AAA. or AA powered search and rescue lights for volunteer firedepartment

[light_junkie]

@garrybunk

How about utilizing 4AAA carriers in the Poppas W878 type light? Would that help with runtime and output?

Or for more throw you could choose the 57mm UltraOK 4xAAA (or 18650/26650) mentioned here. The pill is hollow under the star, but people have reported it runs fine on 4AAA’s. I wouldn’t run 18650/26650’s in it with the hollow pill though. Here is a review on the Aleto version.

-Garry

Gary I was just looking poppas now ill run this by firechief andn ans see what he thinks

[Chloe]

@lionheart_2281

Does anyone besides me think the above would apply to a FIRE FIGHTER???

I’m sure it does, but this thread is for search and rescue volunteers.

@light junkie

they would not use these for vitals or structure fires they wanted for strictly search and rescue

@light junkie

all the member also have headlights as back up and carry tons of extra batteries, the searches are in the majority looking for lost hunters, hikers etc in the rollin hill of the Sonoran desert

[gords1001]

that was the point I made above.

they wont be using them on a shout apparently, so its not a concern. since they also have to provide them themselves, I’m not seeing them going for $200+ lights.

[joe1512]

If you want a real search and rescue light, a TK70 fits the bill. Not everyone needs to have one, but maybe 1 per truck?
They run on 4 D batteries. They CAN use alkalines though the top mode won’t work and it will fall back to the 900ish lumen mode. For cost reasons, I’d highly recommend using NiMH rechargables. All they have to do is get the GOOD ONES…the 10k mAh, not the normal crappy ones in stores that are a rip off (rewrapped AAs).

The TK70 has a ridiculous amount of lumens (2300), great throw, and strong spillbeam, with good runtime. You can use it with 3xD batteries too instead of 4. No loss in brightness and turbo works fine with my AccuEvolution 10k mAhs.

---

TK40/41/45 would make better general purpose lights. They aren’t very big and use 8xAAs. Alkalines work fine since each battery wouldnt be pulling very much amperage. Since they are older lights, one might be able to get a discount.

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Finally, the older itp A6 Polestar is a great light using 6xAAs and an MC-E emitter. Thats 600ish lumens on high mode, mostly floody but enough throw to be useful. It was also half price of the TK40….the men in my family all have one now for past Xmas presents.

[Chloe]

@gords1001

that was the point I made above.

they wont be using them on a shout apparently, so its not a concern. since they also have to provide them themselves, I’m not seeing them going for $200+ lights.

I have not used a Defiant 3C but it seems to fit the bill. Is it really heavy?

[garrybunk]

I have the Poppas W-878 (as seen in the review thread). I don't use it often nor do I use it with AAA's. I'm thinking it may be ok with 4AAA alkalines. Mine (as seen in the link post #21) powered up with 3 new Duracell alkalines, but I didn't run them long. I think 4AAA's would help with voltage sag too. Still wouldn't expect great runtime and it would have 5 modes (including flashies).

Beware of some having the hollow pill (read TomE's posts at that link).

And I also have the 57mm UltraOK I mentioned above. That one I do only run on 4AAA's.

-Garry

[lionheart_2281]

My bad, missed some vital info on that.

So they will have separate torches then, some for searching in safe environments and others for volatile environments. Weird.

[Chloe]

It’s okay. Forums can be a bit like that.

Fortunately there are kittens:

Maybe they have different gear because they are search and rescue volunteers, and don’t actually do any firefighting?

[lionheart_2281]

@Chloe

It’s okay. Forums can be a bit like that.

Maybe they have different gear because they are search and rescue volunteers, and don’t actually do any firefighting?

Perhaps, wonder why they call themselves fire fighters then and have a fire chief…in Australia we have a separate agency to police, fire and ambo’s, they are called SES: State Emergency Service, this might be the equivalent??

[Chloe]

I don’t know. Here in the UK I think SAR volunteering is handled by separate organisations:
http://www.alsar.org.uk/
http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/emergencyresponse/mcga-searchandrescue/mcga-volunteering.htm

[light_junkie]

@lionheart_2281

@Chloe

It’s okay. Forums can be a bit like that.

Maybe they have different gear because they are search and rescue volunteers, and don’t actually do any firefighting?

Perhaps, wonder why they call themselves fire fighters then and have a fire chief…in Australia we have a separate agency to police, fire and ambo’s, they are called SES: State Emergency Service, this might be the equivalent??

They are getting contracts for wild land most structure fires are handled by regularf, fd they respond to car accidents health issues and a couple of months ago they they did have a small structure fire in a trailer the space heater ignites carpeting they were 1st responders until Green valley FD showed up at that point the turned it over to them I don’t know how else to explain better than what I have been told what they want and limited budget I was just trying to help them find better brighter lights

[gords1001]

chloe, you forgot 4x4response, another voluteer group.

the 3c is heavy enough shall we say. it would certainly serve well in a search and rescue situation. plus you could buy 6 for the price of one tk70….

[Chidwack2]

@kuoh

On my EA4, holding down the button at the half press position will exit lockout. Very little pressure required. Also the tail cap has to be loosened more than half way to break contact. Again, I’m not saying it can’t be used in this situation, just that it can be irritating for some. Especially if they have to constantly deal with lockout mode.

KuoH

@Chidwack2

However, it’s easy to lock out the light by turning it on and then holding the button all the way down for 2 seconds. Then to get the light back on you have to hold the button all the way down for 2 more seconds. It takes some force to do and I really don’t see that happening very easily. If I felt I needed more pertection, it’s a simple matter to loosen the tailcap

You are right, the tailcap does have to be unscrew half way to lock it out. I was remembering what I had to do with my Blackshadow Terminator. My bad.

Maybe mine has a stiffer button than normal, mine takes more than just a little presure to activate the button. Now my new SRK is a different story. It takes only light presure on the button.

[picrthis]

@gords1001

I think the or turbobb reviewed some lights designed for firefighters, they have some specific requirements that our lights dont match up to.

Here’s the reviews

Review: FoxFury Breakthrough BT2 & BT3 (XP-E/XM-L | 4 x AA / 2 x 18650)

its to do with the health and safety aspects of the job.

personally, I wouldn’t wish to put 30 or so orders worth of business nitecores way because I dont approve of their shoddy practices.

I was wondering what you meant by the comment of nitecore’s shoddy practices?? Am I missing something? feel free to PM if you don’t want to air it in public, I’ve bought several of their lights lately and like to know maybe should I avoid them?

[gords1001]

I’m quite happy to air my views in public tbh, I got an intellicharger i4 as all this came to light, it charged two cells then promptly blew up, luckily fasttech sorted out a refund, but I was a bit miffed, particularly since the charger gave me a mild electric shock through the negative connection.

Anyway, as this was happening, a few of our valued traders offered deals on the ea4, they then got some abuse off nitecore for other people posting the prices they would sell at, basically nitecore expects the prices to be fixed. Even if I didn’t really consider any of their products up to then, I definitely wont now, then you have the whole nitecore/sysmax/jetbeam debacle and quite frankly I have no desire to give them any money. I dont like their lack of principles or fair trading and I definitely dont like price fixing, given that my shoddy i4 was not an isolated incident either, they can go f* spiders as far as I’m concerned.

[Chloe]

@gords1001

chloe, you forgot 4x4response, another voluteer group.

the 3c is heavy enough shall we say. it would certainly serve well in a search and rescue situation. plus you could buy 6 for the price of one tk70….

Thanks! :bigsmile: I only made a quick search.

@gords1001

Ithen you have the whole nitecore/sysmax/jetbeam debacle

What happened there?

[garrybunk]

See this thread for lights available in local US TSC stores which run on alkalines. Take note of the 3C XP-G and the 3AA (used to be $9.99, lately seen at $14.99 at my TSC). The 3AA would be nice if you could do a simple emitter swap to XM-L. oldbobk used to talk about how easy this is to do and the result, but his posts are deleted now. Perhaps you could get some BLFer's to volunteer to do emitter swaps.

Just some options readily available off the shelf intended to run on alkalines. I've thought of that Coleman XM-L at Walmart, but at +/- $50 I think it's too expensive.

-Garry

[gords1001]

@Chloe

@gords1001

chloe, you forgot 4x4response, another voluteer group.

the 3c is heavy enough shall we say. it would certainly serve well in a search and rescue situation. plus you could buy 6 for the price of one tk70….

Thanks! :bigsmile: I only made a quick search.

@gords1001

Ithen you have the whole nitecore/sysmax/jetbeam debacle

What happened there?

the 4x4response is a bit close to my heart, check my avatar. … :bigsmile:

the sysmax etc thing was over the i4 I think, it was a lot of arguing and back stabbing, not pretty.

[light_junkie]

Thanks Gary? Being that the department will have to buy in the neighborhood of. 30 lights it adds up quickly I appreciate you pointing out a few realistic torches that will go to people that are volunteering to help out the community! I think the poppas W878 and the ultra ok are real possibility,’s

[Chloe]

@gords1001

the 4x4response is a bit close to my heart, check my avatar. … :bigsmile:

Oh wow! I didn’t realise.

@gords1001

the sysmax etc thing was over the i4 I think, it was a lot of arguing and back stabbing, not pretty.

I can imagine. The Jetbeam and Nitecore i4 chargers do look rather similar. >.<