The gulls are on the other side of the house crapping on passers by so I nipped out to do some beamshots. The exposures in these are different from the usual - less thhan half the normal so these are not comparable to my usual beamshots. The exposure is the same for all of them though.
Solarforce Skyline 1 on CR123. It is quite a bit brighter on primaries.
Then I aimed it at the top of the tree, or at least the top bit that the camera could see. This thing throws well.
Lumahunter MRV SE - stock on high. Again a nice tight spot but not as tight as the Solarforce though i think it's actually putting out quite a bit more light.
Tree top
Showerhead Mag dropin - this is in excess of 300 lumens - it is running on 3 D cells. It'll beat 450 lumens on 6 cells. It is a big flooder with some traces of a "hotspot"
Pointed at the top of the tree
Solarforce L2r running a pair of NiMH and a low voltage R2 dropin from Solarforce. This is quite a respectable performer but these guys all outclass it. Remember this exposure is less than half of my usual.
Tree top shot
And now for something slightly silly. This guy is up around the 2000 lumen mark. Mine is down on output- around 6800 lux on the lightbox - around 1500 lumens. Time to charge the batteries - for another 21 minutes of silly light. That's with an orange peel reflector. If I wanted more throw I could get a bigger smooth reflector and pop the dome off the LED. Lowers total output but more than doubles throw. It is the prototype of the Lambda Lights Varapower which has an SST-90 LED driven at around 12 amps.
That Lambda is just sick! Also L2r is running 2*AA, quite unfair to put it against Skyline on 2*cr123 :). Still, I think it's great for 2*AA and has a p60 reflector that throws well.
Lumahunter MRV SE - stock on high. Again a nice tight spot but not as tight as the Solarforce though i think it's actually putting out quite a bit more light.
That's what I wanted to ask you - while wallhunting, by naked eye, it seems that MRV > Skyline I !
In every aspect - brighter hotspot, brighter (and wider) spill, better defined edges of the hotspot. Except on the Skyline the hotspot is smaller, but still looks dim.
I'll put them both on the lightbox some time soon and do some comparative measurements. The Solarforce is a lot brighter on primaries so I'll measure it with both. The CPF verdict on the Solarforce appears to be nice, but needs more output.
Solarforce 860 lux around 190 lumens on primaries. 540 lux on 18650 around 120 lumens.
I read on Jayki that the dimming circuitry is in the tailcap and that it does consume some of the output. So let's try without the tailcap.
18650 690 lux about 150 lumens
CR123x2 920 lux 205 lumens. Strange. It performs a lot better without the tailcap on 18650s but worse with CR 123s
Time to try again.
CR123tailcap850! Batteries must be on the way out - only explanation I can think of. Will try this again when my brain is less fogged as I last slept 2 days ago.
I like your new sig Don. I think I'll print it out and put it on my wall. That reminded me about my last job in Alaska where I was a warehouse manager I had a poster on my wall that said, "Rule no.1 = The Boss is always right. Rule no.2 = If the Boss is wrong, see Rule no.1". I also had a sign on the other wall that said, "Bang Head Here!" in the middle of a bullseye so when one of my employees came in to whine or complain, I just pointed to the sign on the wall. :D
So it seems that the driver is in fact not in the cap!
Or is it and without the cap the LED is direct driven?
From your measurements it seems that if indeed Q5 > R2 then the cell current should be lower and the runtime longer on the Skyline. Can you measure the current?
So it seems MRV is one great light. Especially for the price.
It seems to be that it has a two part setup. The driver is, as usual, in the pill behind the LED, but the dimming circuitry and whatever makes it flash is in the tailcap. Certainly it would seem from the 18650 results that that tailcap does drop output. It is also said, though I've not yet found the evidence it is based on that it is the tailcap that is voltage limited, not the driver. If this is the case then a Tiablo extension tube would allow for two 18650s once the switch was swapped out.
Will do some current draw tests tonight.
The MRV certainly was a great deal and even at the current price it is worthwhile.
Fired up the meter to let me see what the current in this thing is doing. Making the meter probes stay in place was the biggest problem. Will put up a plot of current draw once I can see what is going on in there. This is with an 18650.
Eh? Not a clue about what's going on in there. Some of that is probably due to vibration, the jig wasn't all that stable. This is with an 18650. Must stick this on the lightbox to see what happens.
