Novatac Storm the budget version of HDS light?

LED Flashlights – General Info CR123A Flashlights
20

Im very inclined to agree with the post above but then again i have absolutely no 1st hand experience with any of those.

21

Well I just did the mod... And I'm willing to bet I get 600+ lumens.

Old setup with the luxeon emitter had a tailcap measurement of 700mA, Now I get 2.95-3.05A tailcap draw at 3.9V. Should have done this LONG ago!! Its also a Beautifully smooth beam with an AWESOME tint. These photos show quite well the differences in tint, and how things appear. On my screen anyway it shows the tint difference beautifully, and its pretty close to what is seen to my eyes (ymmv... this is my screen vs what I see)

Heres some beamshots of the final product, although I havent got any beamshots of the before (luxeon), it was very close to the output beam pattern and output of my GDP EX10.

Pictures uploaded -

*Just noticed that the bathroom light was turned on... so the lights from the windows look alot brighter - making it feel like the exposure settings were changed, but they are all the same still. The improvement was really as significant as the photo suggests! (mouse over for other pic)

And heres a 4 way comparison

(M60R *800 emitter lumens quoted) - (EX10 GDP *120 lumens (similar to original 120P))

(120P with XM-L 5tint T4 mod) - (R5A3 on 14500 (which other BLF tests have suggested to be in the high 200+ lumen region?)

22

Excellent upgrade, okwchin...and it looks like a nice improvement to the tint as well!

23

okwchin - Is that mouse-over trick hard?

wouldliketoknowhowtodoitFoy

24

Quote the message and choose filtered HTML as input format and you can see how it's done.

25

When you open the "Add Image" window, click 'Advanced' and you'll see the 'Alternative Image' tools. Don't forget to tick the 'Alternative image' box.

26

I wrote a little how-to back when I discovered the function... maybe it is time to write a full how-to in a separate article.

27

Wow I should tell you guys Amazon has these for $17 plus $5 shipping unless I buy the rest of them...................hmmmmm.

http://www.amazon.com/NovaTac-120ST-Storm-LED-Flashlight/dp/B003GAEZL6

28

Will someone please buy the black one for me and ship it to me in australia???

I'm really itching to get another XM-L mod going! Its seriously an awesome flood light with super smooth beam. The neutral XM-Ls from cutter are equally awesome!

29

I just tried. Even though amazon showed 2 left in stock, at check-out it said they were all sold out. Sorry mate.

30

Awww.... thanks for the thought!

31

They are still in stock for $23 plus $5 shipping through amazon at anime_castle.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000PHX4P6/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

32

Thanks guys. Didn't know about "alternative" whatever. Looks like there's a tool bar up there with all kinds of stuff.

blindersFoy

33

Black.. hmm Would love to have a go at some gold! haha.

The 17670 tubes are a dark grey though, so either way it never matches.

34

Yah so back to the shipping issue.. Is anyone willing to send me a couple of the torches to australia? Im probably going to be after two or so..

I think theres only 1 left from each store according to amazon, however there may be none left...

Thanks in advance.

35

Not sure where to put it, but I was curious, so I took a radiograph (x-ray) of my 120P. Internally its pretty impressive! Good sound mechanical/thermal design, not often seen in many of my torches.

  1. Goooooood amount of aluminium in the head, providing good thermal mass, and a really solid amount of flat, thermally greased contact area for the pill (were talking about half a square inch of solid fully pressured surface area)
  2. Thermal grease (silver based) visible radiographically (When I modded mine to XM-L I removed the mica based and replaced it with a silver based one, but the idea is that its there in the first place
  3. Seriously thick aluminium behind the emitter - good thermal mass and conductivity to the head.
  4. Artic Silver 5 paste, also heavily loaded by the lens/pill assembly, ensuring full compression and maximal thermal conductivity.
  5. Thermal pad between the main driver chip and the back of the pill/heatsink.
  6. 4 layer PCB on the top PCB.
  7. Can see the tiny wire connections Within the chips. (the tall white wires are the links between the top and bottom PCB.
  8. Wire strap associated with the protection circuit on trustfire flame 2400s

Might be easier to read if inverted...
36

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but is that an x-ray of some kind? Really, really cool.

Foy

37

Yah x-ray of the torch! See-through photo! lol

*edited post to prevent confusion*

38

Ok so how do i get one of those xray machines. That would be cool if they had a flashlight sized portable xray machine.

39

You might try a very old-fashioned shoe shop - they used to have X-Ray machines in all of them to X-ray your feet for fitting shoes. They tended to be high-voltage, high power devices that probably could see through a typical light. They were also a very, very Bad Idea.

And have been banned for forty years or more. I can just remember them sitting in a corner collecting dust from when I was a kid in the 60's.