what are the brightest torches people here use ?

[laz]

hi,
i was looking at getting a bright torch to use for camping, walking the dogs
at night, etc
and a fun gadget

http://www.dansdata.com/ has lot of nice torches reviewed
the ones using the luxeon star 3W and 5W leds seem quite good

http://www.elektrolumens.com/index.html have some good led torches
the http://elektrolumens.com/Tri_Star_Phazer/Tri-Star-Phazer.html seems
very nice
this uses C cells so it will last a long time and 3 x 3W luxeon leds-very
bright !!!


http://www.surefire.com/ make nice tactital torches
but not cheap !!!

http://flashlightreviews4.home.att.net/ is also an interesting site

laz

 

[Russ]

hi,
i was looking at getting a bright torch to use for camping, walking
the dogs at night, etc
and a fun gadget

http://www.dansdata.com/ has lot of nice torches reviewed
the ones using the luxeon star 3W and 5W leds seem quite good

I got one of them 1,000,000 candle power things from Jaycar - bright as
buggery, weighs quite a bit from the 6v gell cell and lasts about 15 minutes
before it starts to dim.

Mighty bright tho.

Russ.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

hi,
i was looking at getting a bright torch to use for camping, walking the dogs
at night, etc
and a fun gadget

http://www.dansdata.com/ has lot of nice torches reviewed
the ones using the luxeon star 3W and 5W leds seem quite good

http://www.elektrolumens.com/index.html have some good led torches
the http://elektrolumens.com/Tri_Star_Phazer/Tri-Star-Phazer.html seems
very nice
this uses C cells so it will last a long time and 3 x 3W luxeon leds-very
bright !!!


http://www.surefire.com/ make nice tactital torches
but not cheap !!!

http://flashlightreviews4.home.att.net/ is also an interesting site

**250,000 Candlepower, rechargeable from Super Cheap Auto. Bloody excellent
and 8 Bucks. BTW: I have a range of LED and Luxeon emitters. Put 'em beside
a decent halogen and they look pretty piss-weak. LEDs are reasonably
efficient, however. You want bright (and cheap)? You need incandescent.

 

[Uncle Chop Chop]

the ultimate torch is the one the US millitary use, they use HID technology
and at peak brightness last 5 minutes, and can blind a person even with
their eyelids closed. They are around $500US and completly bullet proof

 

[Patrick Dunford]

I got one of them 1,000,000 candle power things from Jaycar - bright as
buggery, weighs quite a bit from the 6v gell cell and lasts about 15 minutes
before it starts to dim.

More useful if you replace the original bulb with a 25W one, which almost
triples the charge life. These bulbs are still available from Jaycar but
they are a limited stock item, being phased out.

 

[Rheilly Phoull]

hi,
i was looking at getting a bright torch to use for camping, walking the dogs
at night, etc
and a fun gadget

http://www.dansdata.com/ has lot of nice torches reviewed
the ones using the luxeon star 3W and 5W leds seem quite good

http://www.elektrolumens.com/index.html have some good led torches
the http://elektrolumens.com/Tri_Star_Phazer/Tri-Star-Phazer.html seems
very nice
this uses C cells so it will last a long time and 3 x 3W luxeon leds-very
bright !!!


http://www.surefire.com/ make nice tactital torches
but not cheap !!!

http://flashlightreviews4.home.att.net/ is also an interesting site

laz

Camping and dog walking are best served by LED's. Since they are more
efficient usage of the battery versus light output.

 

[David L. Jones]

hi,
i was looking at getting a bright torch to use for camping, walking the dogs
at night, etc
and a fun gadget

http://www.dansdata.com/ has lot of nice torches reviewed
the ones using the luxeon star 3W and 5W leds seem quite good

http://www.elektrolumens.com/index.html have some good led torches
the http://elektrolumens.com/Tri_Star_Phazer/Tri-Star-Phazer.html seems
very nice
this uses C cells so it will last a long time and 3 x 3W luxeon leds-very
bright !!!


http://www.surefire.com/ make nice tactital torches
but not cheap !!!

http://flashlightreviews4.home.att.net/ is also an interesting site

laz

Why do you need ultra-bright for camping and walking the dog? They are
traditional uses for a medium or low brighness headlamp. In these
sorts of applications I would rate battery life, weight and
convieniece (headlamp for instance) well above brightness.
A 5 or 7 LED headlamp would be plenty. They are cheap and the
batteries will last for ages compared to a 1W, 3W or 5W Luxeon. Jaycar
now have a 1W Luxeon headlamp but with the AAA batteries they don't
last that long, an hour or so on full brightness. Even on the lowest
setting (25%) you only get 4 or 5 hours.
I just picked up an 8 LED AA diving headlamp (for canyoning) on eBay
for under $20, and there are even cheaper smaller and lighter 5 LED
versions on eBay shops too for under $10. Would be silly to pay 10
times that for an ultra-bright luxeon torch for these applications.

Regards
Dave

 

[onestone]

**250,000 Candlepower, rechargeable from Super Cheap Auto. Bloody excellent
and 8 Bucks. BTW: I have a range of LED and Luxeon emitters. Put 'em beside
a decent halogen and they look pretty piss-weak. LEDs are reasonably
efficient, however. You want bright (and cheap)? You need incandescent.

Rubbish, check out Surefire, but more than that think about it. 90%+ of
the energy in an incandescent simply makes unwanted heat. We just
shipped a Luxeon 5W based torch to replace an existing 50W halogen
design. The LED is far brighter. It's all in the design.

Al

 

[onestone]

Why do you need ultra-bright for camping and walking the dog? They are
traditional uses for a medium or low brighness headlamp. In these
sorts of applications I would rate battery life, weight and
convieniece (headlamp for instance) well above brightness.
A 5 or 7 LED headlamp would be plenty. They are cheap and the
batteries will last for ages compared to a 1W, 3W or 5W Luxeon. Jaycar
now have a 1W Luxeon headlamp but with the AAA batteries they don't
last that long, an hour or so on full brightness. Even on the lowest
setting (25%) you only get 4 or 5 hours.

Hi Dave. It's all about design. You can't buy our torches, but our
client pays less than half the price of Surefire. We ship a Luxeon V
version that just replaced our old halogen 50W, as it's brighter. We run
off the same batteries (3V Li camera batteries) and get up to 6 hours at
full brightness. Beam can be shaped to spot, or wide beam.

Al

 

[Marty Wallace]

David L. Jones wrote:

Hi Dave. It's all about design. You can't buy our torches, but our
client pays less than half the price of Surefire. We ship a Luxeon V
version that just replaced our old halogen 50W, as it's brighter. We run
off the same batteries (3V Li camera batteries) and get up to 6 hours at
full brightness. Beam can be shaped to spot, or wide beam.

Al

How many Luxeons do you use?
I use a Luxeon 5 watt as a headlight for my bike and it's only equivalent to
about a 10 watt halogen.

Marty

 

[onestone]

How many Luxeons do you use?
I use a Luxeon 5 watt as a headlight for my bike and it's only equivalent to
about a 10 watt halogen.

Marty

One. It's all about design.

Al

 

[onestone]

Marty what voltage/current/control do you use?

Al

 

[Marty Wallace]

Marty what voltage/current/control do you use?

I use the PowerPuck driver that the manufacturer sells.
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=416&link_str=89&partno=02008A

Marty

 

[Marty Wallace]

One. It's all about design.

Al

Al I'd suggest that your 50 watt lamp design must be very poor if a 5 watt
LED can replace it.
I haven't found any data anywhere that indicates that an LED is 10 times
brighter than Halogen.

Marty

 

[onestone]

I use the PowerPuck driver that the manufacturer sells.
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=416&link_str=89&partno=02008A

Not the best option in my opinion. also expensive as all hell. We use a
custom PSU that is a fraction of this size, and just AUS$5 to build.

1.5 to 8V input
up to 1A loading
programmable constant current regulator
thermal compensation
colour compensation
Efficiency ~ 95%
We also use custom optics

Al

 

[onestone]

equivalent to



Al I'd suggest that your 50 watt lamp design must be very poor if a 5 watt
LED can replace it.
I haven't found any data anywhere that indicates that an LED is 10 times
brighter than Halogen.

Marty

The 50W rating is not optical power, it is power consumption. Most of
that is heat, not light. The halogen module is a custom high power unit
with built in reflector and lens. VERY expensive, developed for the
military. About 45 minutes on 2 lithium photocells. We spent a long time
working on thermal issues, as well as lens and reflector designs.

Al

 

[Marty Wallace]

Marty Wallace wrote:

The 50W rating is not optical power, it is power consumption. Most of
that is heat, not light. The halogen module is a custom high power unit
with built in reflector and lens. VERY expensive, developed for the
military. About 45 minutes on 2 lithium photocells. We spent a long time
working on thermal issues, as well as lens and reflector designs.

Al

Are you sure it consumes 50 Watts?
50 Watts for 45 minutes sounds like a lot of power for photocells.
What type of batteries do you use and how many of them?
I'm looking for a new set of batteries to replace the gel cels I presently
use fom my 5 Watt Luxeon.

Marty

 

[onestone]

Are you sure it consumes 50 Watts?
50 Watts for 45 minutes sounds like a lot of power for photocells.

Not Photocells, sorry, terminology, they are sold as 'camera' batteries,
I meant to write "photographic cells" but had a brain stumble, mixing up
the newest design, which uses a solar trickle charger. The old Halogen
design used 2 x Lithium Thionyl Chloride high power batteries. 3.7V
rated at 6.7Ah Ah Non-rechargable.

What type of batteries do you use and how many of them?
I'm looking for a new set of batteries to replace the gel cels I presently
use fom my 5 Watt Luxeon.

The new design currently uses a pair of non-rechargable DL123 1.3Ah
duracells. We are limited by the clients insistence that we must use a
battery currently in use by the client. These give us 4-6 hours usage on
the new 'torch' depending upon circumstance. I've been trying to dig
our client out of their battery rut, as our own in-house design (my
personal weapon) uses a very light weight Li-poly cell rated at 3.3Ah
3.6V. It gives 5-8 hours operation on a full charge.

Al

 

[laz]

hi al,

David L. Jones wrote:

Hi Dave. It's all about design. You can't buy our torches, but our
client pays less than half the price of Surefire. We ship a Luxeon V
version that just replaced our old halogen 50W, as it's brighter. We run
off the same batteries (3V Li camera batteries) and get up to 6 hours at
full brightness. Beam can be shaped to spot, or wide beam.

Al

why can't we buy your torches ?
i think sunfire are used by the military and police and people can buy them
?
laz

 

[o{O}o]

What kind of torches do the police use ?

I have seen one on when a policeman (Vic) came in the evening.
(summons for court witness)

The beam from it was very bright.
It looked like an aluminium job with maybe 3 "D" batteries in it.