It's all Dale's fault. And everyone else's too...

[derekmac]

How about one of these. 
http://gizmodo.com/5880609/this-15000-lumens-led-light-cannon-will-turn-night-to-day

[ducttapetech]

Now that's what I'm talking about!

live from Nate's mobile

[Grant Lamontagne]

That light is a monster! Little less convenient than this one though!

By the way, here it is on a tripod. I wasn't kidding when I said it was mountable!

Def

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[sawman]

How about one of these. 
http://gizmodo.com/5880609/this-15000-lumens-led-light-cannon-will-turn-night-to-day

Takes 32 lithium batteries!! Why not just hook it up to a car battery 

[ducttapetech]

Battery hell! That thing needs a reactor.

live from Nate's mobile

[derekmac]

Battery hell! That thing needs a reactor.

live from Nate's mobile

Lol!!  You might be on to something there Nate!!

[Grant Lamontagne]

I did a little experiment today with this light today.  I turned it on about a foot away from the wall (not that the distance to the wall was important) and took the temperature every minute. 



This is the result:

time    temp (C)
0       18.9
1     24.2
2     28.2
3     30.7
4     33.1
5     35.2
6     38.3
7     40.3
8     40.5
9     43.4
10    44.5
11    45.7
12    48.2
13    45.3
14    47.5
15    49.4

Those of you that don't understand Celsius will have to do your own conversions.  Anything over 35C is pretty hot to hold, and beating 45C is too much to handle for more than a couple of seconds.

I put the laser from the probe on the warning spot each time for consistency.



I also explored the light, taking readings from different spots, and the front of the light was reading in excess of 68C.  This thing does get hot- the warning isn't just for show.

I am glad that I mounted it on a tripod as the aluminum handle heated up pretty good as well since there is no insulation between it and the emitters.  In fact, the whole light beat 40C, including the battery compartment, which seems like a bad thing to me.

The lesson here is, this is a short term use light, probably not suited to extended use like search and rescue unless mounted on a tripod, and even then, be ready for it to be rendered nonfunctional due to excessive heat buildup.

Def

[derekmac]

Who needs a camping stove when you could make bacon and eggs on that thing!!   

Which setting did you use?  I'd assume high with those temp readings.  Wonder how hot it would get on low? 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah I tested it on high as I wanted to get a worst case scenario.

I suppose I could try it on low.

FWIW the wall heated up from 18C to 24C.

Def

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[Grant Lamontagne]

I took this light to the beach the other night to test it out.  Luckily no one else was at the beach, because they'd be blind if they were.  This is the beach I went to- I am including this here so you can get an idea of the scope of what I am about to say.

http://lawrencetownbeach.com/

I stood about 1/3 the way down the beach and flipped it on.  It was a partially cloudy night so the beach wasn't totally dark, but with the absence of any street lights or any other light source it was ideal for testing.

One of my concerns was that LED's are generally not that "throwy."  I know they have gotten much better over the years, but there's a good reason searchlights are incandescent.  What I wanted this light for (and indeed, what I have been looking for in a light for a while) is something I could use to read draught markings on ships.  For those not familiar with draught markings, they are like a ruler that goes up the front and back of the ship and usually also the middle.  This allows us to see how low she is in the water, then by taking the water density and plugging it into a mathematical formula to calculate the volume of the ship, which allows us to figure out how much cargo she has. 

Often this work is done before dawn or late at night as the labor starts at 8am and we need to do all these calculations before cargo gets loaded or unloaded or else our figures will be off and someone could be out a lot of money.  So, accurate draught readings are important.  The problem comes that the ship is usually in a berth (ship parking space) which means the dockside draught markings are ten (or so) feet below the level of the dock in the dark.  Finding a good light that can properly light that up is very important and difficult.  Even super bright LED lights don't light up an area large enough and bright enough at that distance.

On the offshore side of the ship we need to go across to the other pier and look back at the ship from 100 or so feet away.  Again the pier is well lit, but there are no lights on the water, which means we are looking into shadows again.  This was one of the reasons I put the bright LED's and HiD's on my Jeep.

Anyways, back to the story.  I wanted to test the Terminator and see how throwy it was so I went to a dark beach in the middle of the night.  It lit up the waves nicely and I was impressed.  Then I shone it on the closer set of bluffs (couple hundred yards away) and it lit them up quite well and I was really impressed.  Then I shone it on the far set of bluffs about a mile away and you could see the light reflecting back!  I mean it wasn't bright enough to read by or anything, but the fact was, it lit them up.

This is one smurf of a bright light!

Def

[Gareth]

Nice one Boss.   I think this is the one type of light I am still missing, something silly bright and throwy.  Not that I actually need one you understand, just that I'd like one.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I dropped off my Jeep tonight so the dealer could check into a minor issue I've been having and I realized this light was still in my cup holder.  My first instinct was to stick it in the glove compartment or something, but let's face it, glove compartments are never big enough for the crap you have in them, let alone adding a large flashlight into them.

Instead I told the tech and service manager that they were welcome to play with it (I mean, who could look at this thing with no one around and not fiddle with it?) as long as she promised not to light it up in her face or anyone else's.  She laughed and I said , no, I'm serious, it could be the last thing you ever look at. 

Needless to say, when I picked up my Jeep the switch was lit up, so obviously she did play with it! 

I picked it up after the dealership closed, so I didn't get a chance to ask her about it though.

Def

[derekmac]

I haven't heard any news stories saying that a dealer employee was blinded, so hopefully she took your advice!


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[Grant Lamontagne]

It would have happened at Dartmout Dodge, between 7 and 8 pm, so keep checking back on cbc.ca for updates.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

After Terry mentioned something about Fandy Fire lights in another discussion I did a bit of looking around and found this:

http://www.dx.com/p/fandyfire-5-x-cree-xm-l-t6-4000lm-5-mode-white-light-flashlight-dark-grey-4-x-18650-146528#.U6LqR3ZaaSo

They claim 4,000 lumens and at just over $50 or about a third of what the Dark Shadow Terminator goes for.  I am tempted to give it a shot and see if the extra 500 lumens makes much of a difference.   

I know the extra $100 in price would make a huge difference!

Anyone got or tried one of these?

Def

[derekmac]

After Terry mentioned something about Fandy Fire lights in another discussion I did a bit of looking around and found this:

http://www.dx.com/p/fandyfire-5-x-cree-xm-l-t6-4000lm-5-mode-white-light-flashlight-dark-grey-4-x-18650-146528#.U6LqR3ZaaSo

They claim 4,000 lumens and at just over $50 or about a third of what the Dark Shadow Terminator goes for.  I am tempted to give it a shot and see if the extra 500 lumens makes much of a difference.   

I know the extra $100 in price would make a huge difference!

Anyone got or tried one of these?

Def

Damn, it looks impressive!  I'd be very interested in one, if they are half decent.  Claimed 4000lm for that price. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

More power for less money?  I have to say that seems like a pretty darned good deal to me.

Def

[Zed]

I realy wish i never looked on this post   

[Grant Lamontagne]

Blame Dale! 

Def

Sent from a digital multitool

[PTRSAK]

http://www.dx.com/p/ultrafire-7xt6-7-x-cree-xm-l-t6-3-mode-4200lm-white-flashlight-w-strap-black-4-x-18650-285522#.U6NK5bHm6BE

Even more power 4200LM  and even less dollars. 

[derekmac]

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

As Pam would say, hoky smurfsnacks!

Def

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[NutSAK]

Don't trust lumen claims of any *Fire light (except SureFire).

Reviews show that one is around the 2000 lumen output mark.  With those shallow reflectors, the throw won't be near as much as the Terminator.

Same light, different branding: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/11189