The thing is, with the Jacob A60 you won't have a lot of side spill, just pin point throw and that's what you'll want for reaching down into the mine shaft. 300 yds isn't much for a light like that, should have a nice bright hot spot at the end of a 900' mine shaft.
It can still be modified with a de-doming to tighten the beam and a bit of a power bump. :)
Edit: I found an old discontinued Solarforce Skyline I a little while back, the thing is a veritable laser! Even with an XM-L2 in it, very little spill with a tight hot spot. The reflector is waaaay deep, deepest I've seen for the diameter with a ratio of nearly 2:1 in favor of depth. Don't know if they're available, but it's a solid little light with a very tight beam profile.
I actually orderd the 2X. Mountain Electronics doesn’t show it so I had to go direct with MAXTOCH via Ali-Express. Hopefully the light will be here in a few weeks.
RMM, Richard, started the store pretty much right here on BLF and has done pretty good, constantly growing and having cutting edge products for us to use. Works out great for us here in the states as we can get in 2 or 3 days what used to take 2 or 3 weeks, and still at great prices. And not only that, but Richard is constantly helping to develop the latest and greatest BLF drivers and putting them in the lights he sells as Mod 1 and Mod 2 levels for those that don't mod on their own.
Great guy, supportive wife and family, very beneficial to the forum and we love him! :) (Our wives, eh, not so much, as he's constantly draining our bank accounts!) :P
Oh crap, mis-read it. Was wondering why RMM didn't pick up the 2X. The 2X to me is kind of awkward looking - big head and small 2 cell tube, but man can it throw, and of course the big head helps in heat syncing. The M24 is more a classic looking 2 cell thrower, but the inside quality, power, and anodizing finish is what sets it apart.
I’m making a JAX Z1 soon with de-domed XP-G2. If my calculations are anywhere near correct, it should get 200-250 kcd of throw with no spill at all. Very very narrow beam, too. Would probably be great for looking down mine shafts, though it won’t really work for that purpose without mods.
The main flaw in my plan is that I don’t actually have any mine shafts to explore. I just think it’d be fun to make and have a laserlike aspheric.
Wish we had Richard (RMM) and his business in NZ. He would sell plenty.
You are very lucky to have a retailer who knows his stuff, sorts out the crap and offers good performers first up. Use him!
Hard to know exactly what will be best beam in a closed mineshaft. I seem to remember fonarevka doing some light testing in similar conditions? - could be wrong there.
Tom - maybe we should look at a high performing aspheric for Maxtoch - as discussed earlier. Something with zoom, good build quality and heaps of power stock. Might be a demand for this. Is there already a high performance $50-70 zoom aspheric - the JAX?
All aspherics seem to disappoint a bit. Yes, right now there is a price war goin for the JAX between GearBest and BangGood. You can pick up one now for $40 at BG, and I think $39 at GB but that's in a group buy deal. The Jax does have most of the ingredients - AR treated aspheric, 2 cell capable (I believe), decent size, quality anodizing. Looks to me like too many twists to zoom in/out - I'd prefer a slider or low amount of twists. I got one on order. Think MaxToch could do better with the quality, amps, etc., but not sure of price.
Check it out when it comes - if need be we can set some specs for a new, better and more powerful aspheric design for Maxtoch. They will be keen to look at it.
Ohhh - you really have to get in touch with MaxToch and pound them on the XM-L2 U3 1A, and other U3 tints. Hope they know already, but I'd love for them to be one of the first manufacturers to announce/deliver them pre-built in lights, specially with being on their DTP MCPCB's. My first build with one came out great! Definite bump.
Aspherics definitely tend to be underwhelming. I wouldn’t generally recommend one for practical purposes, unless that purpose is “cheap 1xAA light to give away in bulk” like the SK-68.
Lights like this JAX Z1 or UF-T20 are pretty niche products, pretty much guaranteed to have greater mass compared to traditional lights of the same class, lower output, less water resistance, worse heat management, and fewer practical applications. But it’s fun to have one around anyway for toying around. I still need a purple emitter so I can make a better SK-68 light saber.
Ahh, a fellow mine explorer, nice . I disagree with your choice of light though. Personally I really hate big lights that dont fit in my pockets. I like small pocket rockets, perhaps because I’m hanging on ropes a lot and like to stash the light away easily. I also use lights for descending climbs in the dark.
Why do you want duel 18650? Carry a spare 18650 in your pocket and switch when it runs low. Or just carry two single cell lights. Surely you dont only have one light with you? I use a range of lights, zoomies for photos and throwers for the exploring part, and a headlamp of coarse.
Wow! I wanna go mine exploring just to have a reason to use my lights . Of course the rope thing may be a problem - bad back, bad knee, overweight, pretty much everything hurts just from walking.... Hhmmm
I see a lot of recommendations for warm white tint. You may even want to consider having an amber thrower, maybe a Jacob A60 or even a zoomie. These do even better than warm white in fog/dust/smoke.
I just moved my house and now there is a white colour apartment at about 300m away from where I stay. I have a good target building to test my throwers now at my balcony, which is interesting.
I have a XinTD C8 with XM-L2 T6 3C (neutral white) on Noctigon driven at 4.1A. I have never measure the candela of this light but I can clearly see the light hitting that building at 300 meters away. If I assume my light has 40kcd, the building at 300m away will receive about 0.44lux of light and it is still visible and useful, not to mention there are light pollution around.
Yes 0.25lux is too dim in a lot of situations and applications, but I think 0.4 to 0.5lux is still useful. This also depends on whether the mine has a lot of dust or fog or not, which I don’t know.
I have just had a shipment of batteries and parts sent to me here in Australia from RMM. Shipping was from memory $16.50 and the order arrived in a week. I highly recommend him for anyone here and I would assume NZ would be no different.
I contacted Maxtoch re possible upgrade to XML2-U3 and they are currently experimenting with new leds for the 2X/M24/M12 - which is great. This from Terry at Maxtoch - Amanda is off having just had babe:
” Recently, Our technology dept is testing the latest CREE XP-L LED, which is suitable for long thrower flashlight. If test is OK, we will use this new LED.”
What do you know about XP-L compared to XML2? What are its relative performance characteristics - output/throw potentials, advantages in Maxtoch’s reflectors etc?
If they make some no doubt they’ll come here for field/lux testing etc before long. Comments?
. I disagree with your choice of light though. Personally I really hate big lights that dont fit in my pockets. I like small pocket rockets, perhaps because I’m hanging on ropes a lot and like to stash the light away easily. I also use lights for descending climbs in the dark.
. Of course the rope thing may be a problem - bad back, bad knee, overweight, pretty much everything hurts just from walking.... Hhmmm
