Blaster Info

I'd like to hear from ElektroLumen "Blaster" owners on the following:
*beam
*output
*battery life
*class of Luxeon (1,2,3)
*fitting items from NiteIze on it

chiphead

i recently sold my Blaster, but after owning it for 8 months, i can tell you the following:
the beam is very nice. it was a very warm tinted luxeon with a very slight green in it (note: all luxeons i've received from Wayne had a warm tint). it is a spot type of beam, but used @ a distance the beam spreads very nicely. it can also be used stood on its tail to illuminate a room, with the head on or in candle mode.
it threw very far for a 1watt luxeon. on fresh batteries it out-threw my Princeton Tec Tec40 (PT40) quite noticeably.
the battery life is incredible. in fact, it is my single favorite flashlight on the planet for battery lifeerformance ratio. i can't give an exact runtime, 'cause i never ran out a pair of batteries. not even close. i changed them once to impress some friends camping, but it was unnecessary for any other reason.
the luxeon was a 1watt.

i'm not familiar with Nite Ize accessories, especially for a 3D or D-to-3AA cell sized light.

The beauty is in the simplicity of the design. It's built like a rock and will pretty much last forever. My Blaster II (modded with a 3W LS and direct drive) is one light I don't think I'll ever part with. Pop in 3 D cells and this thing runs for hours and hours!

I have a Hyper-Blaster 1R with a Luxeon III. The beam is very tight and very white. It's definitely more of a spot than a flood. I have never run out a set of batteries; I usually change them before they fail, but I tend to believe the 8-hour regulated runtime claim. I've come fairly close to that with no dimming.

The Hyper-Blaster 1R is also a nice little package, very compact for a 2D.

It's one of my favorite lights.

I have a Blaster 3P, with a Luxeon III powered by 3 D-Cells. The beam is a smooth spot beam with virtually no side spill. It is fairly round, but there is another very faint diamond shape spot around the hotspot (a reflection of the die of the LED?). It is exactly a perfect beam, but is much better than that of a Mag-Lite or other typical incandescant. The Luxeon III is very bright; it is maybe as bright as a 4 or 5 cell Mag-Lite. The optics makes the light appear brighter than a similar light with reflector, because there is no side spill. The tint is slightly yellow-green, but this is only noticeable when compared to a bluish Luxeon or 5mm LED.

Battery life is simply icredible. My guess is that the 3P will run 12+ hours at near maximum brightness, and will continue to provide useable light for at least 2 or 3 days after. I am still on the first set of batteries, and have used the light roughly 12 hours, and it appears as bright as it was initially when compared to other lights.

I've got one of each of the Hyperblasters, 3D, 2D, and 3AA. . . these all have the Lux III, the standard now at EL, IIRC. The 3D version is very bright and has very respectable throw. Elektrolumens lights seem to me to always have some good throw vs. other LED's like SF's L4 (which is admittedly designed as more of a flood). The 2D is not quite as bright, as you'd expect, but still vastly superior to any 2 or 3 (or probably 4!) D cell maglites, and has a very nice feel. The small 1 D size Blaster uses a 3AA to D size adapter. . . the brightness on this little light is the same as the 3D version, very impressive! And not unexpected, I guess, since it operates at the same voltage. But the adapter is the weak point in this light, I think. . . there are some tiny, delicate pin-like projections that look as if they could easily be broken off. In addition, when loading my batteries for the first time, I "popped" off the bottom of the adapter. EL's new design 3AA-D adapters have supposedly fixed this problem, and I bought a few "extras" but haven't tried 'em out. All of my HyperBlasters have very white colored outputs, better than some of my older Surefire LED's and my ARC LSL.

Unfortunately I can't speak to much as to battery life. . . I haven't run out my first set in each light yet. I guess that sort of speaks for itself (I got them in July 04). But I tend to use the lights sparingly. The momentary on feature on the switch is good for this and is a "must have" feature for me (EL's new XM-3 also has it, my EL 4D TriStar does not, and EL's future Zorch apparently will not either, precluding it from my stable).

Overall, I really like ElektroLumens lights and highly recommend them. Looks like they may become more "available" in the future too, as Wayne has apparently acquired a manufacturing partner. My new XM-3 rocks!

How does the XM-3 compare to the 2D and 3AA Hyperblasters? Do you know how the Hyperblasters compare to the FT-3C?

[ QUOTE ]
chiphead said:
I'd like to hear from ElektroLumen "Blaster" owners on the following:
*beam
*output
*battery life
*class of Luxeon (1,2,3)
*fitting items from NiteIze on it

chiphead

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IMO...

Beam: mediocre (C-). Practically useless sidespill, and no smoothness in the beam. Lots of annoying artifacts visible at close range. This is a long range beam....I don't find it handy for short range at all. If throw is all one cares about, it will be fine then.

Output: very good (B+). Bright, wide hotspot that throws well.

Battery life: Top notch. (A+) The 3P goes on forever even with dead batteries. Still provides very useful throw light even with "dead" batteries.

Class of luxeon: typically, Lux III. Older models came with Lux I, and IIRC one model with a Lux V. All of my Lux III Blasters have good to very good tint, so I'll call the class of luxeon very good, (B+)

You didn't ask about fit/finish, but I feel its important...

Fit and finish are all very good on my Blasters. Better than most flashlights, but a few notches below the best (Surefire for example). Finish is relatively evenly applied, and the parts tend to fit well (except in some cases loose threads).

Would I recommend the Blaster? Yes. For the price, they are good.

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Brooks said:
How does the XM-3 compare to the 2D and 3AA Hyperblasters? Do you know how the Hyperblasters compare to the FT-3C?

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The XM-3 is dimmer than Blasters (Hyper-Blaster and 3P for example). But, it also has a much better beam--smooth beam that offers a good balance of spill and throw. Only minor artifacts in the spot. Unless one expects Surefire quality brightness:size ratio from a 2AA light (at the expense of less than 30 minute runtime), I don't see how one can knock the XM3 for its brightness. The XM3 gives a good balance of runtime and brightness given its battery capacity.


Fit/finish of the XM-3 is NOT as good as the blaster.

Tint appears to be a little worst on the XM3, although its still good to very good tint.

Runtime of the XM-3 is expected to be only (less) than 2 hours.

Oh yeah, runtime.

I've tested an FT-3C out to 67 hours and was getting usable output for the length of the test. Then, it basically kicked

I expect that the Blaster 3P runs even much longer...since Ds hold more capacity.

Let me define usable output...I considered output usable as long as it was bright enough to be able to walk in a dark room without bumping into things. So, by the end of my test the output was low (probably 1 lumen), but still bright enough to navigate with in darkness.

The actual "bright" phase of the FT3C where it threw really well lasted 16 hours. But, even at 40 hours it was still giving off respectable light, I'm guessing 8-12 lumens. I figure the Blaster 3P can exceed these numbers.

The Blasters also have the advantage of being very easy to mod. Any idiot can do it, in fact even I can do it (!)
I changed the led in my Blaster IV, added a regulation circuit, extra o rings, put in a McR reflector, a ucl and built a two stage switch in the tailcap...

Thanks fellas! I'm trying to manage the logistics of all batteries. I've got to many require CR123, so I'm trying ti balance out things with AA and Ds'. I've learned the hardway not to use a CR123 driven unit to changing a flat.

chiphead

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kongfuchicken said:
The Blasters also have the advantage of being very easy to mod. Any idiot can do it, in fact even I can do it (!)
I changed the led in my Blaster IV, added a regulation circuit, extra o rings, put in a McR reflector, a ucl and built a two stage switch in the tailcap...

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Hold on just one minute, KFC. You mean I've been grinding around on PRs, SO17s and SO27s, chewing on Bayer aspirin and you've got this all figured out?

I ended up changing the screws that hold the star to the sink and still could not quite get the reflectors deep enough. Do you have to pop the emitter off of the star and use an Arctic product to adhere it?

When I go to the Shoppe looking for McR 38, it is said to be pre-production. Can they be had or are you using the McR 27?

I've got a IV and a V that I would like to mod. Maybe you could start a thread on how to do it?

BOT the Blaster IV and Blaster V have really cool knurling. The Blaster V has a very nice, white 5W but has the usual 30mm induced grill with mild donut hole. My Blaster IV has a painful RB 5W with grill but, strangely, no donut hole.

Nope nope nope, I hand center the reflector, hold it with some cardboard spacers while I glue it the head with two drops of soft epoxy. It holds really good and if you want to remove it later, you can easily break it away without damaging anything.
You don't need to change the screws, you just need to shave some al off the base of the reflector base so that it goes to the right place.
Now that I know the focus of the reflector, the Pr and McR 27 are a five minutes of work to install but the McR38 was a giant blazing pain in the patella (took me almost a month to finsh)! You need to bore the head out and file the reflector to make it fit and since I don't have any electrical tools, I did everything with a sak, my hands and brain (or whatever I should call that small nut that keeps saying "Give it up! Feed me! Scratch your..." in my head). The 30mm optics was 35mm wide and the McR38 needs to loose quite some weight to squeeze in there. Also, with that reflector, you'll need to use the bare emitter if you want to have space for the lens to fit even without o'rings...
Did I mention it was a pain?
Now the McR 27 still makes a donut hole on a 5W but it's much much better than what the 30mm optics gives and you have to choice to slightly defocus it a bit at the cost of some throw.
I'll try to write up something and get my camera back but I'm right on the midterm season and I can't promess anything in the next week.

I see.

Thanks for the description.

Lots more to learn.

Good luck on your mids!

Just got my XM-3 today and all I can say is; Oh baby this thing is sweet. I've notice that there's is a slight greenish tint to the beam. Is this a common charecteristic of Luxeon-3 emmiters? With this thing I can retire my 6P to the tool box. My current plans are still to order a Blaster.

chiphead

[ QUOTE ]
chiphead said:
Just got my XM-3 today and all I can say is; Oh baby this thing is sweet. I've notice that there's is a slight greenish tint to the beam. Is this a common charecteristic of Luxeon-3 emmiters? With this thing I can retire my 6P to the tool box. My current plans are still to order a Blaster.

chiphead

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No, most Lux III are relatively white.

You might have lost the luxeon lottery.

Or...perhaps tint is more noticable when LEDs are under-driven?

I've noticed that my FT-3Cs appears to change tint as the batteries wear down....from white-blue (like an HID) with full power batteries to more bluish with dead batteries.