to make the E1e LumaMax (think E1e+KL1 with matching serial from the factory), the MN01 will be forced into early retirement. It's a very nice incan with a big hotspot and lots of throw (now I understand why LED owners feel their lights are more flood than throw), but still. Not to say I don't love incans any more, that's what my 6P is for.

I am also working on a 4D Mag conversion once my Mag gets back - gonna strap a P60 lamp and UCL glass to it and see how far I get. I'll post results in a separate thread when the Mag returns. Energizer is currently tearing it apart - they'll have to, two of the D cells are so badly corroded inside it will take a LOT of work to get them out.

[ QUOTE ]
Draco_Americanus said:
If I recall a KL4 head will fit onto a E1E body but at 5 watts that will run down quick but just think of the light output from sutch a little guy!

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Hi Draco,

I once borrowed my friend's KL4 head from his L4 and fitted it on my E1e for a test. Can't measure lumens but I did a one hour test from the E1e and it pulled through easily. This package was thought up by Tactical Warehouse who initially sold the light as a TW4 but had now discontinued the sales.

In this package, the KL4 was underpowered right from the beginning and instead of spoiling the KL4, it was a lot more efficient in not producing heat and maximizing all the current from the battery to run the LED.

The KL4 on the E1e is of course not as bright as the L4 but it is definitely brighter than the KL1 on the E1e. Run time is about the same. The KL4 I had on my E1e clocked out to about 1 hr 15 mins before the light starts to flicker and retire into moon mode.

BEAMSHOTS!





Forgive the lack of a test target, just use the lines on the wall as a guideline. As you can already see, the MN01 has one single bright hotspot, the KL1 does a very admirable job of floodlighting the area, and the P60 just lights up and blows everything away. But what they say about incans is true, the MN01 has a longer throw, the beam is concentrated even far away, whereas the KL1 tends to spread. But that's all good, the KL1 is my closeup work light and EDC.

I'm thinking that this year's crop of KL1s with LS high dome emitters aren't just 16 lumens as touted by Surefire.. my own personal extremely unscientific eyeball lightmeter says 20+ lumens. It's nice to see a light that delivers so much more /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've now got an E1e, E2E, L4 and now E2d /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif the only thing i'm lacking now is the KL1. Sounds like the 'new school' Kl1 is the one to go for! Great pics Kevin thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Chrisse, you're actually not too far off the mark /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I took her out for something really special for her 21st birthday, and of course it decided to pour and storm. In reflection they can't have been 5 star, at least by CPF standards: imagine any establishment with no torches! It was a good experience (she loved it), but really there's better things to be draining ones credit cards on ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif I think we all know where this is going /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif