helo everyone, ive been scouring the net during my free time since mid-feb and purchased a quark AA2 Tac with fenix bar mount.
am looking for a 2nd flashlight to back up the quark (or add more light if needed). already looked at the lights from the usual suspects itp,jet,eagle, fenix, olight etc., deals from KD,DX,SB for skyray,romisen, numerous xxxfire lights, and bike specific lights from niterider, light&motion.
would appreciate your input however
ideal specs:
Around 300 or more OTF lumens
Flood is preferred over throw
Runtime of at least 2hrs, 3hrs or more if possible
if possible reco's in $30-$50 and $80 category
in theory best bet for runtime here would be 18650 based lights.
Also is there a good alternative to the Pila IBC charger for lion batts? - a charger that gives out readings like the c9000
Any of the multi-LED lights major on flood though they may throw as well. The Romisen RC-T6 comes to mind - you'll find beamshots of it scattered around here. There are some here and here. The Trustfire TR-1200 is brighter (probably) and a little cheaper but seems to be made of unobtainium - I've had one on order since November. Both of these are easy enough to mod with an external battery pack for whatever length of runtime you want. The Trustfire is very long with three 18650s so you'd probably want to cut off the battery tube and make up an external battery pack
Don't know of any affordable 18650 charger that gives much information. Some of the hobby chargers do, but may, or may not, be unreliable in their information. Mine certainly isn't trustworthy on the numbers it gives.
thanks for the link but that particular aurora has a narrow beam which is not good for biking.
@don
your beamshots thread was one of the 1st i visited here and was blown away by the amount of light the rc-t6 put out. way above 300 lumens. its probably a bit on the large side for handlebar mounting. i have to talk to my uncle back home if he can mod it for bike use, more runtime and make it rainproof.
am not really limiting my search to 18650 lights. open to rcr123 ones if they offer fairly long runtimes.
as for the charger, it seems im stuck with getting a pila then.
For the endurance you'd be better off with 18650s - CR123s don't hold a lot - at least the rechargeable ones don't and the disposables would work out very expensive very quickly.
For bike use, I'd cut off the T6 body just behind the switch and pot the end in epoxy - obviously after soldering on some wire with a waterproof connector. Then the battery pack - I'd go for 4 18650s in two sticks of two connected in parallel which could be hung from the crossbar or kept in a pocket.
Or get one of these DX bike lights but it isn't so cheap.
If you have access to metal turning gear or the like, you could make up something rather impressive with P60 dropins and an external battery pack. Arbitrarily large amounts of light would be feasible for not too much money if you can get something made up to put them in.
The dropins would fit in 20mm copper plumbing pipe, but you'd need something to protect the front of them. DX do a 5 mode P7 dropin for $16 - several of those would give you huge light. An external battery pack with several 18650s in parallel would see to the power requirements.
Or get some U channel aluminium (The sort of thing used for double glazing and get a whole bunch of LEDS on stars and mount them in there. Glue some Perspex sheet on the front and waterproof carefully.
yeah it seems i have to go the route of a lupine/magicshine derivative (there are at least 2 in DX and geomangear has another) as im not confident of my DIY skills. i'll put off the decision for a week or two as i'll be flying back home and labor is relatively cheap in ph.
anyway if do go the magicshine route, do you know of a cheap 18650 4-cell holder? it more or less looks like this:
i'm thinking long term and multiple sets and i dont want to be forking over $40 for another set of batteries each time. will likely order the pila
I have an ITP C6t thats mostly all flood with a little spot for throw, on one 18650 i get about 3h30m on a fully charged cell. But the only down fall of this light is that it has a pineapple barrel. Another great light that i would suggest is a P60 based light, you will get a wider spot with a flat bezel then with the stock one, I noticed it when Don our P60 expert said something about it.
yeah i do prefer the flexibility of the "candybar" form thats why i bought the quark aa2 to replace a Black Diamond Vectra IQ i zip tied to a helmet some years back. im tempted by the skyray sr5 from DX and i seem to recall a surefire lying around the house back home. probably just borrow that and just buy the drop in hehe:)
