PeteBroccolo
Enlightened
I have posted elsewhere about my simple modifications (chunk of garden hose for the 3 C, piece of foam pipe insulation for the 3 D) to my lights, but here is another point:
- I left both lights in my patrol car last night, so they spent about 10 hours in a parked, no-engine-running-so-no-heater-working, car during - 30 C weather, until I brought them inside to show to my partner while I demonstrated the GL3R pass-around light to her.
The 3 D was MUCH brighter initially than the 3 C, at least until the 3 C warmed up. Some of that COULD be the age of the 123A cells and the amount of burn time on the bulb in the 3 C. However, I attribute the greatest difference due to that the Brightstar is a plastic body, and the Mag aluminum, and that the Brightstar had the thick foam spacer as opposed to the slim-wall rubber garden hose spacer used in the Mag, so that the lithium cells were better insulated from the cold in the Brightstar.
Given the lighter weight, better insulation for the cells, the less-cold feel on my hand from the plastic body, the inexpensiveness of the foam spacer and bulb, that it has an aluminum reflector, I think my Brightstar ends up being an EXCELLENT poor-man's hand-held lighting tool.
Since my Brightstar was issued to me, the cost was right - the bulbs and foam were only about $2.25 Canadian, and Battery Station batteries are about $6 Canadian. Now, if flashlightlens.com only had 49 mm UCL...hmmmmmm.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
- I left both lights in my patrol car last night, so they spent about 10 hours in a parked, no-engine-running-so-no-heater-working, car during - 30 C weather, until I brought them inside to show to my partner while I demonstrated the GL3R pass-around light to her.
The 3 D was MUCH brighter initially than the 3 C, at least until the 3 C warmed up. Some of that COULD be the age of the 123A cells and the amount of burn time on the bulb in the 3 C. However, I attribute the greatest difference due to that the Brightstar is a plastic body, and the Mag aluminum, and that the Brightstar had the thick foam spacer as opposed to the slim-wall rubber garden hose spacer used in the Mag, so that the lithium cells were better insulated from the cold in the Brightstar.
Given the lighter weight, better insulation for the cells, the less-cold feel on my hand from the plastic body, the inexpensiveness of the foam spacer and bulb, that it has an aluminum reflector, I think my Brightstar ends up being an EXCELLENT poor-man's hand-held lighting tool.
Since my Brightstar was issued to me, the cost was right - the bulbs and foam were only about $2.25 Canadian, and Battery Station batteries are about $6 Canadian. Now, if flashlightlens.com only had 49 mm UCL...hmmmmmm.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
