Hello from the Pacific Northwet end of California

Hi all!

I was thinking of signing up with CPF today, but reading their rules made me think "gee, these guys really ARE assholes...", and then I remembered "But wait! I know somewhere even better!", and here I am.

My current LED light assortment includes (I have to say "includes", because I'm sure I'll forget half of them):

  • Two Small Sun ZY-C84 flood-to-throw lights (18650, Q5), which I keep in the pockets of my jackets, that I'm exceptionally happy with.
  • TrustFire F25 stainless (14500/AA, R2), which although ugly as heck, is my pants-pocket EDC.
  • Brinyte PD03B (10440/AAA, Q5), modified to fit protected cells, that lives on my keychain, also an EDC. The amount of light from something so tiny is staggering, and it's a nice neutral white too.
  • Ultrafire U4-MCU (18650,2x16340,3xAAA, Q5), lives in my desk.
  • Three 3xAAA/1x18650 flood-to-throw lights, x2000 I think (no markings), that I keep handy to hand to other people when I know they might not come back, but the circumstances require I hand them a good bright light instead of a total crap one.
  • Richuang P36 (16340), also in my desk.
  • Ultrafire WF-501B with P7 drop-in. Lives in my desk. Needs foil wrapping, overheats and dims hugely in 15 seconds. And isn't nearly as bright as it could be even when you first turn it on.
  • Sipik SK-58 flood-to-throw (14500/AA, Golden Dragon). Nice host, ultra-crap emitter. Might get an XM-L, or at least a Q5.
  • Leatherman Monarch (don't remember the number, and it's not handy) 1xAA. Used to be my pants-pocket EDC until I got the F25. Replaced since I wanted something that would also take 14500s. Lives in my bedroom now. I really like the twist brightness control it has, and wish I could find a 14500 light with it.
  • Leatherman Monarch (don't remember this one's number either, and it's also not handy) 3xAAA. Only a 1W LED, but it's in a bloody pound of machined stainless steel. I've used it as a hammer. Lives in my tools.
  • Two SkyRay S-A1s. Both fried within minutes of using a 14500, despite being claimed to use one. New drivers on order.
  • Four unmarked 1xAA 1W lights. Relatively useless, and they don't see much use.
  • Ten (or so) 1xAAA lights from the local hardware store. I don't have any information on them, but they were $3 each, and are surprisingly nice. Uses a jumbo-sized molded LED rather than a standard emitter, with a half-assed combination momentary/locking switch on the tailcap. I've JB-welded magnets to several of them. They live in my vehicles.
  • Ten (or so) Harbor Freight 9-LED specials. They keep giving them to me. I've never actually used ANY of them.
  • A Harbor Freight 1W 3xAAA job. Side-clicky always turns itself on when you don't want it to, so it's dead when you need it.
  • Dollar Store 3xAAA job with a few cheap LEDs. Lives next to my bed, and sees a fair bit of use. It's perfect because it's so fucking dim it doesn't hurt your eyes when you wake up in the middle of the night.
  • A fake solar-powered light I got at the local hardware store. Seemed to have non-rechargeables in it...
  • A number of assorted keychain lights that I gave up on because they turned themselves on in your pocket. Got the Brinyte, never will use any of them again.
  • A 1W Luxeon headlamp.
  • A cheap 5-LED headlamp.
  • Some cheap 20-ish (I'd need to find them and count) LED 3xAAA lights, all of which failed quickly.
  • A few DX 1xAA Q3 lights I've given away - not mine anymore.
  • Somewhere I still have my very first LED flashlight that I made back in the '90s when indicator LEDs where all you could buy, with a bunch of red (only bright color, blue wasn't even out yet, much less white) LEDs and a tiny 3.6v nicd pack from a cordless phone.
  • A bunch of MR16 3W spotlights I keep meaning to mount to my cordless air compressor and other things.
  • Ten solar garden pathway lights. Well, 9, I think my landlord ran over one...

For non-LED lights, I have six 1,000,000 candlepower lanterns, two 10,000,000 spotlights, and one 15,000,000 one. They'll all just halogen bulbs in big reflectors with gel-cells on the back. I'm not sure quite how bright one of them is, since I swapped in a 100W+55W high/low car headlight bulb with both filaments wired up...

Umm... I think that's it. Or at least all I can remember. I'm not too bad yet, right?

Current projects are fixing the SkyRay S-A1s, and contemplating modding the Sipik FTT one. A 1400ma driver and an XM-L would do it a world of good, if it could focus it... The Golden Dragon really, really sucks.

--Bushytails
P.S. Gah! If you preview post in non-rich-text mode, it switches to rich text mode, then if you switch it back, all your formatting vanishes! EDIT: And all formatting randomly vanishes anyway? Screw it, I'll write in HTML, even though forum postings shouldn't need to be written like web pages... Oh well, at least this way I can shrink the smileys from down to so they don't break the line spacing!

Welcome, bush. You have a lot more than I did when I began this insanity.

welcomewagonFoy

Welcome to BLF bushytails. I think you'll enjoy it here.

LOL, I suppose that could be taken in the wrong way, but it is funny as he11! I'm glad we are better assholes than them!

Welcome to the budget spending insanity, sounds like you are way ahead of the curve.

Welcome to BLF!

Welcome. Thanks quite a collection you have already.

Welcome Bushytails! Yup, that's a good assortment of budgetlights to play with right there. Those little 1w AAA's can be upgraded fairly easily. I made a post on it awhile back.

Aloha and welcome to BLF bushytails!

Welcome welcome bushytails!

Welcome to BLF bushytails. I hope you will enjoy this place!

Hi there Bushytails! A warm welcome to BLF. Nice budget collection, you'll fit right in here!

Is "Northwet" a typo, or does it mean the climate is like it is here?

Oh, and welcome to BLF Bushytails.

Another bushy tail :)

No, not a typo. This area is known for its non-stop rain. Subtropical rainforest and all that.

I'm more of a wolf, not a squirrel, but yes, that is very bushy.

And.... What the hell happened to my post?! It was formatted nicely when I posted it! EDIT: Re-written in html, with shrunken heads too.

--Bushytails

Welcome to BLF, Bushytails!!