New Mag C-cell incandescent twisties: ML25IT

[Greenbean]

I can now officially say: the Tad Customs Mag bulb will melt the reflector WITHIN 45 SECONDS! I will use this light with just the standard bulb and three Ansmann NiMH C cells of 4500mAh.

Any metal reflector is not available??

Sorry about your reflector :-(


Tell you what,

This is such a neat light to carry...

I LOVE it's size and it reminds me of an XL mini-ma$, lol... With just a dab or two of the Vibra-tite VC-3 on the threads it has a good amount of resistance on the threads and another option would be a fatter o-ring too.

Maybe the next "CPF" mods will be this little guy and a metal reflector.

I am loving the Streamlight TL-3 bulb with the hand opening of the reflector opening. Also the light turns on and is within spot focus quickly due to the filament height difference.

 

[jross20]

Sorry about your reflector :-(


Tell you what,

This is such a neat light to carry...

I LOVE it's size and it reminds me of an XL mini-ma$, lol... With just a dab or two of the Vibra-tite VC-3 on the threads it has a good amount of resistance on the threads and another option would be a fatter o-ring too.

Maybe the next "CPF" mods will be this little guy and a metal reflector.

I am loving the Streamlight TL-3 bulb with the hand opening of the reflector opening. Also the light turns on and is within spot focus quickly due to the filament height difference.

My ML25IT's are in... but my batteries are not here yet... Darn. Also have the TL-3 bulb and the lens coming in. How many volts are you running with your TL-3?

 

[Greenbean]

How many volts are you running with your TL-3?

The cells are at 8.27v when measured out of the light,

I forgot the trusty way to somehow wire in your DMM with the tailcap removed to measure operating voltage. Sorry

:fail:

 

[jross20]

The cells are at 8.27v when measured out of the light,

I forgot the trusty way to somehow wire in your DMM with the tailcap removed to measure operating voltage. Sorry

:fail:

Really? Wow I didn't know the TL-3 could handle that kind of voltage. I could of sworn it said 3.5 volts or something. Do you know what it's safe maximum is?

 

[Greenbean]

I have no clue,

I mean the TL-3 bulb is a 9V bulb in the original Streamlight.

 

[bykfixer]

TL3 was a 3x123 light. The Strion was the 3 volt light.

 

[jross20]

I have no clue,

I mean the TL-3 bulb is a 9V bulb in the original Streamlight.

Oh sweet! Wow that's gonna be much easier to use than I thought. Haha

 

[jross20]

Okay so I did some careful experimentation with some 18650s and the TL-3 bulb. Basically just holding it just right to get it to have contract.

So I guess I must have missed this in the thread, but I really didn't expect the TL-3 to damage the stock reflector, especially not in like 5 seconds...haha.

For the brief time that I had it going though it definitely looked pretty good. Although even with the diffusion lens that was mentioned above it still not as good of a pattern as a sputtered reflector.

If I drill out the reflector as shown above, is that all it needs to prevent it from getting damaged? Seems like that wouldn't be enough but maybe I'm wrong?

 

[Greenbean]

I haven't ruined mine yet,

The longest I've had it on might be for one minute straight though.

I really want to put that AR lens in my FM TL-3, but yeah I think a nice MOP metal reflector would be cherry!

 

[jross20]

I haven't ruined mine yet,

The longest I've had it on might be for one minute straight though.

I really want to put that AR lens in my FM TL-3, but yeah I think a nice MOP metal reflector would be cherry!

Shoot, what's the chance of ever getting a metal reflector? :mecry:

 

[fivemega]

The cells are at 8.27v when measured out of the light,
I mean the TL-3 bulb is a 9V bulb in the original Streamlight.

TL-3 bulb is NOMINALLY 9 volt but designed to work well with 7.5 volts. If you connect this bulb to regulated 9 volt power bank will flash and burn out quickly and of course if you can measure your total batteries voltage while flashlight is on, you will never see 9 or even 8 volts. That's why pair of rechargeable 3.7 volt rechargeable cells (7.4 V) work perfectly with 3 cell TL-3 bulb.
Each brand new primary C123A may measure about 3.2 volt but under load of about 1.2 Amp will drop to about 2.5 volt or 5 volts for two cell system and 7.5 volts for 3 cell system.

The Strion was the 3 volt light.

In fact 3.7 volt since each LiIon cell is NOMILALLY 3.7 volt and can hold pretty well under load.

 

[bykfixer]

I was thinking 3.6 FM, but said "3 volt" to make a point that the 3-ish volt bulb mentioned recently is probably for the Strion.
Thanks for cleaning that up.

 

[jross20]

Interesting

I always calculated my bulbs and such off of the maximum voltage of the batteries. So for example, 4.2 volts x 2 cells = 8.4 volts. So I try to ensure whatever I am running can handle up to 8.4 volts.
Is there a method to measure the voltage during use?

Back to the ML25IT

HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS AWESOME! The size, weight with batteries, it just feels good. But the output! Gosh! Even with nimh and the stock bulb (with that defuser lens mentioned in the thread) the spot and throw on this thing is incredible. This is probably the best thrower I have. The only downside is that when I turn to flood it out, I get this "target rings" effect. Like multiple donuts...haha. I am going to try to sputter the reflector and see if that helps. Though...I hate to do that when it seems like you cannot buy replacement reflectors.

I'll have to see it the TL-3 bulb has these "rings". But I am worried about ruining the reflector. (Again since I do not think we can get replacement ones)

I am also going to try to find an aspheric lens that is 40mm.

 

[bykfixer]

When you try to make it a flooder you will get rings. This thing was built to throw light.
Look if you
A) Want throw?
B) want perfect flood beam?
Pick one 'cause you can't have both with the ML25IT

 

[jross20]

When you try to make it a flooder you will get rings. This thing was built to throw light.
Look if you
A) Want throw?
B) want perfect flood beam?
Pick one 'cause you can't have both with the ML25IT

We shall see about that.... Haha, I mean hey I can try can't I?
Honestly the rings look like they are caused by the reflector having odd "bumps" in it. If you look into it straight on you will see these rings.

 

[bykfixer]

Best of luck with that.

 

[greenpondmike]

Most of the shiny reflector stuff is off of the reflector of my incan solitaire and it is mostly the blue plastic now. It seems just as bright with no rings and adjusts down to a very small hotspot. It seems to have real good throw and spill and would probably be artifact free except for spots on the lense and specks of chrome still on the reflector. No rings in the spill and hardly any donut in the hotspot when it is big. I know this isn't about the solitaire, but I'm just wondering.....you say you want good flood and throw, well maybe that is the route. When I get some messing around time I thought about doing that (dechroming) to an old 2d maglite reflector and post the results.

 

[jross20]

Most of the shiny reflector stuff is off of the reflector of my incan solitaire and it is mostly the blue plastic now. It seems just as bright with no rings and adjusts down to a very small hotspot. It seems to have real good throw and spill and would probably be artifact free except for spots on the lense and specks of chrome still on the reflector. No rings in the spill and hardly any donut in the hotspot when it is big. I know this isn't about the solitaire, but I'm just wondering.....you say you want good flood and throw, well maybe that is the route. When I get some messing around time I thought about doing that (dechroming) to an old 2d maglite reflector and post the results.

Really? I figured it wouldn't really work at all without the reflective coating.

That's interesting.

Ended up not having enough time this weekend to try the sputtering, so I'm going to try to do it during the week.

 

[fivemega]

Is there a method to measure the voltage during use?

You need to run a pair of wires from inside to outside of flashlight. Red wire connected to positive terminal of first battery and black wire connected to negative terminal of last battery. Using volt meter measure total voltage of your cells while light is off or when it's on. This way easily find out voltage drop under load.
To get softer beam while throw far, possible to make center round matte window. Cut a round Scotch tape with diameter of 1" and apply to center of your lens. This will make softer beam while throw beam coming out of around tape.
You can try different size of Scotch tape until you find best combination. You can also use double tape or even combination of say 1" diameter tape with 0.5" diameter tape on top of first one.
When you find out best combination then apply Armour etch on your lens. If you are using plastic lens, you can use steel wool to make center of lens matte.

For incandescent bulbs can also etch around bulb leave higher part of bulb alne for similar result.

 

[jross20]

You need to run a pair of wires from inside to outside of flashlight. Red wire connected to positive terminal of first battery and black wire connected to negative terminal of last battery. Using volt meter measure total voltage of your cells while light is off or when it's on. This way easily find out voltage drop under load.
To get softer beam while throw far, possible to make center round matte window. Cut a round Scotch tape with diameter of 1" and apply to center of your lens. This will make softer beam while throw beam coming out of around tape.
You can try different size of Scotch tape until you find best combination. You can also use double tape or even combination of say 1" diameter tape with 0.5" diameter tape on top of first one.
When you find out best combination then apply Armour etch on your lens. If you are using plastic lens, you can use steel wool to make center of lens matte.

For incandescent bulbs can also etch around bulb leave higher part of bulb alne for similar result.

The man himself! Thanks for the reply!

Would this be any better or worse than using that acrylic diffusion lens from flashlightlens.com mentioned in this thread? I'll have to compare them and see, good thing I have two of these bad boys!