If we truly hit the 200 mark…yippee! I have not been keeping count.
Thank you to Kronos because it was this GB and the links to the reviews that made me look at this light and brand.
Hopefully we will be seeing a specification form soon. I believe that as mentioned by someone earlier that whatever Kronos negotiates and what the majority wants should be the final spec. (as long as the manufacturer is willing to do it).
Personally I like the light as it is except that I need a an FC switch for work. I would even be willing to buy additional tailcaps with FC switches that I could just change as I have not tried my hand at modding yet and would probably buy extra to have for spares (our most common failures are batteries and switches).
As of now I have committed to 3 units but depending on final cost may actually up that by an additional 3 or 4 …. If I can get the switch I need
Just an FYI to Kronos…at night I am a mechanic at one of world’s largest theme parks (not allowed to say but there are two that dominate and I work at one of them). Needless to say, 75% of our job is to inspect the rides for safety and show quality (there are about 1200 of us). We use our lights like a sabre from Star Wars…ie constantly but never constant on because we would be recharging all night….thus the need for an FC switch for me…even if it means additional tailcaps.
You should be able to unscrew the retianing ring in the tail cap and easily replace it with a another switch, very simple, switch is probably $1 or $2.
By saying FC switch, are you referring to a forward clicky? An easy replacement for sure, and if you are willing to pay the $7 for a McClicky, probably a one time thing as they are very reliable.
Do y’all actually have the switch fail? Or is it more of a spring collapse issue? Are the springs rainbow colored? I understand that y’all use a light differently than a lot and this causes abnormal wear and tear, just haven’t heard of a switch actually failing short of mega amperage. This light has a very solid brass retaining ring, really easy to replace the switch with your choice and switches are, as has been said, pretty cheap and common.
The tests that djozz is currently doing show the Omten variant to be a very good switch. These can be found in 5 packs I believe pretty cheap. This light comes with an Omten Reverse Clicky, by the way.
Edit: You might actually also benefit from a de-domed XP-G2. Tighter beam for less disturbing spill characteristics, more of the light sabre or laser type for inspecting specific points.
If BG is unwilling to drive it above 3A then my guess is that a sizable percentage of us will end up modding it anyway in which case whatever delivers the light with a nice logo at a decent price and satisfies as many of the rest as possible is closest to fitting the bill. Your call in the end Krono but one thing to keep in mind is that whatever choices are made, if they can’t deliver it promptly then there will be a slew of ugly posts filled with paypal disputes from overly impatient buyers. Also, what happened with 18650’s C8 GB where they backed out on the logo was very disappointing. As Dale said, make the choices then get the deal solidified. I’d much rather wait now for it to be set up right than to wait while my 45 days are slipping by.
I can forsee problems when these actually go on sale. Say we have reservations for 200 lights and 200 lights are made. Once they go on sale, people might buy more than they made reservations for or give the info to people who made no reservation. This would leave people who made a reservation without a light. Would probably be a good idea for the retailer to make quiet a bit more than those reserved.
A remedy for this would be for everyone with a reservation to email the seller using their paypal email with the number of lights wanted, the seller would know how many are reserved and could send a paypal bill to everyone with a reservation. No reservation, no light.
How many lumens will this light produce at 4amps? This light is probably going to get warm, but it looks like it could be a beasty thrower. Getting excited and can’t wait to strap it to my dual sport for some night rides. J)
The more deviation from the stock unit the longer everyone can expect production to take. Ideally, if they were to utilize quality drop-in stuff (and I have zero idea what any of that stuff would be) production could be quicker.
Nonetheless, we are still deviating by having a custom logo lasered and THAT will be a one shot deal. I have quite a bit of experience with Chinese manufacturing and with all graphics processes. There is considerable setup involved to mass engrave something and for “production” to stop and engrave onesy twoseys is just not feasible. Therefore I would STRONGLY suggest that those that want the engraved BLF logo to speak up because after that there is a strong possibility that anything other than a customized light available.
If this light can hit a real 700 to 900 lumens (non-turbo) with an available 50% mode…I would be REAL HAPPY!
DBCstm: Thank you for the recommendation but floody actually works better because when we need “spot ” we are literally actually inches from the unit.
Very true, I will mod the lights regardless so what exact current they are doesn’t matter so much to me. If they are the correct number and spacing of modes I wouldn’t have to swap them out, just resistor mod ’em
With my resistor mod (first to 3.25 then 3.8A) I wasn’t happy cause medium wasn’t low enough, there was hardly any difference from high to med so mode spacing is just as important as number/mode order and current level.
What get’s lost in the lumen hungry numbers game is the logarithmic scale: each doubling of the lumen is an equivalent increase in brightness.
The Lumen scale should look like:
25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200…etc. Important to realize that each step is equivalent increase in brightness. (no wonder you can hardly notice the step down from 1322 to 866 lumen.)
I don’t get excited (more like yawn) about the lumen increase from 3 to 4.5 amp.
Those interested in driving lights higher than Cree spec Max of 3 amp should have a fine pencil tip solder iron (even a cheap $10 Radio Shack will do) and some 0805 sense resistors to mod your lights.
It doesn’t matter to me what the final max drive is; I’ll mod according to my needs as long as it comes UNGLUED. Asking the manufacturer to build them and warrant they will work beyond Cree 3A spec? Something I wouldn’t do.
Asking the manufacturer to build them and warrant they will work beyond Cree 3A spec? Something I wouldn’t do.
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excellent point. Wondering why no one else brought this up? Seems like a no brainer that the seller won’t warrant a modded light. Am I wrong? No that I’m not after more, more, more. So, 3A it is then?
The step down its self isn’t hard to notice, infact its a pretty large step, the ramping feature is what makes it hard to see, it has so many steps in the ramp down that each individual level decrease is impossible to see and when its put together with a 250ms WDT its a visually steeples rampdown.
This. The worst thing would be for someone on the list to be out of a light because someone got Paypal happy and ordered a lot more than he said he would. That would kinda defeat the purpose of the group buy. Krono I hope you read this, southland’s idea is very good.
