Tease
Stop teasing and show the real goodies! We want full pictures and lumens measurements
aha! I see the meat and potatoes are here:
woohoo! a 2300!!! lumen Novatac!
Mind Blowing!
I’m curious — how’s the thermal management on this modified NovaTac? Also, how would you compare performance to the FW3A with “similar” emitter choice? I was, once upon a time, going to modify my NovaTac 120P, but for one reason or another I shelved the plans. Then when the FW3A came out, I figuratively tossed out the plans completely… as I think the Anduril UI is phenomenal (a good deal of what the NovaTac does isn’t within my needs). The only thing missing with Anduril that I’d like is the low drain locator beacon.
CRX installed an H17f driver that has built in thermal management. He also eliminated the Novatac body spring (signal wire), which made the Novatac 18350 compatible, with a bit of CRX magic.
the main differences from the CRX Triple Nova and the fw3a are battery size and UI. Both have thermal management features.
Anduril is basically a 1 mode UI, with electronic ramping in 150 steps, and memory.
H17f is a clicky UI, with up to 7 modes in each of two user groups, w programmable levels divided into 24 hops in brightness, similar to an HDS clicky or Novatac. Memory can be turned on and off.
I dont know which UI offers the lowest low, or highest high, but imo, both drivers could achieve similar brightness levels, ceteris paribus
Necroish post, but based on hardware experimentation, a few of the modes that are too closely spaced together will glitch when switching between them, or when setting the brightness levels. It’s as if the driver doesn’t know exactly which level it’s trying to get to, a a small cluster of modes in the middle of the ramp seems to be suffering the most, i.e. the most useful 15-50 lumen modes.
The workaround, for me, has been to set only one mode in that range, a lower mode in the pwm/pdm region, a higher mode in the 100ish+ region, and a click hold at or near max.
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:
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I have one that says “made in USA” on the tail, but has an Al bezel. The two spl120 I have appear to be a slightly different shade of dusty gold, and one has much more pronounced but less sharp knurling, and overall feels a bit thicker. I’m closely following Tanko’s thread to mooch off his research, lol. I just want an anduril driver, but plan to wipe out simple mode in favor of a Novatac-esque portion while keeping the 10H to return to full Anduril. I imagine there will be some issues to iron out, but an engaging task is usually rewarding.
Hogo posted:
“The tailcap was made in the U.S. then shipped overseas… so in that respect, yes, the tailcap was made in the U.S. LOL! There was an abundance of tail caps. A lot of dirty pool was played after Novatac left Tucson.”
afaik, all the Novatac SPA SPL-120 with same color anodized bezels were actually made in China regardless what it says on the tailcap.
The actual USA made lights were not the Silver nor Dusty Gold, colors.. they were a dark HAIII anodizing with blacked out stainless bezels.. like this one:
note the USA models have serial numbers (and they dont say SPA SPL-120).. Note the Knurling is flat, not sharp. On the other side of the body some are Marked Novatac EDC 120P, or Novatac EDC 120T
otoh this is a Chinese Novatac, they are marked SPA SPL-120 (and they dont have serial numbers). Note the knurling is sharp, not flat. On the other side of the body, it is marked Novatac (only, not EDC 120P nor EDC 120T):
here is a post by selfbuilt with some more variations, both USA and Chinese models:
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