agree
this is an issue with the Chinese Novatacs, they did not take the time to calibrate the spacing between the 22 internal levels. (they actually did not inherit the calibration equipment from Henry, he kept it in Tucson)
This is one of the reasons why Henry ended his relationship with the buyers of his Novatac design. To him it was unacceptable that Novatacs were to be sold without properly calibrated mode spacing (even though the lights were sold in Locked configuration, so modes could not be changed anyway).
Original Novatacs built in Tucson (which all have serial numbers), have calibrated mode spacing.
The Chinese models were primarily focused on producing the 3 primary outputs used for the Tactical configuration. The programming was locked, so they did not expect people to change the outputs.
So, when we unlock programming on a Chinese Novatac it is common that the mode spacing is inconsistent, some modes are close together, some are widely spaced.
The best we can do, is to find 4 outputs that are reasonably spaced so as to be useful.
for me that usually means setting a floor of about 0.3 to 1 lumen… about 5 to 8 steps above minimum (to avoid flicker on the lowest modes)..
then setting the highest output to whatever maximum output is available, (usually around 80 lumens)
and then choosing the two remaining modes to be reasonably useful, which for me is about 10 and 30 lumens.
Here are the theoretical mode spacings for various HDS models (the 120 column applies to Novatac). The Yellow values are the factory defaults.
Although in my reality Novatacs do not really have 120 lumen outputs, not even the ones from Tucson.. they actually had outputs between 70 to 90 lumens (on my meter, calibrated to a 200 lumen HDS)..
the reason for the discrepancy, is that Hogo mentioned he used a special calibration factor to account for the cool white LEDs color temperature. iow, 80 lumens adjusted with his special factor, was 120 lumens on his calibration tool.
this thread goes into more detail regarding the Tactical programming (120T) on a Chinese Novatac, and the way an original Novatac programming (120P) was configured.
here is an example of a light that came w locked 120T programming.. I did the 250 clic unlock and reprogrammed it more like a 120P:
That is a transitional light, branded as an SPL-120, but it uses some of the surplus parts from the OG Tucson lights.. notably the Blacked out Stainless bezel..
Later SPL-120 produced in China come w Aluminum bezels, anodized to match the color of the lights.. such as this example:
