I’m pretty new here and quite new to the fact that flashlights can be modified for specific needs, so if this needs to be moved or has been addressed already I’m more than willing to accept that I didn’t do my due diligence and need to be hammered by the admins.
That being said, here’s what I’ve got going on:
I really like the idea that flashlights can be modded for a specific use and I would like to build a specific light for doing galley inspections on submarines. I’m a Corpsman attached to a Los Angeles class submarine and the lights on board these things are abysmal, to perform an adequate inspection of the galley and berthing spaces, I need a light that is quite bright with a white beam to show all the unclean/ unsat areas that I am inspecting. I already have the Solarforce L2T body and would like recommendations of drop-in’s for my application as I do not know if I should be shooting for a spot, or a flood, or what?
The biggest items that I need are a bright white light that will offer good tangential lighting. So what do you guys recommend for lumens, spot vs flood, preferred reflector, best drop-in for my application?
Less important is does anyone know of a good quality holster that will fit the L2T?
Thank you in advanced for whatever help you can offer.
The best thing about dropins, is that you can have more than one. Get a couple of UV (365/400 NM) a good 2B, 2C or 3D tint drop in for your inspections, they are good, bright whites. Then get one with a Nichia 219B for bright colors.
Since you are on a sub and will need one that will work with a ton of abuse, get one from PFlexPro pflexpro.com is coming soon
That should do you well…
To me, the 2 series of tints (1D sometimes too) are bright white with no “blue” in the tint.
Solarforce makes a very nice floodlight lens: Solarforce "close-up" convex lens
Add that to the recommended Nichia from mtnelectronics and you’ll have a good light for close distances.
And how far do you need to see inside a submarine, anyhow?
Yup, these are all good choices, and I believe that Richard also has a box that you can select for him to build it all, and test it for you for a couple of bucks more. Good deal on these, the 219C has some great tint. I heartily recommend guppydrv as well, besides the BLF A6 firmware, it is my favorite.
I still say a couple of extra dropins would be good too. I was thinking a warm tint like 7 series or so would be good in the darkness of a sub. I got some of the cheap 219A’s from fasttech, and if they are higher than 4K on tint, I would be surprised. Thing is, I get the warm tints now… they do not flash back into your face up close like the whiter ones do. They also seem to not screw up my night vision as bad either, both of which could be good on a dark boat like a sub.
I use mine everyday... Great blend of form, durability, and beam pattern. Also, at the price point, it's hard to beat a forward clicky Solarforce (if that's your cup of tea). My 6A+ monsters generally just sit around.
I have that lens with Solarforce L2P. Solarforce is a strong and reliable host, I’m using it for more than 2 years now, I think.
For me L2-CL1 lens is perfect for checking small and confined places in ships (I’m in a shipbuilding business too).
There’s this big wall of light with no hot spot at all which is easy on my eyes at close range.
Drop-in I use is this one in cool white: http://intl-outdoor.com/p60-dropin-module-cuxm2-xml2-p-740.html only older model “ALXM2”.
Great price and quality and you can choose led and tint. Solarforce L2-CL1 lens fits perfectly on this drop-in.
Just make sure you wrap drop-in for better heat transfer (I use aluminum from soda can) and you’re good to go.
Another alternative you might consider as back up to you L2T might be Zeusray EDC100 http://www.dealmetic.com/product.asp?ID=FL05518
It’s a bit smaller than my L2P and still has a nice big flood. Of course, quality is not as good as Solarforce but for $7.99 I think its worth it as a backup.
I’ve had P60’s for many years and still think they are worth consideration. The ability to update the led simply by replacing the pill/dropin makes it a good choice for someone who would like to update every few years to a more powerful led, but would rather not spend up on a whole new flashlight. You can buy a very good/excellent host and then simply update the pill. I’ve probably owned about 10 P60 hosts, some I’ve given away to family and friends. Earlier this year I bought a Solarforce L2N host and added a IOS XPL 3D dropin. It’s a nice quality combination. The dropins can be bought cheaply from <$10 but the quality is questionable. In the $10-$20 range you can get a really good dropin, with an example in an earlier post by MTN. I’ll be getting delivery shortly of a KD XPL-HI dropin which I expect will be a good perfomer too. Only downside of the P60’s is the heat management. The pills inserted in the host dont fit perfectly which reduces the hear dissipation. Lots of suggestions on the internet on how to improve the situation with Aluminium foil and other ideas.
