Unknown Cyclist

No pressure there then....

ilovebicycling

No pressure. No problemo. You are what you are.

pdxsteve

I will try again tonight but my camera is booty. Anyone with access to 18650's and a charger who wants a super bright, non-blinking light should buy this without question. The only thing that sucks is the wait. And finding an attachment point, but seriously, get creative.

1. I don't have enough knowledge of electronics to know if the flashlight is regulated.

2. I have been told by folks on candlepower forums that the "wet finger" test involves taking off the tail cap of a flashlight, wetting a finger and completing the circuit between the body of the flashlight and the bottom of the battery. You are making an electrical connection between the very top of the tail end threads and the battery. I HAVE BEEN TOLD that if the led glows slightly the flashlight is "direct drive." I not sure I could even provide a definition of "direct drive." This and my mt-e p7 both glow slightly when subjected to this test. As the only two flashlight I own, they both pass this test.

3. I can easily see this thing in the daylight from one end of my block (500'+).

Unknown Cyclist

Direct Drive = no circuit board.

Some single white LED torches just have a battery a switch and the LED.

Although you can add a resistor, though it's arguable whether this is direct drive or not.

I don't think these Ultrafire WF-501B Philips Luxeon K2 Red LED Flashlights are direct drive.

The load of the LED 'might' be enough to bring the LED voltage to what I measured, but I'm not sure.

I'll run some more tests....

- Just dismantled the torch and it looks like there is a circuit of some kind in there.

Bheleu

If you want to change out LEDs, or build your own this place has a lot of options... they even have lenses, and more importantly the specs on various LEDs. The 140lumen red's have about a 1.4A draw. I had debated about putting my own rear light together in one of these. There's plenty of room to have some LEDs for rear placement as well as side placement. The only thing that stopped me was it would cost me a good bit to put a custom unit together (and at that point why not just buy an Denoti, etc).

pdxsteve

Don't build your own or buy a DiNotte, just drop 10 bones for the brightest red, non-bike specific light out there.

Unknown Cyclist

Selling only Luxeon LEDs isn't really a lot of options.

sknhgy 

I'm just wondering how you guys got one so fast. I ordered a flashlight kit, emitter, and driver before I found out about this $10 deal. I still haven't received them. I wish I had know about these $10 lights before I ordered my parts.
My order isn't scheduled to arrive until 4-3-09.

pdxsteve

I bought mine on a whim before seeing this thread.

pdxsteve

Ok, here are some daylight shots.

10 dollar flashlight vs. 20 dollar no name blinky (decent, not superflash decent, but a good comparison) on solid with fresh triple AAA's.

dougmc

Mine arrived today ...

When I tested the runtime I got about 4.5 hours.

It gets a bit warm. While I did the runtime test, I was also testing one of the DE `900 (really 400) lumen' lights, the two mode one in low light mode, and the other light was still cool hours later, but the red one was rather warm. Not hot, but warm.

(Side note -- the 2 mode 400 lumen light doesn't do PWM to adjust the brightness like the 5 mode one. Instead, it puts about 7 ohms of resistance in the circuit in dim mode, and it doesn't seem to even get warm, but still puts out a lot of light.)

Like the other lights of this type, the battery fits a bit loosely, and so you'll want to put a bit of a shim, perhaps part of a business card, in there to make it fit more snugly and vibrate less.

All in all, the red light is certainly bright enough, though I'd prefer a bit more efficiency to get longer run times. I'd prefer the beam be a bit less focused for a rear light -- a concave lens might be the way to do that. I'd probably want to grind off the `tactical' ridges near the glass to increase the possible viewing angle a bit. Should make a nice main rear light, but I'll make sure I have a backup in case the battery dies and I don't notice.

Unknown Cyclist

Similar to my thoughts, I'm waiting on a lens from DX to make mine wider angle and I'm considering machining the assault crown down and re-anodising it.

AEO

is the lens size actually 28mm in diameter?

I've found a site that carries 2 variations of diffusion lenses.

https://www.flashlightlens.com/str/in...w&ref=ucl_lens
https://www.flashlightlens.com/str/in...=acrylite_lens

still looking for a diverging lens like this one:
https://www.luxeonstar.com/fraen-wide...leds-p-346.php
https://www.luxeonstar.com/fraen-elli...leds-p-307.php

but I'm not sure if that will fit in the ultrafire. the diameter seems to match up decently, but not sure of the depth, room or LED type, other than 'K2' and red K2 will get 40 degree viewing angles.

pdxsteve

the led is a drop in unit, so you could get away with a lens change, but that's about it without further modification.

znomit

LEDsupply have oval diffusers which will widen the beam in one direction, so you get the wide beam without wasting lumens up and down. Just stick it to the front of the light.
https://www.ledsupply.com/l2-optx-1-825s.php

Cheap and cheerful: You can also use glad press'n'seal to diffuse the beam.

dougmc

I got the 05297 lens with my light just on the chance it might be useful. It wasn't -- it didn't really make the beam wider or narrower. Which I can't really explain, but so be it.

Unknown Cyclist

The original lens is 26.7 mm.

AEO

definitely not as bright as a dinotte, at least as far as memory serves.
but beats the heck out of a PB super flash.

note: don't stare into it.


finish quality could be a bit better, like the optics being a bit dusty on the inside, but for what you pay for, it's worth it.

the light is not very uniform and there are distinguishable coronas.

size comparison:
left to right: MTE-P7 assault head, MTE-P7 5-mode, ultrafire WF-1000L MC-E, ultrafire WF-501B luxeon K2, trustfire TR-801

AEO

mounting methods put to practical use:

rubber O-ring method, only works with this sort of velcro strap style where it starts at the top and loops at the bottom. needs to be shimmed to get it to point straight.


the "I have no other practical places to mount it" method.

daven1986

I like the look of this light might try putting one on my rack. Will probably get some superflashes or similar as blinkies.

AEO

btw, these won't fit, unless you remove the reflector, which seems to be soldered to the entire head piece.

your best bet is to just take some 600grit sand paper and frost the lens to make the light coming out less harsh to those directly behind you.

and it has somewhere around a 60 degree viewing angle for the centre spot where you can actually see that it's bright and 160 degrees for spill where you'll see it's red, but not very bright.

AEO

btw, I broke it, or it broke on it's own when I disassembled it to clean out the metal shavings and apply grease to the threads.
I'd pay for a $20 light if it was constructed better.

erlebo

That's why I bought two of them. I'm hoping that will be enough to have one working for a while.

I'd buy something like a Fenix if they came in red.

10 Wheels

UK riders seen this one?

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Ex...le/5360039445/

daven1986

ye but you need the front light to run it off, no?