Re: Fellow Gladius Owners, I have a question!
Thanx for noticing!!!
To be perfectly honest, I think you guys as a crew are crazy, awesome, down to the core aficionados!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
We elected not to specifically publish all the specs as folks were initially stating how "complicated" the light was and how difficult it would be to operate.
We tried to keep the major features in the forefront.
The beauty of the onboard digital programming is that in fact we can precisely control what every channel and every tailcap action does. We can have the light tap out the Star Spangled Banner in Morse Code if a client wanted us to program it that way!
In fact we have specific power output/curves for every action of the rotary dial/tailcap.
We went to great lengths to differentiate ourselves from the existing competitors and I hope it shows and proves to be useful for those that go in harms way.
Many, many hours of brainstorming and practical testing went into the current protocol scheme/programming. It was a great mixing of engineering perspectives, operational requirements and production realities. We are not interested in being different for difference sakes. We truly desire to move things forward in a positive direction.
Back to the Gladius in particular:
I use the analogy; this thing is a computer in an aluminum tube that happens to have an LED! The rotary dial and tailcap are your input device/mouse.
For example, in the Constant/On channel there is a specific ramp down of power almost imperceptible to the human eye. If you leave the light on in this mode it will begin to back off the power, giving the user an extended runtime (est. 2.5+ hours) without any appreciable loss of viewing area.
Momentary and Strobe have their own curves. The time, dwell of the change speed of the adjustment channel was carefully selected with operational requirements in view.
We have been blasted by folks telling us the plastic tailcap will not withstand impact.
Yet to date, we have not had one problem in this area with the production lights. Will problems arise? Time will tell and we will adapt if required. Can it be broken? Yes, it will have to be a powerful blow this we know.
The weakest link I am aware of is the attachment of the push button to the shaft and a user might lose this on a drop. Easily fixed and dealt with.
We wrestled at length with material selection on the tailcap. We ended up specifically chosing high-impact plastic to create a potential break-away system from the internal shaft. Even stripped of the rotary dial and pushbutton cap, the light will function just fine. Although the light will not look good, it will continue to function in a combat situation. The pedigree and designed use of this light is for combat.
The tailcap internal ball bearings do rattle a bit when the entire light is shaken. This is normal at this point. We have a unique waterproof, pressure equalizing design. We are looking at a couple of potential inline changes to eliminate this less than perfect rattle. Don't get me wrong if you have not handled this light. I did not notice it until an end-user brought it up.
We are end-user driven, so any and all suggestions for improvement, complaints are taken extremely seriously.
This is our first light and we will improve our internal processes, end product, customer service as things move ahead.
I want to say again publicly and loudly….THANK YOU ALL for helping us get this product off the ground by purchasing and support this new offering.
