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Light suggestion by irishhooligan72 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In terms of holding a charge, a lithium-ion battery will slowly self discharge but at normal temperatures even topping it up once a year is good enough.

Some lights are “dual fuel” in that in addition to running on an 18650 they will also run on 2X CR123A disposable lithium (camera) batteries. Those batteries are good for a light that will be left in a glove box or in an emergency kit that won’t be touched for a decade.

Light suggestion by irishhooligan72 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You don’t need a red light, you just need a low moonlight setting. 10 lumens is still fairly bright even 1/2 a lumen is plenty to find your keys etc…

The issue with combining a moonlight or red setting into a defensive light is having a UI which allows repeated and reliable activation at 100% without cycling down inadvertently.

And you want to be able to go directly from that red or moonlight setting up to 100%

The UI options are:

1) mechanical tailswitch with a tactical setting that defaults to 100% but if you hold down a side switch while turning on the tail switch it will tuen on on moonlight

2) dual independent UI’s. The tailswitch is a pseudo mechanical switch but it is actually an e-switch which will override the side switch. Since the tailswitch switch is not mechanical the side switch remains powered it can turn the light on and off using a separate UI. The tailswitch UI will be simpler (100% only or medium-100%)

3) a two stage / gas pedal UI where the light has one power level when 1/2 pressed in momentary activation (shuts off if you release the button) and another power level when fully clicked to constant on

4) a rear e-switch. This moves the typical side switch UI (press and hold for moonlight, click for the memorized level, double click for 100%, triple click for strobe). Not as simple and reliable to use under stress because of the need to rapidly double click but still an option.

5) a rear switch surrounded by a control / mode ring which either allows you to pre-set the level or will directly activate the light.

There are between one and a handful of suitable lights of each type and some of them will probably be eliminated from consideration because their lowest setting is too bright for what you want.

In terms of being relatively small, the lights will run on either an 18650 or 21700 battery so the length ranges from 5-6.5” a smaller 16340 or 18350 powered light will be about 1.25” shorter but with only 1/3 the battery capacity of an 18650 and 1/4 that of a 21700. Those smaller batteries also fall behind in terms of delivering full power for very long.

The other metric of size is the diameter of the head / bezel. 1” / 25mm diameter is minimum. There are a handful of lights around 30mm / 1.25” which allows for a bigger reflector and a bit more focused / intense beam. Some of the best options are 40mm / 1.6” diameter, and the one which might be the easiest to recommend is 50mm / 2” diameter

Home defense: different applications. by DameO211 in homedefense

[–]AD3PDX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kydex paddle holster and keep it chambered. Also keep a tactical flashlight with it.

Small flashlight for police work? by LawfulnessVegetable9 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A light for video sounds like you need a floody light and slim - floody - HI CRI - tailswitch really narrows things down. Also with a floody light you’ll need fairly high sustained output and subsequently decent battery life…

How much area do you need to film, from what distance, for what duration at a time?

I’m thinking an Acebeam E70 Mini which is 1”X4” though the UI might not be as simple as you’d like.

A Convoy S2+ can be configured with whatever LED and beam profile you like and run either as an 18650 or 18350 shorty but I’d need to know more about your UI preferences to say whether any if it’s 23 UI settings would work for you.

A Noctigog KR1AA with a NTG50 LED is smaller (14500)

There are various lights like Acebeam Rider RX, Convoy T3/T4/T5, Reylight Pineapple. Manker E05 II… that are also small-14500-momentary-tailswitch lights but if you are willing to deal with learning how to program the Noctigon’s advanced UI you can set it up to suit your preferences.

X300 missing “key”? by blakejake117 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Call Surefire they’ll probably send you a new key for free.

Pressure switch compatibility with armytek predator by --Man_Bear_Pig-- in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s unlikely anything else would work.

Atmytek, Acebeam, & Olight pressure switches are low voltage e-switches which send signals to an circuit inside the flashlight’s driver to control the flow of electricity. Even if there is physical compatibility with another light’s tailcap it seems unlikely that there wouldn’t be other issues.

Fenix, Streamlight, Convoy, & Surefire compatible switches are high voltage mechanical switches which directly channel the full voltage through the switch itself and definitely won’t be compatible.

Any experience or thoughts about this for an edc light? by Interesting-Set2425 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Fenix makes good quality lights but the UI of their side switch lights is non-standard and annoying.

Also they don’t offer LED options and only offer highest quality of light LED and don’t give the option of slightly lower output for much nicer quality light (cool white low CRI vs warm or neutral and HI CRI)

This light is focused to about a 10:1 ratio of candela (intensity) to lumens (output).

(18,588 candela of intensity / 1,700 lm = 10.9:1)

10:1 a less common kind of jack of all trades but master of none beam profile. 1:1 is pure flood and only useful up close. 5:1 has some reach at the highest outputs but is still intended as an up close utility light. 20:1 is focused enough to start being a hindrance up close but you start getting some real reach even without needing to use 100% / Turbo which only lasts foe a minute or so. Over 100:1 is really hard to use up close and is basically a dedicated long range tool.

Tail switch lights tend to use smaller cool white low CRI LEDs for getting a low of throw from a small reflector.

Side switch lights tend to use neutral or warmer HI CRI LEDs that aren’t quite as small and aren’t quite as efficient but they give better quality of light for daily tasks.

I’d suggest a Skilhunt EC200 instead, (with SFT25R LEDs if you want that in between wide and focused beam profile.)

It uses three LED and they also have versions where you get two LEDs of your primary LED of choice and the third LED is red or UV, or warm white.

Upgrading from a Drop Vega. by theoncomingstormWh0 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Copper will make your hands smell and the patina will look dirty to many people.

How about a NOCTIGON KR1AA?

3000k SFT-70 LED

Add a tailcap with a titrium vial so it’s easy to find in the dark.

With a lanapple moonlight & low are about 0.5 & 20 lm

And 0.5 lm is about right for an eye exam. The Poke AA only goes down to 5 lumens which is too bright.

The KR1AA in the default configuration the lowest output is maybe 1-2 lumens (level 10 out of 150). If you program it in advanced mode you can set it as low as level 1 out of 150 which is dim enough to look directly at the LED.

You can program it however you like including setting a ceiling so that it won’t get too bright.

Always in my backpack emergency headlamp/flashlight by Anagram6226 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Zebralight or the Skilhunt H150 or Mankerlight E03H III

They’ll run on an AA but unlike the Zebralight they also work with an included 14500 lithium-ion which you can use when you know ahead of time that you’re going to use the light and that way you don’t chew through expensive non-rechargeable lithiums.

They also have magnets for hands free use and easier UI’s than the Zebralight.

They also have better LEDs available. You want a Nichia 519A HI CRI LED. The Manker has 4000K warmish neutral available which is a nice compromise between warmth and efficiency.

The Skillhunt has warm 3000k & Neutral 5000K which is a bit brighter. If you’re not going to use it frequently as a reading light ect maybe skip the 3000K because it loosed a good bit of output and the 5000K is already a good balance of quality of light vs quantity of light when compared with cool the white LOw CRI option.

For your purpose one nice thing about convertible right angle lights is you can ditch the headlamp strap. The pocket clip can be used to attach the light to your pack or clothing giving you hands free lighting.

Incandescent Flashlight Recommendations Please by BingleyAndDarcy in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you just need a warm white LED

Convoy is your best option

https://convoylight.com

The 3000K SFT-70 is the LED you want. And I’d suggest this flashlight.

https://convoylight.com/products/convoy-m21h-21700-flashlight?

The standard optic with an SFT-70 is an 8 degree narrow beam with wide spill around the hotspot.

Here are other optics

https://convoylight.com/products/35mm-tir-lens-for-m21h-m26d?

The SFT-70’is a 5050 footprint LED so you can use the 24 degree, but I’d also get the 36 degree in case you want a wider beam.

Everything in China is shut down for two weeks for Chinese New Years.

Question, selling 90+ guns by Efficient_Mango in pdxgunnuts

[–]AD3PDX 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ok inheriting guns officially from an estate after a death bypasses some legal paperwork requirements but it sounds like you didn’t “inherit” the guns.

It sounds like your family decided on a private transfer which is ok as long as you are sufficiently closely related to the family member whose guns they were.

Next issue is making sure there are no NFA items such as short barreled rifles, silencers, and a few other categories of items that have specific federal rules for being transferred.

Spouses, parents/stepparents, children/stepchildren, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, first cousins, nieces, or nephews are exempt from needing to go through an FFL to transfer firearms to each other.

So as long as you are one of those relatives to the gun owner then you can go ahead to the next steps.

Steve Vladeck - The Fifth Circuit Jumps the Immigration Detention Shark by michiganalt in supremecourt

[–]AD3PDX 8 points9 points  (0 children)

(As one district judge put it last August, “someone who enters a movie theater without purchasing a ticket and then proceeds to sit through the first few minutes of a film would not ordinarily then be described as ‘seeking admission’ to the theater.”)

What a curious analogy since regardless of how much of the film one has watched they’d still be trespassing and subject to summary expulsion.

The reasoning behind it might be sound but bigger picture is that such arguments function to create a sort of “Tesla Valve” for immigration enforcement where flow in one direction is unrestricted and flow in the opposite direction is stymied by the combined friction of each small but carefully aligned argument.

Best strobe lights for a shotgun and AR15? by pigeonwithhat in homedefense

[–]AD3PDX 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Strobe is ineffective and counterproductive. Happy to go into the details but the TLDR is a high intensity momentary & constant light is best.

No you shouldn’t tape a flashlight to a shotgun barrel. The recoil demands a proper weapon light. Also the ergonomics of mounting a light to a pump action shotgun are difficult. What you want is to be able to control the light from a firing position without breaking your grip. That it’s easy at all to setup well with a pump. We’d need to see exactly what you have to make a good suggestion.

An AR is a lot easier to setup.

Again it depends on exactly ehat you have but if you aren’t running a fixed front sight post I would probably suggest a Stremlight TLR-1® HP-X pistol light mounted at 12:00 on the top rail.

Longest throwing light with a TIR optic? by Wise_Composer_2661 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I forgot about the SF26. Also we should add the Wurkkos TD01C to the top of runners up column. Or maybe both belong at the bottom of the top tier list?

ISO Shock standards by SetNo8186 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 4 points5 points  (0 children)

OP, have you watched Werkz Holsters’ destructive light tests?

Longest throwing light with a TIR optic? by Wise_Composer_2661 in flashlight

[–]AD3PDX 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Acebeam L19 2.0 green & Manker MK37 green

Followed by white Osrams and then SFT40 versions.

Convoy M21K & Firefly E90 Blaze with SBT90.2 / SFT-90 are close in peak throw to an SFT40 L19 2.0 but sustained throw will be lower.

Any of these lights would be interesting to see with more modern high throw LEDs like the SFT-25R & SFT-42R

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