What's so great about HID?

What\'s so great about HID?

And what the heck is it anyway?

I saw a tactical light, Wolf Eyes somethingeruther -- 500 lm or so for $300. That really got my curiosity going.

I read somewhere about a cycle of metal vaporization/deposition, or something like that for incandescents. Do HID lamps work somehow like that, or more along the lines of excited gas giving off light? I understand they need a ballast, and have to ramp up for ~20 s.

I need to know what kind of niche to develop for this light so I can properly develop a need for one.

Scott

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

HID lamps are based on an excited gas that produces either visible light directly or produces UV that in turn excites a downconverting phosphor which re-radiates in the visible spectrum.

They're much more efficient than incandescents because they don't require a white-hot filament and most of the energy falls in the visible spectrum, unlike incandescents which produce a large percentage of their output in the IR spectrum (heat).

Oh, and they look very cool. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

also it's that sound
the sound that the ballast makes when you first turn on
a cold hid

hid is mucho brighter and whiter

a 35 watt hid bulb and ballast draws slightly less than half of the power than a 100 watt bulb draws from the battery

the 100 watt bulb in a thor with it's 7 amp sla is under driver to about 85 watts.

a incan thor puts out light for around 35/40 minutes with a fresh charge.

a 35 watt hid will run about 1.5 hours with the same battery.

my 35 watt hid thor runs for 1 hour 36 minutes(my mom owns it now)

lower current draw = less internal cell resistance losses
so you get more than twice the runtime.

my hid 35 watt hid modded vector runs for over 80 minutes
on its internal 12 cell 4.5ah nimh battery thanks to nimh having less internal cell resistance than sla.

the hid mod would run for 25 minutes on the vector's stock 2.85 amp 12.5 volt sla.

the nimh battery weighs less too

there is one big disavantage to hid spotlights

and that is that incan spotlight's will seem pathetic and yellow and weak and you will never want to use a incan spot again.

there's more advantages/reasons to own one over incan

you want one

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

"you want one"

Yes, I do. I just need a good reason to want one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It would be nice if there was a rechargeable option for the WolfEyes DragonII. Will any of these these lights will work with RCR123s?

Scott

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

[ QUOTE ]
beezaur said:
I need to know what kind of niche to develop for this light so I can properly develop a need for one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Said like a REEEEEL CPFER! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

The Dragon I is the rechargeable version.

cfb

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

There's also the new Warrior K500R from Microfire. It will soon be available from Pacific Tactical Solutions, with a 10 percent discount to CPF members.

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

Oh my.

It's only a matter of time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Scott

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

I'm into all the lights,led,hot wire and hid, out of all of them hid are the most impressive. I own three, (they are not what you would call high end)a Silver Legacy/UFO Killer mini hid that is only 7" long, a HS 35 watt from a group buy and a 21 watt.

The only draw back is the warm up time, but than again that is part of the fun of these lights, you think it can't possibly get any brighter but it does get brighter and brighter and BRIGHTER!

Everyone should have one.



/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

While they're a lot of fun, I'm not sure that an HID light can really be called "tactical" since it's likely to fail if it's dropped onto a hard surface.

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

HIDs take a bit too long to achieve full brightness for most "tactical" usage.

35W seems to be the low-end performance sweet spot - a bit too much power demand for a light easily kept on your person. It also benefits from economies of scale as the standard for automotive headlights - nothing like having automakers routinely buy in >10k lots to drop prices and up availability.

24W seems to be acceptable from what I've gathered, but that's typically going to be housed in something no smaller than a 4-6D maglight type housing.

10W produces no small amount of light, but bulb efficiency is much lower at that power level as is bulb life expectancy.

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

hid bulbs are as strong as incan
my grandfather has dropped my vector hid many times
so a surefire beast or a surefire ican is not tactical either.

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

my hid lights use ballasts that overdrive the bulb at start up.

the lights put out a lot of light the instant you turn them on.

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

"35W seems to be the low-end performance sweet spot . . ."

I'm really not familiar with what is available. Almost the only two I have seen are the Dragons and the Warrior, which I think are 10W. I figure ~500 lm is about the minimum that I would want. For some of the prices though, it would almost seem better to put the effort into learning to do a home brew.

Scott

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

10 watt UK Light Cannon LC100 is around $180. 500 lumens, narrow beam, waterproof.

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
10 watt UK Light Cannon LC100 is around $180. 500 lumens, narrow beam, waterproof.

[/ QUOTE ]

So that is probably the least expensive way to get into HID?

Hmmm...narrow beam...no spill?

Looks relatively small from the pics!

Bob

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

costco hid is the cheapest

or mod a thor to 35 watt hid

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

The LC100 comes with a filter to get a wide beam, but the beam has lots of sidespill even without the filter.

The LC100 is probably not putting out the 450 lumens claimed, maybe 350 lumens. However, it is bright with a nice (white!) beam and very good runtime with inexpensive C-cells. IMHO, it's the perfect light for search and rescue. Great runtime, 100% waterproof, good output, nice pistol and lantern grip. (I learned my lesson on a nighttime search and rescue mission where I had my M3 (HOLA) and an L4. The L4 was pathetic in the misty conditions, and the M3 ate up my spare 123's in no time, I was constantly changing hot batteries from a hot light in the darkness. No light covers all... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif)

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

Wow, 350 lumens to me is a lot!
Sounds like is has a very good runtime, and the bulb is supposed to last a long time as well (if treated correctly). Nice.

My brightest "hand held" is a Surge, which is around 100 lumens. I do have a Versalight 2 million cp spotlight, but I wouldnt want to walk around with it long...heavy!

Bob

Re: What\'s so great about HID?

3200 bulb lumens and up is a lot of lumens to me

the lc 100 has 550 bulb lumens