New Q-III is dimmer than 1W SI Luxeon?

Just received a brand-new Q-III via ebay, and am very dissapointed with the output. It simply isn't as bright as my 1 watt Sharper Image (also built by Nuwai) single-cell Luxeon. The Q-III has a tad more side spill, but doesn't put out as much light (either in the center of the beam or several degrees off-center).

I measured the Q-III's battery voltage (2.995 volts - essentially brand-new), and also measured the current draw (800 mA, versus 600 mA for my SI 1 watt). Bottom Line: The Q-III is dimmer, even though it's drawing more current.

Defect? Luxeon lottery?

do you have any other popular lights? please put a comparison beamshot for everybody and then we can really judge whether its dim or normal by QIII standard

what's e-bay ID of that seller ?

Warren,

Throw a TW0J in it and feed it some of JSB's new 4.2v R123's. I promise it will decimate your wimpy little Sharper Image light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Probably the blasted lottery.

My Q3's from Third Shift are brighter than all heck.

My Gerber LX 3.0, in contrast, isn't brighter than a number of one watt luxeons that I have. Just got a dim one I guess.

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Ny0ng1 said:
do you have any other popular lights? please put a comparison beamshot for everybody and then we can really judge whether its dim or normal by QIII standard

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Nope, these are my only two Luxeons...and comparing them to the Thor wouldn't exactly be fair, either! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seller's ebay name is jrmac.attack - VERY fast service, very reasonable on shipping charges. I don't fault the seller – The package was factory-sealed.

My Q-III is my first Luxeon. Actually I expected it to be brighter. My PT Rage (2W) has brighter hotspot and bigger side spill, so it should be similar to PT Blast (1W) but white and not yellow. What do you say - I am not a winner in Luxeon lottery or expected too much?

buy some of JSB's 4.2v R123's. It's made my Q-III very bright.

I had similar feelings recently when I got my Q3, and it was my 1 watt Sharper Image I was comparing it to. There was simply no appreciable difference in them, VERY dissapointing.

I TWOJ'd it last night and am now very much happier!

I have a hard time understanding that you should HAVE to change out the star in order to outperform a 1 watt light costing half as much but what do I know...

The SI Lux I is overdriven, while the Q3 Lux III is underdriven. The Q3 is only getting maybe 30% more current to the Luxeion than the SI, and even with identical beams, that won't give an impressive difference in brightness. The Q3 also has more spill than the SI, so relatively less of its light is going into the hotspot.

No surprise that the Q3 doesn't appear much brighter than the SI light.

If your Q3 seems dimmer, I'll bet it is due to the "Luxeon Lottery".

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wasBlinded said:
No surprise that the Q3 doesn't appear much brighter than the SI light.

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It's not even a matter of the Q3 not appearing to be much brighter – The Q3 is actually dimmer than the SI.

The SI is advertised as having "up to 30 lumens output", while the Q3 claims "up to 75 lumens". Given that huge difference, the fact that the former is actually brighter than the latter would probably be "surprising" to most people.

You can't go by Lumen ratings. You can't even go totally by current draw because of potential differences in circuitry. There's also that luxeon lottery thing. I'm betting that the big difference is the differences in the types of beams. The QIII has a larger spot so it has to appear dimmer in the center of the spot. It would be difficult to compare total output without sophisticated measuring equipment. Personally I think the SI is a good light.

a couple beamshots here



Inova XO3 on Pila 168 vs Q3 TW0J on JSB 4.2

I was disappointed with my QIIIs as well, I ordered two and both were dimmer than my Streamlight Jr LS. Lets see what happens when I feed it some 4.2s from JSB that are charging up right now.

I guess I expected more from my first 3 watter. Hope the new KL1 will blow the SL JR away.

V8TOYTRUCK,

Don't worry about the KL1 (4th gen.) not blowing your SL JR away if we are talking throw. I have both, and I think my SL JR is quite a good SL JR because the brightness is about the same as a 3rd. gen. KL1. My 4th. gen. KL1's hotspot is way brighter than the SL JR and consequently throws much better. However 4th. gen. KL1 has no side spill to talk about as you probably know. Sorry if I went OT.

Jan

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V8TOYTRUCK said:
I was disappointed with my QIIIs as well, I ordered two and both were dimmer than my Streamlight Jr LS. Lets see what happens when I feed it some 4.2s from JSB that are charging up right now.

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Just tried a RCR-123A Li-Ion battery from Battery Station – Makes a MAJOR difference! The center spot is now at least as bright as the SI 1W, and the side spill does a nice job of lighting both sides of s 2-lane road out to 100 feet or so. The case only gets slightly warm after half an hour of continuous use, and there's no smell of anything getting excessively hot inside. The Q3 is now a keeper!

Still, based on my own experience, I wouldn't recommend the Q3 unless you're also going to opt for Li-Ion batteries. The SI costs less, puts out more light with a conventional lithium cell, and has almost double the run-time of the Q3.

Next issue: Will the SI tolerate the higher voltage of a Li-Ion battery?

Skibane -
I still think you got a bum Q3/Luxeon, since I have both the Q3 and the SI, and the Q3 is definitely brighter in the hotspot and has way more spill.

Since the SI LuxI is already overdriven, the Li-Ion battery might terminate its LED long before its time. You may or may not get away with it for some time, but I wouldn't recommend it for regular use.

I also received a factory sealed Q-III from the same dealer(not his fault). It was not as bright as either of my 2 SL jr. luxeon's. It was disappointing. The Q-III is also less bright as my Nuwai ALX-1252 1w 2aa light. My new mini ALX-332L 3w 2-123 just crushes it. Have others had such bad luck from Lux lotto on the Q-III?
The TWOJ and new cell mod sounds great, but its a darn shame to have to change the star to get it where it should have been in the first place. Guess I'll carry the ALX-332 now and maybe mod the Q-III. Thanks for everyones informative comments.

If your Q3 doesnt get hot, that may be a BAD thing, it may mean that the heat is not being drawn from the LED very well. Mine gets incredibly hot even after just a few minutes. If I'm not holding it in my hand to disipate heat then it gets so hot its almost painful to touch, but that says to me that all my heatsinking efforts are working as they should.

If your Q3 never gets pretty warm, that means it isn't being driven very hard. Poor heatsinking would simply delay transfer of heat to the body, but left running long enough, the body should get just as hot as one with good heatsinking.