Flashlights

ShadowsDad Thanks again for the insight.

I never would have thought I could enjoy a thread about flashlights, but I have absolutely enjoyed reading this one. Cheers for all the effort posting the above info and opinions!

For those wanting a potentially excellent light... Heck, if the production lights are duplicates of the prototypes (they will be) it WILL be an excellent light.

The Budget Light Forum put together a team of designers who has been working for almost a year to bring a soda can light into production for it's members. Anyone can be a member. This light uses up to 4 18650 cells, and in this light picking the "right" cells will pay off with better output. But it will run with only one cell at greatly reduced max' output. It will have a flood beam and put out some unbelieveable lumens. I'm going to play it safe and write 4000+ lumens. I think the prototypes were getting over 6000 lumens (actual measured lumens and not fantasy lumens). At that output cells play a huge part since they will be putting out 5 amps per cell at max' output. Yes, if you did the math the light will draw over 20 amps at max' output. But the light also has dim modes that will be exceedingly dim. The software uses state of the art "Narsil" to control the light and has ramping to smoothly go from dim to max' and it has some other tricks.

It's going to be one heck of a light and production has almost begun. But it's not too late to get into the group buy. The cost is $40 shipped. After the group buy is over the manufacturer has the design to do with as they please. It's assumed that the retail price will be near $70. To use this light one needs a charger that can be as inexpensive as $5, or as much as $100. 4 quality cells are also needed to give the light the juice it needs to run, if one doesn't shop around they could be about $10 per. But it's expected that there will also be a group buy on the right cells.

The negatives on the light? It's a small light with a potentially huge amp draw. All of that produces heat and it will heat up rapidly because there's not much metal there as a heatsink, or much room for cooling fins. But that's only with high output. Lower the output to cool the light down. Lower output also means the light will run longer before the cells need recharging. It will run a VERY long time at minimum output. I would expect it to be that to be measured in weeks. On max' output it might be as little as 2 hours. But the light would get very hot (far too hot to hold) if it allowed itself to do that. It will start to ramp down after a time (user selectable through Narsil I believe). Basically, if it was a car it would be a dragster. It will be a great performing light.

For those interested, here's a link. It'll take you to near the end of the thread, but that will change as more folks post to it. The general design is found in the first post. Page back (from the link) to see the actual prototypes. To navigate the thread use the navigation buttons at the top of the page otherwise you'll be there all day paging back and forth.

http://budgetlightforum.com/comment/1116...nt-1116992

Those who want to order just become a member and post in the thread how many you want. Then either follow the thread or keep an eye on your email inbox for directions on when and where to pay when your light has been made and is ready to ship. No one pays until the lights are ready. It's expected that they will give the production "go ahead" very soon. I think it's within days.

FWIW, a member who wasn't part of the design team has the final prototype before production and he's testing it. Very near where the link takes you is a rushed description of the light. He has just so much time and he's doing the best he can.

One potential use... power outages. For those who don't remember what I wrote months ago in this thread, the loss of Li-Ion cells is approx' 2-3% over the course of a year. So charge it up once every few years if the light isn't used and it will always be ready. Due to the shape of the light it will tailstand to light up a room and be very stable. To use it as a lamp, instead of using ceiling bounce, keep the output lowish (to keep the heat down) and put a clear translucent plastic cup over the end. Or generic diffusers can be purchased.

Thanks, Brian. I've joined and asked for one of the flashlights. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun to play with, as well as being useful in emergencies.

Yes, I noticed your user name on the BLF. After you have time to use yours I'd be interested in your comments. In a day or 2 go back to the first post in the thread and make sure your user name is in the list and in the block text with your email. That's how they'll contact you.

I've had one on order now since last summer. The 1st target date for shipping was November, but they were overly optimistic. The wait has produced a better light though. They've had time to tweak Narsil. They might even be able to implement "lightning mode" for chuckles at camp grounds and such. At least there was discussion about it. Lightning mode would be entirely useless for anything practical, but if they have room left in the chip for the code it might happen... After they rewrite the code to better handle the heat. If they rewrite the code that is. There was discussion about it. Did you read what the tester wrote about the heat in the unit? After 3 minutes on max' he couldn't handle the head but the body was still OK. It's not a light for a child.

If you need help with anything, just let me know.

Yes, I noticed your user name on the BLF. After you have time to use yours I'd be interested in your comments. In a day or 2 go back to the first post in the thread and make sure your user name is in the list and in the block text with your email. That's how they'll contact you.

If you need help with anything, just let me know.

Thanks for the offer, I might end up needing some guidance. I am converting a vintage Surefire 9P to LED right now. I have AW 17500 rechargeable batteries and a Pila charger, and I'm trying to decide now what LED unit to drop in. I'll probably go with a Malkoff.

I'm only knowledgeable with Surefire re: suppressors. I know they make lights but I have little to no knowledge of them.

I meant if you needed help with the Q8, especially cells or charger. But the BLF has lots of info on chargers and the Q8 thread has lots of info on cells in the 7k posts. Or just wait for the group buy. There has been talk of one. They won't set up a group buy of junk cells. I might even get a few more sets of matched cells if they have a buy.

I just received a Manker MK41HD and typical Manker, the build quality is good with a very solid feel. Manker has machining down pat. It's a sort of mini soda can light (mini Q8) that uses any AA form cell; AA alkalines (but don't use them! they leak!), NiMh Eneloop, Eneloop Pro, or any 14500 Li-Ion cell. BTW, it took 2 weeks to arrive, it can take a month.

It's a thrower, but the HD version has a wider beam than the HI version. To make up for that a bit the HD version also produces more light. With 14500 Li-Ion cells it reaches it's max' output of 2000 lumens. Less with NiMh, but it's still quite a light with them at 1500 lumen output. With Nimh it has a programmable moonlight mode (20 levels) and programmable turbo mode. This is a light that will heat up with NiMh cells installed. I didn't test it with AA alkaline cells (they leak for those who didn't get that the first time; they would be for emergencies only). It's also a performer with NiMh cells. With 14500 cells runtime is sacrificed for max' output. My plan is to use Eneloop Pros in this light unless I want to impress people.

Moonlight mode is programmable from too dim to use with the unaided (night vision) eye to quite bright for moonlight mode. Then it has 4 more "normal" levels that one would expect, plus turbo. It has strobe, SOS, beacon, and dragon breath modes out of the way. It also has two hidden modes, one is an engineering mode to set the moonlight level, but it's documented in the instructions. It also has a mode that sets the turbo mode.

It also has a way to lock out the light so that it can't be used without a correct set of switch presses. The switch also tells the user through the color the level of the battery charge. Blue/purple/red; >75% / 50% / 20%

It comes with a tripod thread, a wrist lanyard, and a nylon holder that can fit on many pieces of gear; belts, molle, and such. But the light itself is small enough for my "finger lanyard".

It has a nice feel in the hand, not too large or too small. It also has a nice user interface (UI) that keeps the more or less useless flash modes out of the way. It also has "last level used" mode in memory. Typical Manker... a nice light for a small price (if compared to other brands). It is NOT your granddads flashlight.

The link: http://www.mankerlight.com/manker-mk41-c...lashlight/

Edit: this light is better than I thought when I wrote the above. I haven't put AA alkalines in it because I don't have any. But with the Eneloops the performance is impressive. With 14500s it's even better. I see no reason to ever put 14500s in it though. It reaches out to 100 yards brightly and that's all that I need.
For moonlight mode I have it on setting 6 and it's plenty. I can see this light being my nighttime light and my Manker E11 being retired. At it's low level and using ceiling bounce to light a room it's plenty of light for gross movement but not enough for fine vision. I wish I had figures to quote for runtimes, but I don't. That's beyond me. But on low it will run a very long time. I tried to put a cup on it to turn it into a lamp, but I didn't have one small enough. They might not be made small enough to fit it.

This is a very nice light. I especially like that it performs well with Eneloop Pros.

The downside - follow ShadowsDad advice about batteries. They CAN explode - fire hazard. And there are pictures in flashlight forums of these things exploding while being charged. This is why, I believe, a slow charge is preferable than instant charging. But in terms of practicality, one issue, from experience, is battery drain.

It doesn't look like we will have to worry about Li-Ion batteries going Chernobyl for much longer. It is exceedingly rare anyways.

https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/28/goode...technology

Well, yes, if someone is incredibly stupid LI-Ion cells can be abused and short out and create all sorts of problems. But if quality cells are used and intelligence is employed they are quite safe. But that requires a modicum of intelligence and knowledge. Folks without that probably shouldn't use Li-Ion cells. Yes, we read about those folks who over discharge and over charge their garbage Chinese cells that are put into toys for children and used in series. That's a bomb waiting to happen.

Good article. There is another extremely promising Li-Ion technology using polymers.

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For the Manker MK41HD I've absolutely moved to Pro Eneloop NiMh cells. It just makes sense and is much safer since the light, near as I can figure, uses the cells in series. That's dangerous with Li-Ions and I won't do it anymore. It's still extremely bright with Eneloops and it makes so much more sense from runtime. The NiMh cells give up little and gain a lot.

The "problem" I have with the light is that I need both hands free most times when I use a light and this doesn't easily allow for that. Sure, it could be done and I might experiment with it, but it's just not a good candidate for it IMO. For just walking it's close to ideal for size and performance but there are many other lights that will do what this does. But this light does it with NiMh cells.

The Q8 will be completely out of the MK41s league but it will be larger and get much hotter quicker. Both the MK41 and the Q8 have the option of belt carry with pouches. The MK41 comes with one and the Q8 fits inside a military surplus grenade pouch of 4 - 5" in height. The 4.5 inch versions I have don't even look as though they have been used. They look as though they were warehoused and then sold as surplus. I got them from wrabbit on ebay. Anyone wanting them , let him know they are for the Q8 and he'll know what you want. As with any of todays mil' sup' gear it's usable on a belt or molle attachment. I suspect I'll have the same problem with the Q8 as I have with the MK41 in that it could require being handheld for use. But it's just too good a light to miss out on. Time will tell about slung, hands free carry.