HDS Rotary Regulation, compared to Eye10 magnetic Rotary Regulation

LED Flashlights – General Info CR123A Flashlights
1

Well, I love my RRT-01, and honestly, I dont notice that it drifts up or down by almost 50% in brightness, because Im usually moving when I use the light, and my eyes adapt to different distances, plus I play with the dial, a lot.

But, I put a brand spanking new, unmodified Niteye Eye10 on my light meter, and Ill be gosh darned, the durn thang jest drifts like crazy, man!
Note how the numbers on the light meter change when Im NOT touching the light:

otoh the HDS is durn near RockSteady, like Really, man!

Magnetic rotaries are very cool, but, dont put them on a light meter if you dont want to know whether they are regulated… cause they are NOT.

ps, turn your volume down when you watch those videos… there is no soundtrack, just cars driving by on a rainy day, and my cat telling me its time for dinner… :wink:

2

Wait wut.

Is it actually getting brighter on max power?

That is one strange phenomenon.

3

Yup!
sho enuf!

the Magnetic Rotary Eye10 in the first video turns itself up, about 50% brighter, if last used ramp direction was up

or it drifts down, about 50% dimmer, if the last ramp direction was down

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our vision is not very lumen sensitive

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and btw, the videos do not show max, nor minimum on either light,

the Stock Eye10 does over 600 lumens,
the HDS hits 170 lumens now, with a mod to N219b 3500k 9080
and
MyRRT-01 w N219b 4500k 9080 mod, that I love, does over 400 lumens on a fresh 16340. It also drifts, about 45% up or down, similar to the Eye10, maybe 10% less…

the drift bugs me, its equivalent to one step on the HDS dial, those modes are spaced 50% upwards
that means you end up with lots of low modes, and not very many modes above 100 lumens

4

It would be interesting to see how that changes the runtime characteristics. Have you done any runtime comparisons at similar levels?

5

my guess is the runtimes on max would be about the same, for two lights that use the same battery

but the lumens will be very different, because of the difference in LEDs

My priority is High CRI, I get less lumens, but the same runtime.

iow, the 6000k 70CRI Eye10 can do 600 lumens, with Crappy Green tinted, Low CRI,
for about the same amount of time the HDS can do 170 lumens of really Beautiful and Sexy, High CRI Light.

which would you choose?
Green Tint
High CRI?
LOL!

see what I mean, when I say runtime and efficiency are not my priority?

Im all about the colors, give real Reds! Make food look Delicious… etc

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now about that huge drift the light meter captures
In actual use, with my RRT-01, I always move the dial down slightly, after ramping up. This clips the drift, and by the time I set my light down to check its lumen level, it is relatively stable.

In fact, I tend to set my HDS and my RRT-01 to very similar lumen levels, in actual use. Totally by feel.

So it is very important to not have detents that are too far apart on a magnetic rotary, because it is essential to be able to fine tune the dial to clip the drift.

Therefore it is much better to have a smooth ramp, to be able to fine tune the brightness to a stable level, on a Magnetic rotary.

I think that is why most people are actually unaware of the magnetic rotary drift. They counteract it intuitively, with micro tuning movements of the dial.

At the end of the day, the smooth ramp will be much easier to dial in to the “just right” amount of light. Much better than the Eye10 with firm detents along the dial.

The HDS Rotary also ends up getting ramped up and back down, to find the “just right” level, for a given circumstance.

I still prefer the smooth ramp of my RRT-01, over the stepped levels on the HDS dial… but there is no denying that the HDS is the more precise instrument. otoh, the RRT-01 is just so much fun, thanks to its smooth stepless ramping…