ram instument led

while looking at some terralux reviews i saw this little gem. the ram instrument led conversion. http://www.themartialist.com/pecom/ramled.htm it looks like the opalec. now i'm just wondering what are your thoughts on this. clone or rebrand?

Beats me. I sell them through Moteng and I don't know. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I have been testing this unit for a month or so.
It's a clone not a re-brand of the Opalec. As the review says it works very well. Does not have the low battery red LED like in the Opalec but that's no big deal.

Cant go wrong for the price.

Streak

streak: how's the battery life and reliability?

Watt4 so far its very good. No flicker, put in a set of flat AA batteries and still gives more than enough light.

I have not done a full battery test yet.

Retail price is about $13 including the tailcap switch.

I have the LED kit by itself here as well as the LED kit/Tailcap Switch combo.

I did a review of the tailcap switch. These items aren't exactly bulletproof, but they work and they're inexpensive. I have both a tailcap switch and a TerraLux Kit installed on the 2AA Mini Maglite I carry in my shoulder bag for work. (I also sell the TerraLux Kits, which are brighter and more expensive than the RAM kits.)

Recently a customer bought one of the tailcap switch/LED combo kits from me, intending to use his 2AA Minimag mounted to a shotgun. He wrote to me to tell me he got a defective unit from the factory -- the RAM kit worked, but the LEDs were set crookedly in their housings, resulting in a beam that came out of the light at a slight angle. I had no such trouble with my own RAM kit (that's one of my personal lights in the review) but manufacturing variances like this probably happen fairly easily at such a low price point. QC remains the boondoggle of Chinese manufacturing, but it is getting better.

One other thing that deserves emphasis is the fact that the RAM LED kit is not focusable -- the beam comes out fixed. (The TerraLux kit, by contrast, can be focused from spot to flood after installation.)

can the kit be used without the tailcap switch? if so, does it turn on and off in the usual minimag way (by twisting) ?

Yes you can use the kit without the tailcap switch. It will then operate by twisting the head as usual.

It is not focusable like the Opalec. I found however that the beam of the Terralux, which is focusable is unusable, unless you have it on spot all of the time making the need for fcusability not necessary.

Streak,

Do you mean the beam is too diffused to offer much usable illumination unless focused tightly?

Hi Phil,
Yes pretty much. As you rotate the head and the light turns on you get the brightest spot. As you rotate further the beam gets very blotchy and diffuse to be of any use.

Dont get me wrong its a great product its just the fact that its focusable is not really a huge selling feature.

Sounds fair enough to me. Though I would think being able to focus it tighter than the RAM gives it an advantage over the RAM kit, as you're pretty much stuck with that beam no matter what.