COAST Focusing LED Lenser.. w/pics

[lumenal]

Wow whc - that crack in the lens looks pretty ! Maybe when you put all that torque on the head while disassembling it, it may have been stressed enough to crack. I've used my light frequently for about 4 months and there is nary a scratch, and thats including stuffing it in my pocket without the sheath.

Liteme - I agree with you, this is my favorite flashlight. It blows away every Lux III I own. And everyone I show it to is impressed. The "power beam" of this light is like no other I have seen. I wonder if a Cree would work with this type of "frog-eye" optic. It certainly works blindingly well with a Luxeon.

And another thing; the rack at Lowes sells out of these $50 lights very quickly, while the MagLEDs just kind of sit there. That definitely says something.

 

[Lite_me]

Wow whc - that crack in the lens looks pretty ! Maybe when you put all that torque on the head while disassembling it, it may have been stressed enough to crack. I've used my light frequently for about 4 months and there is nary a scratch, and thats including stuffing it in my pocket without the sheath.

Liteme - I agree with you, this is my favorite flashlight. It blows away every Lux III I own. And everyone I show it to is impressed. The "power beam" of this light is like no other I have seen. I wonder if a Cree would work with this type of "frog-eye" optic. It certainly works blindingly well with a Luxeon.

And another thing; the rack at Lowes sells out of these $50 lights very quickly, while the MagLEDs just kind of sit there. That definitely says something.

Amen to that! The same thing is happening at my local Lowe's also. I think they are being snatched up by word of mouth. Not all flashaholics surf the net. But when Joe User picks one up and shows it to his neighbor, his neighbor gets one and shows it to his brother, and so on. You're not going to find anything to outperform this light locally, unless it's a specialty store. I'll bet they're blown away by this thing. I've got some nice flashlights and I'm even impressed. :thumbsup:

 

[infoseeker]

See this picture of the lens in my Hokus Fokus starting to break:

It is not even caused by dropping the flashlight...

i tired some of them to drop in a cemented ground, kick it in the ground, punishing with metal but i did not get any cracked like that

(tried in 7736, 7461, 7731, 7745 all led lenser)


only my experienced

 

[iowatollah]

I am very pleased with my Coast. It is everything everyone has mentioned on this thread. It does have one issue no one has brought up though. There is no way to lock it out. I prefer to pocket carry my lights but can't with the Coast. Scott

 

[TeaQue]

I wish FLR would do a review of this light so I could see how the measurements compare to others.

 

[TORCH_BOY]

I love mine, its much brighter than my Terralux K-2 MAG drop in

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Nice review...I'm tempted (but I always am).

Is that model number 7438? - It's one of the few lights that I could pick up for "American prices" in the UK.


CFU

CFU - where?

I can't find this in even the expensive shops!!




Be lucky...

 

[AlexGT]

Want to hear an interesting project for this light?

Led lenser light + Seoul P4 U bin + Flupic 2.2 + 18500 li-ion = One incredible focusing light.

Do you think this is possible?

AlexGT

 

[Russell52]

Hi all,I took my Lenser apart today and was super disapointed,Heres why....

I figured for 50$ That it would have some sort of circuit in it,When in fact this POS does not,There for,it isnt worth 50$,But there looks like there is room in the head for a circuit,and I am going to try and slam a mag circuit in there,It should work out,Looking at it,it will.. Its just sad...

Bright light,But not worth 50$..


Russ

 

[Russell52]

Well I was able to get a mag upgrade circuit in it,and it was pushing well over 8 watts,But,it drained the 3aaa's down to nothing in under 10 min's ,:lolsign:,And they got a little warm as well,So I am off to the led shop to get one of those little buck pucks,and try that..

 

[TeaQue]

Interesting....let us know what you find out!

 

[soffiler]

Here's the runtime I got for the alkaline AAA's that the light came with as well as with Duracell NiMH:

By any chance, have the labels on those curves been accidentally switched? The pink diamonds have initially higher output (which means higher voltage in an unregulated light) and drop more steeply... those characteristics just scream Alkaline to me. Likewise, the blue line with lower initial output (lower voltage) but longer, slower drop... exactly what you expect from NiMH.

 

[Lite_me]

By any chance, have the labels on those curves been accidentally switched? The pink diamonds have initially higher output (which means higher voltage in an unregulated light) and drop more steeply... those characteristics just scream Alkaline to me. Likewise, the blue line with lower initial output (lower voltage) but longer, slower drop... exactly what you expect from NiMH.

I agree with you here. It just doesn't look right. Too bad lightrod hasn't replied to verify.

 

[ginaz]

current draw might be too much for the alkalines

 

[lumenal]

Has anybody ever found out what the current draw is in this light?

And I wonder if this is a Lux III or a screamingly over-driven Lux I. The packaging states 3.44 maximum wattage, yet there is other indications to the contrary.

Russ - I wasn't surprised by your findings, given this light uses 3 AAA's in a carrier. Thats why I run it on NiMH....

 

[FlashCrazy]

I agree, I think the graph is correct. The NiMH's can deliver more current than the alkalines, especially in this AAA format. Even though the alkalines have a higher initial voltage, they sag under load...at which time they'll be lower voltage than the NiMH's. In any case, the more I use this light, the more I love it! It puts out such a power beam that it feels like I'm waving around a 100 foot long light sabre!

 

[FlashCrazy]

Has anybody ever found out what the current draw is in this light?

And I wonder if this is a Lux III or a screamingly over-driven Lux I. The packaging states 3.44 maximum wattage, yet there is other indications to the contrary.

Russ - I wasn't surprised by your findings, given this light uses 3 AAA's in a carrier. Thats why I run it on NiMH....

I just measured mine, running on 900 mAH NiMH batts....it was pulling 1200 mA at the start, decreased to ~1150 mA after a few seconds (at the tail). I measured it a few days ago also, I think then it was pulling around 850 mA or so after a bit of run time.

 

[soffiler]

Hi Flashcrazy:

I believe you might be correct, and I was mistaken in my earlier post.

I did some quick-and-dirty measurements over the weekend and found:

* 650mA on medium-charged NiMH (Uniross 700mA-hr)
* 450mA on new? Alkalines (out of junk drawer, measuring 1.550-1.554V open circuit)
* 1200mA on known-fresh L92 Lithium

Looks like the internal resistance of the Alkaline is limiting current to a lower value than the NiMH. Doh - I shoulda known that.

 

[lumenal]

In any case, the more I use this light, the more I love it! It puts out such a power beam that it feels like I'm waving around a 100 foot long light sabre!

Flash - I'm with ya. I love the power beam of this light.

I wonder, based on your and Steve's current measurements, if this light is being way over-driven, that would lead to early LED failure. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

But then again, Coast offers a "lifetime warranty" with this light. And they do answer their phone, as I called months ago about whether Ni-MH was OK for this light. ( The lady said she'd "heard" of folks using rechargeables, but that so far Coast hadn't done any tests...)

 

[soffiler]

Flash - I'm with ya. I love the power beam of this light.

I wonder, based on your and Steve's current measurements, if this light is being way over-driven, that would lead to early LED failure. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

But then again, Coast offers a "lifetime warranty" with this light. And they do answer their phone, as I called months ago about whether Ni-MH was OK for this light. ( The lady said she'd "heard" of folks using rechargeables, but that so far Coast hadn't done any tests...)

Oh yeah, it's seriously overdriven. I re-tested on freshly charged NiMH and got a full 1000mA in the first few seconds, gradually tapering down to about 900mA over the first minute, and it's all just an even more gradual downhill from there for the next roughly 1.5 hours. I didn't get a voltage reading but knowing the characteristics of NiMH I'd say they're maintaining about 1.2V while delivering that 1000mA. So that's 3.6 watts overdriving the heck out of a poor LuxI (um... I'm pretty sure it's a LuxI... somebody correct me if I'm wrong please).

On the brand-new and presumably fresh set of Coast-branded replacement Alkalines provided in the package, it fires off at 1400mA and rapidly tapers down to 1100mA in the first minute. That's even worse, at least in the first minute. That's as far as I took this little quickie test.

When I get a Round Tuit, I hope/plan to repower my 7438 with a Sandwich Shoppe board (Nexgen I believe) and a 1xCR123. I'll have to custom-machine some kind of spacer as the 123 and board will occupy far less room than the 3xAAA triangle pack. I just have to decide how hard to drive it. I'm thinking 500mA right now but the impressive throw on the tight-focus setting might not be quite as impressive...