USPS, “your package will be arriving today before 8pm”
At the risk of triple posting…
I have to say, Terry’s homemade light meter is pretty ingenious! As a newcomer to this hobby but a lover of tech and engineering, I read about integrating/Ulbricht spheres and thought, “sounds cool, wonder where I could pick one up?”
Apparently, not here -
- as I don’t have $39,000 just laying around :0
Leave it someone from the south to come up with a solution that uses PVC pipe!!! Nice job, Terry!
If the light meter he uses is functionally proven up to those levels of lumens, then it’s simply a matter of finding the standard deviation between a full integrating sphere and his mock-up, which he has done for the small maglight.
My only question would be linearity. When measuring sound levels there is a non linear sliding scale that has to be used to convert to decibels. I wonder if he’s had the chance to test his 4.4x multiplier on sphere-
documented lights up in the >12k lumen range?
Terry, can you build me a light meter box?
Is there a description here at the BLF?
The idea in general is not bad - but what I do not understand: is it normal to have it just as a pure plastic tube? I thought of having something inside like an aluminium foil or so, just to keep the light from leaving through the plastic walls of the tube…
I saw someone on youtube telling everybody that it is hiiiiighly acurate - and at the same moment you saw that huge parts of the light left unmeasured just because of that… we laughed a lot…
Maybe some chimney tubes would be more efficient…
you have it good, mine arrived my country 2 days ago but we dont get packages deliver here on weekends… 
Light leaving through the walls DOES have an effect on the amount of light getting to the meter - the meter reading would be less. However, if you have the right multiplier that compensates for light loss, it doesn’t matter, as the meter reading is relative. You can use a known source to arrive at an accurate multiplier for a single amount of light - my only question would be how linear is it, and id the multiplier good for both low and high lumen calculations.
But, if as mentioned this is a well known project and device, then I’m sure someone has already taken known lumen lights of all types and checked the accuracy of the multiplier along a continuum.
My MT09R 35HI arrived this morning NetherlandPost>USPS SIGNATURE REQUIRED! So if you’re in the US and not at home when the Postperson rings on the first (and only?) delivery attempt, they’re supposed to take it back to the post office and hold it for you to pick up (I have no idea if the ones shipped DHL>USPS also require/d signatures).
Nice lanyard, but I think a shoulder harness would have been more appropriate, this thing is a compact beast! C’mon dark…
Received my group buy order yesterday.
Thank you
Yay, light came in!
What a beautiful piece of technology - can’t wait to get the batteries charged!
A QUESTION - Could someone give a little more detail on changing the modes??
- Does “five clicks from on” mean turn it on, THEN click 5x in succession?
- how do you know if you’ve entered “mode setting” mode?
- Once you are sure you are in the mode setting mode, how do you change modes, and how do you know what mode you are in?
Thanks for helping out the newbie. I do have the diagram, and didn’t have trouble following my Emisar diagram, but this one I think assumes some prior knowledge.
There are manual on haikelite official website… if you are in ramping mode, click 8 times to switch to regular mode…. to change mode group, click 5 times… if u want group 4, it will blink 4 times, then you press the switch…
I had a problem with the tailcap on my MT09R XHP35 HI. It was not screwed onto the light’s body tube so when I first opened the box and removed the light it was still sitting there. I thought it was no big deal.
So I charged the batteries, and then figured out that the wider of the two brass indexing pins on the tailcap has to go into the wider of the two mating holes on the body tube. The differences in hole sizes certainly isn’t obvious on my “Classic Black” MT09R in low light conditions, I’ll have to mark one of them, but you guys with the lighter, sexier colors might be fine.
After messing with the light for awhile and changing modes a few times (settled on 5), as I removed the tailcap to top up the batteies I briefly saw the fat brass index pin had separated from the tailcap and was sort of hanging in the hole of the light body, just before it fell out and rolled across the shop floor and disappeared.
I found it eventually and was surprised to see that there was no trace of solder residue on the end of the pin that goes into the tailcap PCB. I don’t think the solder blob on the back of the tailcap PCB that was supposed to secure the pin was heated enough, someone probably used a low wattage iron more suited to normal board traces and wires, obviously inadequate for a pin of that mass/sinking properties.
FWIW, the brass tailcap pins themselves aren’t electrically active, they’re just there for indexing the important rear bridge terminals of the battery circuit (4S on the XHP35 HI version). The light worked fine with a missing pin, one just has to be more careful about putting the tailcap on properly, but two missing pins could be a major problem!
At any rate, I resoldered both pins carefully using what I deemed an appropriate 80 Watt iron and all appears to be well.
I now wonder if the tailcap not being screwed onto the light body tube during transit might have resulted in abnormal side forces being applied to the pin (s), weakening the joint. Even so, I would have expected to see some residual solder on the hole end of the pin if it had been soldered properly.
I took a picture of the pin before I soldered it back, but can’t post it here now because I’m in the process of changing image hosts, and won’t be finished for at least a couple of weeks.
Look like you broke the pin. Small pin go to small hole. Big pin go to big hole.
No, I didn’t break the pin, it fell out, and thanks for reiterating what I already said about the hole sizes, in case someone missed that.
OK, quick report on my light!
On the outside, the manufacturing and finish work is rock solid and beautiful! Well done to the machinists and assemblers!
Upon unpacking the light, the first thing I did was throw the batteries into my charger. First small problem - none were recognized by my charger. It seemed the two layered shrinkwrap was too thick on the negative end to allow my charger (BT-C3400) to make contact. I ended up shaving off some of the shrink wrap on the very bottom to allow contact and the battery to charge. Success!
After fully charging to 4.20V and putting in the batteries, it took a second to figure out the small pin/large pin arrangement on the tail cap, and after a few clumsy tries, I got them aligned and cranked down the tail cap. It was pretty stiff - I worried the whole time I was crushing something I shouldn’t or bending one of the pins (See Jmm244’s post above). But finally, success!
Before hitting the button, I checked on the LED’s, and noticed my second problem - half of one of the LED’s (I have the 70.2 version) was already ON. It was dim, but definitely lit up very slightly. Observing it while unscrewing the tail cap confirmed it - it went out when the tail cap was removed. Long story short, no matter what I did, that half of the LED remained lit as long as the batteries were in, even in lockout.
Ignoring that for the moment, I turned on the light. Success! It lit up the room, and I quickly tried to navigate through the UI. Here’s where I hit another snag, one I could use some help with.
The light had been sent in one of the step modes, and it was in what I assumed was a medium setting. I touched the button to step up…and the light went off. I hit the switch again, and it came on again, back in the setting that it had memorized.
Owning several imalents, some Nitecores and a D4 Emisar, I kept assuming that if I half clicked the button, it would step up to the next setting. Not so! I finally figured out you have to TURN ON the light with a single firm click (it comes on to the memorized setting), and then you have to press and HOLD the button about a second and it will then step up to the next setting. Ypu can press and hold down the button, and it will cycle up through the other settings and eventually loop back to the dimmest settings.
My issues - There is no way to go from OFF to Turbo without going through another setting first, your last memory setting. You have to turn the light on, THEN double click to get to turbo. Likewise, you can’t go from off to a lower setting or moonlight without going through another setting. This is a problem for me!
For example - we do rough camping, out in the middle of nowhere, pitch black. If you went for a hike, used your light on a higher or turbo setting, then turned it off to enter your tent and then later wanted to do a search in your tent for something, you have to turn it ON at whatever blasting light amount you left it in, then cycle through the settings to the lower setting. Now, spouse is awake, dogs are barking, everybody grumbling, etc. Lol.
This is basically the same in the ramping mode. Before you can “ramp” you have to turn it on with a single click (it goes to whatever your last level was), then you can press and hold and it will begin ramping one direction or another. Again, there is no way to go from OFF to Turbo, or from off to moonlight without going through at least one other setting (on, then double click to turbo), and sometimes a bunch (click on to the memory level, press and hold to ramp, maybe its in the right direction, or you might have to let go and re-press to get it to ramp down towards moonlight).
That brings me to the penultimate issue - the ramping takes about 4.5 seconds to go from Turbo to around 5k, then .5 seconds (or less actually) to go from 5000 to OFF. I can’t get it to ramp to moonlight no matter how hard I try. Sometimes, if I let go of the button just as it begins to dive it will stick, then if I press again, it will start to ramp UP, but release and press again and it will ramp down, and I get about two seconds of even ramping (maybe down to 1500?) and then it dives off again.
IS THIS NORMAL? just checking what others may have noticed. I feel like either 1. I have some odd programming in my driver, or 2. This is the way its supposed to be, at which I would comment that it’s not user friendly at all.
The final observation - Its maybe too early to tell as its rainy and a little misty outside, but I was sure hoping I would be overwhelmed by the amount of light it puts out. At this juncture, I’m feeling a little underwhelmed. When compared to my D4 (approx 4k lumens) and my Imalent DN70 (about 3800 lumens), it is definitely brighter. But is it four times brighter?? I wouldn’t say so.
We live on a golf course, and there is a line of trees across the fairway that is exactly 200 yards from my back porch (so says google). My DN70 will just barely throw a little light on those trees, while my Nitecore MH20GT (1075 lumens, rated at 362 meters) does a little better (its a mini-thrower).
The MT09R will light those trees up a LITTLE better than the Nitecore, and certainly in a wider field at that distance…but it’s not overwhelming. At three times that distance (the rated throw of 600 meters)…I can’t imagine that it would show up at all.
So there you have it. I’ll try to make a video showing the ramping curve, and maybe the throw across to the trees.
To sum up - its a BEAUTIFULLY made light, lots to love there, but I’m definitely experiencing some issues. Whether they are my own issues or something inherent in the device remaine to be seen. I would love to hear from others on THEIR experiences!
Peace
Because people can never have enough images of the lights they will get:
and if you thought using rare earth magnets or solder was too mainstream:
Thanks for the write up TSO. First of all, its the design of the charger which will not recognize your sony vtc6 bt. I have no problem charging my vtc6 bt on my nitecore d4, efest v6, and gyrflacon all 88.
I agree the ramping mode is slow, and all the stuff you mentioned… i set mine on group 5.
Over all, this mt09r is a great light. I am very happy with mine.
I hate electronic lockouts, even if their parasitic drain is minimal. Fortunately, the MT09R seems to have a decent mechanical one, ON THE FRONT END, not at the tailcap. Simply giving the head ~½ twist should quickly kill the errant LED for now, until you can get things sorted out.
I agree the UI is a bit clunky. It’s certainly not going to be one of my favorites, but it’s also not going to be among those I truly hate, like the #*%! Nitecore TM36.
I’m going to hold off passing judgement on the range of my thrower version for awhile as the weather around here isn’t going to be conducive to doing long range side-by-side comparison testing for a few days, at least.
I charged the included Sony VTC6 button tops with the Opus BT 3100 v2.2 (same as the 3400) and had no trouble at all. Both of my MT09R XHP70.2 came with ramping mode by default and when you hold down the button for about 0.5s, it starts ramping up or down. It doesn’t ramp as fast as the Emisar but I prefer it a little slower because the lumen range is so much larger on this light. Mine takes about 4 seconds to get from Turbo to moonlight and it is very easy to get to moonlight or turbo. Just hold the button down until it gets to the min or max brightness where the ramping stops. It’s no different from the Emisars. Unfortunately there is no option to start directly in turbo or moonlight like the Emisars. I wish Haikelite would incorporate that in future drivers. But the current UI is superior to 90% of the other flashlights on the market.
Regarding brightness, my friend and I were testing the D4 and DN70 with the MT09R and we were blown away at how much brighter the MT09R was because we used to think the D4 and DN70 were amazing already. However, we were indoor in a small room.
I don’t experience any of the other issues that you had with my two MT09R but I also don’t doubt your experience because even within the same batch you can have drastically different quality units. I bought two Zebralight SC5w II last week and one is 55% brighter than the other. The dimmer one started flickering today already like the emitter is about to die. I’m so disappointed. So if the most reputable brand can have quality control issues as such, I think finding lemons in any flashlight make and model is not surprising.
Hello, my measurements in a DIY integrating sphere.
Reference: http://www.taschenlampen-forum.de/threads/rs-freaks-lumenmessungen-in-einer-diy-ulbrichtkugel.57382/
The best values of the MT09R are:
HaikeLite MT09R XHP70.2 CW H2018A01121K:
11.872 @ cold start // 11.294 @30 sec
HaikeLite MT09R XHP70.2 NW H2018A01121K:
12.301 @ cold start // 11.349 @30sec
HaikeLite MT09R XHP35HI CW H2018A01128K:
4.040 @ cold start // 3.761 @30sec
*All measurements with: Samsung INR 18650-30Q 3.000mAh