I was surprised too. I have had stuff faster from HK - just not very often and never from KD.
Mainland China is a whole other ball game - 5 weeks is good, 3 months is not surprising - and that's with EMS. My Zebralight took about 3 months shipped EMS from Shenzen.
Just bought a book from an Australian publisher. The shipping was 1 AU$ more than the book. Wonder how long it'll take? Given that the book is published on the 1st of October I'll be interested to see how long it takes to get here. The amusing thing is the author lives 11 miles from here - or about 0.1% of the distance to the publisher.
Will need to test to be sure but I reckon runtime is in that area. Will try it with both an alkaline and an NiMH to be sure. Experiment almost invariably beats prediction.
I'd expect the alkaline to run a bit longer as its internal resistance is higher so is less able to produce high currents. Inevitably this means less light but that tradeoff is a personal choice. Will stick it on the box to be sure.
It looks like it will replace the Trustfire R5-A3 and the two Tank007 E07s as EDC though it won't replace the Zebralight that lives in my bag. 6 hours is too soon to say but it is looking good. I've always regretted giving away the P31. Now I don't. Seems to me that the P32 is an excellent light unless my testing comes up with a deal breaker. I am not ex-pecting it to do so - pretty much everything I've said about the P31 applies.
Hmmm, sounds like a very nice, bright, quality light. But I'm not sure if I need a light that only manages 4 hours on low. That's not low on my opinion. We'll see I guess.
I'd have agreed with you 25 years ago when the nearest place I could charge batteries was a 10 mile walk away. Nowadays brightness matters more - mostly - as long as it will pump out the light I want when I want it to. I am never as much as a kilometre from a charger. Once it was different....
I can probably still rebuild Tilley/Coleman/Chinese clone pressure lamps blindfolded and handcuffed. I've done so in the dark many times (Not usually with handcuffs though) in the last 40 years. I spent 2 years doing so in a place with no AC power at all (Well we did have power for 3 nights between Feb 1984 and July 1986.) The local paraffin was rather too high molecular weight to suit so I ran them on gasoline which ate the seals regularly. A device running at 1000C which sprays gasoline mist everywhere can get a little bit exciting at times. And i have only one burn scar from that era from a light.
I spent a lot of my holidays as a kid in a place with no AC power. The power company wanted more than the house was worth to connect us. By the age of 12 I could rebuild a Tilley lamp in the dark. That was 38 years ago.
Never had to rebuild an LED light in the dark yet - especially in a place with no power. But this is the light I'd probably want to have along in such circumstances. It is highly unlikely that I will ever again be without AC for more than a day.
Unless I change countries - but the stuff I'd put up with in my twenties is rather more than I'd put up with 30 years later.
My needs/wants these days are a bit different. I work in a very brightly lit office in an even brighter lit hospital so most of the extra lighting I need is to deal with shadows. Briefly.
I am required to warn people not to look at the lights in my office (Unshielded bright and horribly blue fluorescents) under the 2009 Optical Radiation Directive. Never work for one of he world's largest employers (1.1 million people the last time I looked).
I'm glad you're enjoying your P32. I don't think the pictures do this light justice.
IMO, the look and feel are simply superb. Just a little reminder for those that have the single mode P31 (or feel their P32 is underdriven on high mode), I reported back on post 49 how to make your P31 into a great "group programmable/multimode" that drives the LED hard on high (2.2 amps measured at the tailcap). This makes it the perfect 1 x AA driver for those that dont want to use 14500's. I didn't record current on the other modes, suffice it to say it even comes with a very very low candle mode available... something you usually don't have available on budget lights. On high power, I easily get an hour with an eneloop, with much better run times on lower settings. Its still one of my favorite EDC's and always accompanies me in the cockpit or while camping. One of the program groups actually has 5 levels of well spaced brightness settings available, AND WITHOUT all the other useless blinking modes most of us have learned to hate. God I love that!!
I've since bought three other P31's and modded them for friends. The poor bastards are becoming flashaholics (part of my devious plan).
Don't be afraid to try out your own mods. Once you've successfully completed one, you'll do many more. BTW, that driver mod rocks new life into an already awesome light package! The best thing about the driver is that after you change modes, it locks out any more changes after 2 seconds of inactivity - just in case you accidentally bump the tail switch, it wont change modes inadvertently. You initially have to double press the tail switch to unlock the driver and then advance to the next mode, and singe press each time thereafter to cycle through all the other available modes. It you pause for 2 seconds while cycling between modes, it will again lock itself into the last mode used. Yes, it does have memory and other other selectable program groups available with a multitude of blinking modes you wont see on most other lights. There is a slight learning curve to changing modes but something anyone can master within a few minutes. This is an excellent safe torch to keep handy while night flying. I always take safeguards to protect my night vision, just in case one of my lights was mistakenly left on a higher mode when last used. I also carry a FAA approved (2 X D incan light) in the cockpit within easy reach for backup. Its stupid but required equipment... and its never been used while in flight.
If you have any questions about this mod, just ask. The P31, P31 with driver mod, and P32 are awesome budget lights for the price. Its no surprise to me that Don missed his first one and eventually replaced it. Along with that, he gave a great light to a friend that could appreciate it.
At 2hr 30 min down to 28 lux - about 6 lumens. This is with an alkaline on low. Probably not one for you Mr. Admin.
5 minutes later down to the battery tail 11 lux 2 lumens. Will leave it running till it shuts off. Which it has just done.
Cell voltage 1.08V which makes me suspect it shuts off at 1V to protect NiMH cells. This is a good thing.
After a couple of minutes' rest it recovered to 100 lux on low so I'll leave it for a minute or two till it shuts down again. Out again 3 minutes later. It could just be an unusually bad alkaline - they were very cheap so will run NiMH tests next.
I wish FlashPilot would sell modded P31s with that replacement driver he mentioned. Sounds like a high quality light, but no, 50 lumens on low is a bit ridiculous. Glad it's working out for you though Don.
It wouldn’t be a budget light if I had to charge others for the driver, light, labor and shipping. Have you thought about giving my instructions a try?
I've not run it for more than 30 seconds yet. In the same post I got some AA lithium primaries I ordered so I tried the P32 on one - throw 2990 lux at 1 metre.
I'll need to rig up some sort of jig and try the P31 on various voltages to see if the driver really is 2.8V and up - 15V is just crazy on an AA light. But I'd rather not kill the driver on a brand new light just yet - I'm just at home to let the dog empty herself and have to go back to work now.
BUT - this one works fine with a 14500 drawing 1.22A, or 62mA or somewhere between 500 and 1150mA. What?
It's a 3 mode! But it definitely says P31 on the body.
On farther checking I reckon this is probably the driver that is normally found on the gold P32. The 3 modes in this case are a bonus though I still doubt the voltage claimed on the box.
Wonder what other strangeness lurks in there. Time to get the camera out.
Huh, that is strange. Very strange. Unfortunately this damages Hugsby's quality reputation, because now nobody knows what they'll receive. When will these companies learn that if they are going to change the specs, they have to change the model number with it. Akoray K-106, Ultrafire C3, Romisen RC-I3, and now Hugsby, the list goes on and on of multiple versions of the same moniker.
Indeed. Fortunately for me, I have the necessary cells etc. to use it. But it is a good idea to let people know. Fair enough to have a different coloured P32 with a different driver sold specifically for those who want to use 14500. If I didn't use lithium rechargeables I'd now be writing off $13 as trying to get KD to replace it would likely be a complete waste of time.
It seems the Enegizer lithiums are OK, they just seem to bleed off their original voltage quickly - with 1500mAh out of it, it is still showing 1.43V. An alkaline at that discharge rate would not be at anything like that voltage.
Edit: I got 3136mAh out of one discharged to 1V. Stuck he resulting "dead" cell in a Powerlight which lights up just fine. Even produces usable light.