Is it the Polarion Night Reaper? Do you seriously own that? I remember you mentioning knowing a guy who owns one or two. That's certainly not a budget light, haha
I thought this was the ultimate thrower :)
Sorry, couldn't resist it.
Thanks
Luc Viatour / http://www.Lucnix.be |
for the picture.
Oh that's not mine. That's triode88's. We met up before at my apt's garden for some shining. Yeah he has 2, not sure why.
Could you simply get an HID ballast and mod a light like this? In the end, you still need a capable battery supply and heat sinking so I'm guessing maybe 50W might be the limitation? That's just a guess. I really have no idea.
yes, it could be converted to HID.
there's a long thread on CPF for this light, and if I remember correctly, some discussion of HID options, but no one had done it yet. There's also a direct fit bulb from philips that is used in higher end lights of this type and has significantly higher output. I was unable to find a source but will try harder if my bulb dies.
I'm pretty sure SLA peak current draw is 5C. This light has a 7ah SLA, so 35amps at 12 volt is 420W.
If you sustained that draw, runtime and battery cycle life would be terrible.
Sometime I'll measure the current of my light - I bet your guess is actually pretty close to an ideal load for this battery...
If someone is gonna go to the trouble of modding a budget halogen light of this size to HID then might as well step it up and get the 11" one from Costco 
only way to put this light in that 'holster' is to remove the bezel :) I have yet to find the perfect size plastic bin for this light...
can't find any spotlights on costco.com
this light is so powerful that I couldn't be bothered to upgrade or to pay more for a brighter one. not that it wouldn't be awesome, but there are too many other lights that I could add to my collection w/ that money.
by experience, i can tell you that at a half mile (by gps) it will illuminate my 16' boat so brightly that it will ruin your night vision if you look at anything the light is hitting (even with your back to the light). conversely, it is utterly useless in fog or mist so I don't even keep it in the boat...
If OP stands for original poster, that white barn I lit up was approx 360yds away. Here's a picture taken in the daytime at about the same spot I took that one above but back about 40 more yards.
orig. poster,yes
and definitely farther - I shined mine across the little valley in my neighborhood - right on the picture windows of a house (+500meters on google maps). Apparently I woke them up because within seconds someone turned on the interior lights and walked up to the window.
whoops! light off, time to go inside! 
Would you like to buy a barbeque grill? I sell cookbooks, too.
lmao - do the cookbooks have bbq recipes? one stop shop!
That was just a joke to the spammer. I heard a guy on the radio once that was dj say when telemarketers would call his house he would counteroffer trying to sell them a barbeque grill. I thought it was funny. The cookbook was my idea.
i figured, and it was a pretty funny one;)
Well, I modded mine to HID over the weekend. It was Amazingly awesome for the 2 minutes that it ran for. The stupid POS DX ballast died the first two minutes of it's short life.
I'm in the process of RMAing it now so hopefully I'll have another one to play with in a month or so. I'll post pics/beamshots of the 55W HID mod once I have a working ballast again...
The DX ballast is nice because it fits in the head behind the bulb with no modding to anything...
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/replacement-55w-car-hid-ballast-dc-9-16v-103008
Sounds interesting. I can't wait to see the beamshots.
i can't wait to get a new ballast! Do you know what it was like to have it running, then die, then get a stupid email from DX tech support? LoL
They sent me a cut/paste of their warranty policy with no clear instructions on what to do. I think they were implying that I should mail it back to them so they can repair it. It would cost 50% of the whole unit to mail it back to China AND the whole inside of the ballast is filled with silicone (for vibration/weather resistance) so there is zero chance of them repairing it.
I roll the Chinese dice a lot (over 50 orders with DX) but I don't always come up a winner ;)
That is funny for sure. Sometimes these Asian dealers have no clue to reality. I would hate to buy a item for $1 and it not work. Wonder if they would tell me to send it back for another one in return? LOL!
I'm also curious about the Philips replacement bulb. There is a caveat, however. The leads from battery to switch, then switch to bulb, are woefully thin. Modding to thicker leads will help.
The leads going to the LED ring are almost thread size (ok, just a bit bigger), and the quick disconnects are a laff-a-minute.
I've twisted my bulb mount, so the low-beam hood is at least centered on top. This also lined-up the filament supports shadow (thin line) vertically, at 6 and 12 o'clock.
This thing is a blast, but needs a wagon to haul it. The shoulder strap comes-in handy, and it takes some getting used to swingin it around, while keeping it weighted on the shoulder.
I can't see modding this thing to HID, unless you have money to burn.
I suppose an ass-pack with the SLA battery in it would be nice (that didn't sound right), to make it feather-light.