I think you’re right. I ordered on Monday and it’s now Wednesday with no shipping notice yet.
He probably got trampled by a stampede of BLF’ers ordering his entire stock of D4s in one day. 
I’m sure he’ll get all the shipments out soon. He’s very reliable.
I ordered Monday morning and mountain electronics (Richard) still haven’t sent me an email confirming that my D4 has been shipped. This issue isn’t with usps. I have a feeling that they are overloaded with orders for the emisar d4s. They always get orders shipped very quickly, but with only two employees (Richard and his wife Lisa) they must be stretched thin. On a positive note, they are supposed to get another shipment the first part of next week. Maybe then I’ll be quick enough to finally get an xpl hi version.
I think the XP-G2 3D option is a good choice, but I may be a little biased. It’s my favorite Cree tint, and XP-G2 has the least heat and highest efficiency. It’s very practical. :+1:
[/quote]
this is the one I ordered. Nice to know I chose a good one. Thanks for the nod TK. Really thankful for your contributions to this Forum, knowledge and time.
patrick -
I ordered the 3D and bought the quad board with 5Ds.
I ordered mine on Monday and received my shipping notification about an hour ago so you’ll probably see yours soon if you haven’t already.
It doesn’t really make sense to bypass the springs on this light. Hank used unusually good springs which conduct electricity very well and can apparently take 20+ amps without going soft. They also seem to compress almost completely when a cell is installed, which makes it kind of moot, and there is no tail switch to introduce additional resistance.
When the FET is active, the LED doesn’t get greener… it gets bluer. Basically, the effective color temperature rises a bit. To see this in more detail with quantified measurements, look for some of maukka’s reviews.
The D4 (and other FET+1 lights) is regulated in the low modes (when only the 7135 is active), partially regulated in med-high modes (when both chips are active), and direct drive on turbo (when only the FET is active). This is indicated on the UI diagram, and the blink (and dotted line) on the ramp is the point where the FET starts being used.
In practice, it means the modes under ~150 lumens will have a flat runtime graph, as shown below on the left. This was the D4 on its 100% 7135 mode with a 2000mAh cell.
It also means the modes higher than that will sag over time, proportional to how high it is on the ramp and how low the battery is. This is shown on the right, with a D4 running at roughly 300 lm (ish, I think) with a partially-used 18350 cell.
These are only intended to show examples of what kind of shape the graph takes at different brightness levels, and what is meant by “regulated” or “not regulated”. This light does both, depending on how bright it’s told to be.
Oh, I heard from RMM, too. Apparently the past few days have been a bit of a disaster at Chez Richard, so he got a bit behind on orders. It’s important to take care of family, no?
It sounds like he’s still putting out fires but will probably be back to normal life soon.
Just got my shipping notice from Richard.
Though I wonder if it won’t actually be dropped into the mailbox till tomorrow. It’s 8/2 now, but the email says it was dropped in the mail on “8/3”.
If it goes today I might get it before Friday. If not, I’ll have to wait for next week.
Yea I just got my shipping notification email also. Looking forward to the 3D tint since so many others whom recommendations I respect seem to like it.
3D tint is an excellent choice. It’s neutral white, but on the cooler end of the spectrum for neutral white. Typically the “D” tints tend to be slightly rosy with no hint of green tint. They are some of the best tints CREE makes. I like them much more than the “A” tints.
Super! I like myself some rosey tint. Looking forward to my first XPG2 3D light!
Heh, “D” tints and “A” tints are basically the same thing, both with the rosy hue. They both count along the same line, alternating like even and odd numbers.
The difference between 3A and 3D is a matter of 5125K vs 4875K. 3D is directly between 3A and 4A (4625K).
The ones which actually look different are the B and C tints, which are on the green side of the blackbody line.
From the samples I have, all my A tints tend to be slightly greenish. Never saw any hint of green in any of the D tints.
… but on the other hand after reviewing your chart perhaps I am confusing A tints with B or C tints.
I noticed Hank has his xpg as XP-G2 S4 3D, 4885K and Eric has his as 5000k. Is there a difference or did Eric just round up to 5000k instead of stating 4885k?
Cree tints can be anywhere in the box shown in the image above. So, a 3D tint could be anywhere from 4750K to 5000K. People tend to round, because “4875K” doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
Their “easywhite” line of emitters are designed to make the individual variation less relevant, mixing several emitters of nearby tints in order to get something as close as possible to a pure white. This effect also tends to happen somewhat with multi-emitter lights like the D4. It’s highly unlikely that a 3D tint quad will actually be 5000K or 4750K, because there are four randomly-selected emitters all blended together. The result should be pretty close to the center point, 4875K, and the tint should turn out better than any individual emitter can produce.
What would have been really cool is if Hank mixed together 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D on each quad board, giving a result which is actually 5000K and neutral… but in practice that’s not very feasible because he’d have to buy entire reels of at least 3000 of each tint. He’d have a much bigger up-front cost and would have to sell four times as many lights in order to break even on the project.
Or if he mixed a wider range of tints… I tried that once, with a “1” tint, “3”, “5”, and “7”, and made myself a wide-spectrum light. It worked really well, and produces more vivid color than any other light I’ve seen. But getting the balance right is tricky, and it makes rainbow-colored shadows.
Anyway, on a different topic, green tint can easily come from the lens coating rather than the emitter itself. It depends on the lens.
Yep, that kind of build would be a selling point for me.
Would it violate any antitrust laws if BLF urged a group of friendly light-makers to cooperate on purchases like that?
I’d chip in to a “futures fund” to help kickstart that kind of better tech to be shared among those making good lights
i ordered D4 from Intl oudoor, last week (Thursday) and didn’t get tracking number till Saturday after asking them through email and the tracking number didn’t show any info until today (a week later) and it still saying “shipment being pickup or something”? so it not shipping yet apparently they purchase a shipping envelopes that already has tracking numbers on it in bulk, they have the tracking number but not delivered to post office. So yeah if you got tracking number it doesn’t mean your items are shipping. So another 2 weeks waiting.
To be fair, I’ve also had items go directly from “waiting for customer to give package to the post office” to “item arrived at US Customs”. There aren’t always updates within the country of origin. Usually, yes, but not always.
It’s also possible that he’s waiting for parts so he can build the light as requested.
These things usually take a while though, so if I’m ordering internationally I try to forget about it for a few weeks before checking on the status.
These things usually take a while though, so if I’m ordering internationally I try to forget about it for a few weeks before checking on the status.
[/quote]
you might be able to peddle that ability …… but then you did say ‘try’.
China Post is not efficient.
However, highly efficient private Express.