My first encounter with a Novatac Spa Defense 120T

[ven]

All this is doing now is winding me up, so i am walking away before they do get thrown. I have done the 250 clicks 3 times, all blink at the end so know thats right, I have also done the 8 clicks. But that is not changing anything. So my frustration is too high for the start of the day right now. I am getting to the point of not caring, the ano stripped is fine int he 2 mode anyway, starts in low, high is double tap.

The SPA was the one i wanted to get rid of strobe when press/hold. Ideally to start in low also instead of near 300lm high.

But its no big deal , certainly not enough to be getting me super pi55ed off at 8am now.

Cheers anyway, might.might not come back and try another time, right now *beep it* lol

 

[ven]

RUM, i would have smashed the house up lol never mind just a light

 

[jon_slider]

Its Midnight here, thanks for the laughs

that was fun.. lol

because I know exactly how you feel, having been exactly there, a few hours ago.

 

[ven]

:laughing: damn

Not convinced its done, i dont even know what to expect from the menu, not getting any flashes or blinks. Just makes me realise how far we have come driver wise, the h17f is a dream to program and far more flexible. This is just a pita, but i know it was not meant to be programmed easy......................that bit was done perfectly lol

 

[peter yetman]

I'm so glad you did all that before I got up.
Have a restful day.
P

 

[ven]

:hairpull: dont think i have done it,...................its really doing my head in more than words can say, without being offensive arggghhhhhhh

 

[ven]

I am sure i am getting the 6 blinks showing i am stupid

Two interruptions have made me now on my 6th time to try, thumb pumped to the max!

 

[ven]

Yet again, 250 clicks, blinks so i release,the light stays blinking............good! . I tap 8 times and hold, it then flashed 7 times and stayed on argggghhhhh wtf

 

[ven]

and again, i must have done 2000 clicks and its not even 9am.........................Had enough for now, the 250 click is no issue now, just after that its not liking it.

 

[bigburly912]

Ven. I went through all of this with my 120t. I can get it programmed how I want it now but it WILL NOT SAVE IT. I can use it how I program it until I turn it off. Then somehow it loses its memory. Mine is a Chinese version fwiw. I have done the 250 click at least 5 times every day since I got it and I always get the same result. It will not save. : ( so I will just enjoy it as a tactical model now that I have my HDS.

 

[ven]

Yes, maybe that could well be it. My SPA starts in high which can be useful anyway(heck, not like we only have one light is it!) Then double tap for low mode. My ano stripped 219b starts in low, double tap for high, or double tap/hold for 100% output which is pretty bright(the SPA gold is near 250-270lm 219c 5000k , the 219b actually gets past the 300lm level. Huge jump from the standard lumen measurements, SPA was around 60 or 70lm off the top of my head, so a 4x jump.

 

[peter yetman]

Jon, I'm probably stating the B;**din' obvious, however.....
On the HDS, when you rech the brightness level that you want, you have to hold the button in until a dim to bright shows, then it's saved. is it worth trying that with the Novatac?
P

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

All of the SPA Defense lights were made in China. I don't know for sure that they "tweaked" the programming, but I wouldn't doubt it in order to make the light so that it didn't need to be calibrated, thus greatly speeding up production... and most likely causing several issues with the programming itself.

 

[jon_slider]

Ven
first, I also find that Menu Option 1 does a strobe but wont save it..
my bad coaching

what does work is when I am in a mode, I can change the brightness, and I can change it to use a strobe also.

so.. lets move on past menu 1 and go on to menu 9

once you are on menu 9, press and hold til light goes off.

that makes it so you can now change the brightness level on your light.

turn it on, and while ON do double click hold, until you notice the light start to ramp up, or double click hold again until it starts to ramp down. Let go at the desired level and turn off. That brightness is now saved.

That will let you set the click on to be a low mode instead of a high mode. etc

thanks Hogo, I agree this SpaDefense is not calibrated to 120 lumens, it is set at about 70 lumens maximum.

I do have some programming Im not satisfied with,
1. when the light is ON, if I press hold, it temporarily goes to the lowest mode, while holding the button. When I release the button it returns to the previous mode.

basically press from on goes to lowest instead of highest.. I have not figured out how to change that.. yet

It is definitely a clusterfrust trying to program levels on a clicky.. Im looking forward to a Rotary experience.. I think it will be much more to my liking.

In any case, I can do some things well
1. I can make the light go to momentary on from off by press hold
2. I can turn strobe on or off on one of the 3 click modes, as strobe is part of the ramping menu options.
3. I can make the light use memory, so if I want to turn on strobe each time I click, it will.. not that I want to do that really, but I can
4. I can turn locator beacon on, or off at will.
5. I can adjust the brightness of any mode by ramping.

so, this adventure has definitely been worth the cost of a couple of movies, and entertained me longer

in fact, I got up early to try and figure out whats going on with Option 1.. I think I get it now, it is just a way to go to emergency beacon, temporarily..

I think that is what Ven has been doing, and its my mistake.. ignore Option 1.. Focus on enabling option 9.

then click on to a regular light function, and test if you can double click hold until the brightness starts to change in steps.. This is how to get your light to start at a level you want.

hth

my conclusion is Im not a Clicky guy, Im pretty sure I will prefer a Rotary.

 

[ven]

Thanks for the write up, I am out and about right now. When I get chance I will give it another shot(maybe rum as well). My issue is once it starts the blinking, I do the 8 presses and hold, it does not turn off,rather stay on low iirc.

One last try later or tomorrow .

As for rotary, I prefer yes, love the dial up/down on the fly. The rotary IMO is simply one of the best flashlights on the planet , in my mind the top 10 or so inc lights like the haiku ,Hanko and BOSS(to name some........subjective ).

I would say a rotary is certainly a mr slider light, if there ever was one.

Now the novatacs although not quite up there, in hand I love the feel also. Compact, grippy, click is fine. Fun lights, once LED has been swapped to one of preference , you have a damn good light for not much money .

Thanks again Jon, I can't not try again after your time !

 

[jon_slider]

ven, apology for being the blind leading the drowning

I look forward to your success!

> My issue is once it starts the blinking, I do the 8 presses and hold, it does not turn off,rather stay on low iirc.

ok, to review, when you enter programming mode with tripple click hold release, the light flashes, this is Option 1.
now click once, this is Option 2,
do 6 more single click and pause, to reach Option 9
now press hold, and the light will ramp up in brightness, if you keep holding it double flashes for maximum, if you keep holding it begins to strobe, keep holding it offers sos, keep holding it goes to the bottom brightness of ramp and starts to ramp up.
release at the brightness you like, turn off.

the mode you were in when you entered programming is now set to a custom brightness.

you may want to disable option 4, so there is no memory, to make programming any of the presets easy to start from.

whatever preset you are in, when you double click hold to ramp, will be changed to what ramp position you release on

----
todays programming

4 is ON, last mode memory
7 is ON, momentary last mode used, from off
Do NOT enable option 8! or you will stuck with a light that has to be factory reset, since the button wont click, and the light will only be ON when holding the button.
9 is ON

here are my presets:
click is ON (memorizes high, low, and moon)
double click is High 65 lumen
double click is Low 5 lumen
tripple click is moonlight 0.14

press from off gives the memorized mode
click from off gives the memorized mode

How to program what happens from a Press while ON:
from ON I did click press, release, to access the press option.. Then I programmed the level that press produces:
I did double click hold until I got strobe, then turned off.

now from ON, hold gives strobe, from any mode
from OFF, click hold gives strobe,
in both cases releasing the button stops strobe and returns to previous mode, ON at whatever level, or Off if done from Off

Im kind of happy with this setup, for now
===

ps, also posted this summary here

 

[Lithium466]

Ven, I might have misunderstood but I think you need to click one more time to go to option 9. By doing 8, I think you're just activating momentary.
Again I might have misunderstood but i think that's it.

 

[ven]

I am going to leave it as is, its either that or it will end up destroyed or in the bin(serious) Its not worth the messing about, if i need another level or whatever so much......................i will just use another light. Right now, if that other more suitable light was a 5 mile walk away...........................that is the better option lol. No more clicks before i hate it! Enjoy it as is, even if cracked it, if it forgot it at a cell change.........it would push me over the edge and would take a 45lb mallet to it!

 

[ven]

But a big thanks anyway, had enough................my right arm is like popeye's haha

 

[bigburly912]

Enjoy it as is, even if cracked it, if it forgot it at a cell change.........it would push me over the edge and would take a 45lb mallet to it!

You have no idea how close I got to shooting my cannon point blank into mine when I finally got it set up and lost everything somehow magically. Then I get my HDS programmed and it made me happy again so no flashlights had to die last night.