A brief history of the HDS universe

Hondo

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I am beginning this thread with my "Reader's Digest" summary of Henry's development of the HDS (Henry D. Schneiker) flashlights, as we all know them now.

It began when I got a predictable "what's that?" when posting a photo of my B42GT in the HDS around the World (PICS) thread. With many updates, and thanks to input from other members (especially Lithium!), and nbp's urging to give the topic it's own thread, here is my version of the story:


A long time ago (OK, 1999) in a galaxy not far away (OK, this one)..... A caver named Henry marketed a headlamp called the Action Light. It was bulky, but rugged, dependable and useful. Not breaking any sales records, he then set out to create a light not only useful in caves, but every day life. Ironically, when Henry invented the user programmable LED flashlight in 2001, it was not an HDS product, but an Arc. Henry had teamed with Peter Gransee of Arc Flashlight, LLC. While Peter's success was to be the single mode, AAA key chain twisty, Henry brought the Arc LS (Luxeon Star LED's, then state of the art) to market. It evolved through many variants, ending with the Arc 4+ in 2004. In 2005, Henry struck out on his own again, and so was born the much improved HDS EDC series, with visible roots to the Arc products. For most of their mid-2000's lives, they came in either 42 or 60 lumen models, and either a Basic (fixed programming) or Ultimate (user programmable) configuration. Late in the series, an Ultimate 85 existed, and those owning them kept it rather quiet, lest they be bombarded with requests from others to sell the rare beast. Premium options were available also: A GT model guaranteed the tint to be near pure white, and an XR model had extended run time. The latter was the result of high performing LED's. Rather than make a brighter light, Henry tuned all lights by hand to the promised brightness levels, and these high performers could do this at lower power levels, and run longer.

These were truly tough beasts, although an achilles heel existed, where if the light were dropped on the bezel, the light aluminum lens retaining ring would not resist the body crushing, and lights with a glass lens could find the latter shattered. Replacing the entire body under warranty was the cure, and the seed for a better bezel design was planted. Users widely took advantage of aftermarket SS and titanium bezels made for these lights, which made the failure far less likely. Note that while requiring repairs, the lights never stopped working, and if it had the polycarbonate lens option, no repair was needed, they never shattered.

But Henry's career was to take a turn before a major redesign of the EDC light. With the promise of high volume production facilities and mass marketing power, Novatac lured Henry away from his own business to be the brains of a larger operation to equip the world with the EDC light. For a while, they produced a really nice upgrade to the HDS EDC, the 120P, and a couple of lower output models, and the Tactical variant began here. It looked like an EDC, but had programmability more like todays lights, some (OK, me) actually like the interface better. Owning the design, Novatac wanted to reduce manufacturing cost by eliminating the manual calibration operation that guaranteed the brightness of each light, along with other changes not to Henry's liking. His standards being more powerful than his greed, he left to restart his own business. Long story short, Novatac ended up moving production to China, making some really sketchy lights that looked like EDC's, and then went out of business.

When Henry closed out those old EDC lights, he also let a little cat out of the bag. All lights were user programmable. Basic lights just required 250 clicks instead of 10 to enter the programming menu. Lots of sore thumbs after that. Turned out you could activate programming on the Novatacs that way too, but that put them in a "120P mode", so you could set as many things as you wanted without having to repeat the 250 clicks.

Enter Ra Lights, Henry's new business. The entry model was an attempt at ultimate reliability. The Twisty was just that, a twist interface rather than the clicky button. It ushered in the new robust stainless bezel we all know today, far stronger than any of the aftermarket add-ons for the old EDC's. With a new clicky light in the wings, many waited with baited breath, and soon it came, with the surprising name of, well, the Clicky. These first Clickies, just through the time of the drop of the Ra name for the traditional HDS Systems name, were known as "Legacy Lights". Ironic, you would think the Basic and Ultimates would get that name, right? Eh, whatever. A bit of a red-headed step-child, the Legacy light had a new, coarser thread, and so could not use battery tubes from the old HDS and Novatac lights. But soon, the final upgrade to the chassis would incorporate an Acme thread, and so the current offerings can't be used on Legacy lights either.

So here we are, many incremental improvements from the first post-Legacy light, and a rotary interface introduced. Some production snags, while trying to hold older pricing structure, followed by a "quality over all else" decision, using top-dollar vendors to get good product (almost) every time, in reasonable time.


I do hope this was a fun read, and now, I hope that others can add more details and tidbits, and sure, just plain stories pertaining to HDS lights. Let's not try to dive into much about conflicts during the partnership years, but rather focus on the positive aspects as much as possible.

I bet some of you remember lesser known factoids such as:

- Limited run titanium lights
- Getting screwed by Dad
- The one HDS flashlight with a red low mode, and white higher modes

Have at it!
 

bigfoot

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Nice writeup, thanks for sharing! :thumbsup: Hah, I almost forgot about the 250 clicks to unlock the Novatac lights. :D
 

ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond

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Good write-up. I remember getting screwed by Dad back in the day. LOL :p I actually still have two screws still lying around in a tiny ziplock somewhere.
 

staticx57

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Excellent. An HDS light is on my list and this just makes me want one more :)
 

jdboy

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Nice writeup, thanks for sharing! :thumbsup: Hah, I almost forgot about the 250 clicks to unlock the Novatac lights. :D

Oh I haven't :laughing:

broken-thumb-pictures.png
 

Hondo

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Damn, jdboy, that picture really does speak a thousand words! I just went through that again about a year ago on some clearance Novatac Classics. Very post-Henry, but for $20, they were worth it.

Good write-up. I remember getting screwed by Dad back in the day. LOL :p I actually still have two screws still lying around in a tiny ziplock somewhere.

Yeah, I actually needed more for my "Legacy" HCRI, and I found that the black ones on my well carried B42 were rusting a little. Adding to that the cathodic corrosion issue when steel and aluminum are in contact, I wanted to put SS in all of my old lights (I'm a lanyard guy). I didn't want to pester arewethereyetdad again, so I grabbed a whole 100 count bag of them. If anyone still needs them, the price is the same as what Dad charged.

Glad more folks are getting a kick out of the story! You can see that B42 I took on a trip this fall in the Around the Campfire section on the PICs thread.
 

Lithium466

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Cheers Hondo, thank you for creating this thread, so we can learn (and remember) some interesting facts regarding HDS flashlights! (Oh btw I think the D is for David)

I'd like to learn a bit more about the twisty, many say the twisty system was not THAT reliable...but it was such an elegant interface.
I am far away from my HDS "collection" so I can't post pics, but I may be able to post a pic with an Ultimate 60, a legacy clicky and a current clicky model soon. It is interesting to compare the programming from the early lights with what we have currently, the Novatac part being IMO a great progress. (but we can forget the ugly late made in China Novatac, with anodizing looking like black paint more than anodizing)

I also would love to see some Arc 4 prototypes, or early Arc LS/4!

PS: I may need some screws...I should receive a legacy clicky soon! What size were they exactly?
 
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Hondo

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Wow, congrats on the Ultimate 60, that is WAY cool! Clip hole set screws are #4-40 x 3/16 (stainless). Got about 90 to spare!
 

ElectronGuru

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Quick info on the 85tr

It was based in a single led package. Osram intended it to show mis configuration - deactivating white and turning on red when the wires are reversed. But reversing polarity on purpose had the same effect.

It was discontinued because osram stopped development and 85 lumens fell too far away from the leading edge for white.

Missing my 85 inspired the R33 today.
 

ven

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Awesome Honda, again thanks for the interesting read:) Would be cool to see some of the older lights and through the years .
 

subwoofer

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Excellent thread, and many thanks for posting. I'm hoping we will see a load of photos of the older lights.
 

archimedes

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I'll have to try to look for some better photos of HDS torches I have (or had) , but this is the only decent photo I can find at the moment ....

wCEtE3o.jpg
 
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