# Maglite flashlight BULBS Wattage Specs please



## DavidW (Feb 4, 2001)

Last I checked MagLite doesn't print anything on the bulb but the number of cells it's rated for.

Carley Makes 3 versions of their PR bulbs. 2 Kryton Star series: one for alkalines one for rechargeables. And 1 Xenon Star series for alkalines.

I have heard of xenon bulbs from Radio Shack but have never been able to find them.


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 4, 2001)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"Carley" makes three versions of their PR bulbs 

Two Kryton Star series 

One for alkalines 

One for rechargeables 

One Xenon Star series for alkalines<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Now, I'm slightly confused.......Help.


----------



## DavidW (Feb 4, 2001)

'PR Base' bulbs are the flanged bulbs that fit C and D cell MagLites. www.carleylamps.com make 3 versions of the PR Base bulbs. 

The first two are krypton gas filled and are therefore named 'Krypton Star' bulbs. The higher amp version is meant for rechargeable batteries like nicads and nimhs. And the low amp version is meant for alkaline batteries.

The xenon gas filled bulbs and are named 'Xenon Star'. They are only made for alkaline batteries.

Xenon/Kryton Star specs


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 4, 2001)

I read somewhere that buying from Carley Lamps, was difficult?

Does anybody know what the Radio Shack model numbers are for higher wattage replacement bulbs?

Is Carley the only manufacturer of high power bulbs/lamps?


----------



## axolotls (Feb 4, 2001)

If you go to RS they only carry 4 or 5 Xenon Bulbs. They say Xenon - PR Bulbs and on the package it will say what they are used for "For 3 Cell C or D Flashlights" or "For 2 Cell ....."

I just got one today but tossed the package.

XPR103 is the number for 3-Cell C or D Mag Flashlight.


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 4, 2001)

When you put the RS "Xenon" bulb in your light, did you notice an improved brightness or increase in candlepower?

Give me a review, thanks.

Or is it equal to the standard issue bulb output?


----------



## axolotls (Feb 4, 2001)

Wouldn't ya know it. We just had a rotating blackout here in CA. Just 30 minutes after I put the Xenon in my 3-D Mag. Before that I compared the OEM Krypton to the RS Xenon and noticed at least a 30-50% increase in brightness by shining it outdoors against a neighbors fence (hardly scientific but barnyard accuracy is good enough for now). The bulb was only $1.99. Nice super bright output. The other bulbs (forgot their name, their specs were just a tad higher than the RS ones, probably wouldn't notice a difference between Xenon bulbs).


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 5, 2001)

(This is the right Forum, hehehe)


I have a Maglite (3D) and a (5C).


The standard issue bulb is called "White-Star" Krypton.


I also have the upgrade "Mag-num Star" Krypton. (Do not like these at all)


I prefer the standard issue for sure.


My question what "other" bulbs besides the above mentioned would give me increased candlepower?


Two come to mind, perhaps a "Radio Shack" XENON bulb? Which model numbers?


How do I get the "Carley" lamps? Are they XENON? Which model numbers? 


What are specs on the "WATTAGE" for the standard issue "White Star" bulbs versus the exact WATTAGE specs for the "Radio Shack" and "Carley" lamps?


What will the new run times be with higher wattage lamps? Decreased by what?


hehehehe.......thanks!


----------



## hmmwv (Feb 5, 2001)

re: carley's bulbs -

Ordering from carley is a bit different - they are a business to business establishment and don't really want joe blow flashlight owner calling up who just burned out his bulb last night and needs a new one- they have a minimum order and shipping etc... - but I do order from them on an occasional basis, so if you are looking for a particular part, let me know and I'll get a price and let you know when my next order will be. Plus it will help me make a minimum order!

They only "retail" one of their 3 PR based lines (I can't remember their names right now, but there is the low power alkaline, high power alkaline, and rechargable - look at the numbers to see which is which.) The low power alkalines are the cheap ones that sell in stores that carry mag, rat shack, etc. Their other 2 lines are not retailed, but are in stock if you want to buy direct. They OEM these to mfgrs who want to be "better" than the rest.

They do caution that "rolling your own" mag charger with their 5 nicd bulb and a 5D flashlight will melt the reflector due to the tremendous heat - but you are generally safe with all of the alkalines and the maglites. 

My parents have a 2d mag, and I keep a 6d in the truck for, well, youknow, so I ordered the high power alkaline bulbs from carley for both of those two mags - I'll post pictures when they arrive (oh yea - shipping from carley is as fast as they can, but some of it comes from mexico, so be warned). BTW - the price on the low power alkalines was ~3 - the high power ~5 - you pay for the extra umph.

If you really want to get creative, they make a PR base that will allow you to adapt their T 1, T1.5 and i believe their T2.5 bulbs to the PR base style. I highly recommend you load test your cells before doing this to match the lamp and cell given carley's engineering data, and also take their warning about melting reflectors. 

For an extra 0.25, they will frost the lamp for you to give a more diffuse light if you are trying to get rid of those annoying rings. It adds a few more days to the production, but they will do it 1 lamp at a time if you meet their minimums. I have some frosted lamps comming, so we'll see how they turn out. 

I *DO* think carley has bulb making down to an art.


----------



## hmmwv (Feb 5, 2001)

Please don't take anything I said in that last post to be in any way shape or form negative about carley - Once you establish a working relationship with them, they are wonderful to deal with, have knowledgable sales people, and get the order exactly right with all the customization you want the first time (at least on paper, - I haven't gotten the first shipment from them yet)

If you are tired of taiwan junk plastic lamps being used in "pro-sumer" products (like video lights, etc) - then Carley is the niche answer to the problem. Wait till you see my carley XL-1 photo lamp - uses the same bulb as the 12Z, but customized for photographic purposes instead of blinding suspects at night.


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 5, 2001)

WOW, that was real informative!

I am going to have to rate you now.

When you get your Carley lamps, please post all your reviews and post many pictures.

What do you think about this problem of Netscape not accepting this BBS Javascript?

I had to go through HELL today just to read one thread. I had to manually input the "thread" address in the location bar just to read it. Yes, I mean the individual thread address preceded by the forum address not just the BBS address. What a nightmare.

Thanks.


----------



## hmmwv (Feb 5, 2001)

You want my _honest_ opinion of netscape?

3 years ago, I barely owned a PC (I had a dinky laptop from work for plane travel and that was it) - I RAN UNIX, the only real operating system, which I leared when I was knee-high to my dad in the 70's (before PC meant anything) - and NETSCAPE ran on UNIX (but ie didn't) - so there really wasn't any question - I always ran NETSCAPE be it PC or UNIX - it brought continuity to life. I **ABSOLUTELY** hated IE - and it was slower than netscape, and I never liked the way IEs stop button changed color (pet peeve)

Then along came AOL. Bad AOL.

AOL buys netscape. AOL destroys netscape with popups, pretty pictures, and even a cute little big brotherism that sends back a summary of all the stuff you look at to them so they can "see how their product is being used and make future improvements." Part of AOL's TOS is they can watch you. You read it when you pressed the "I AGREE" button, right?

So "rm -Rf netscape*" (that's unix for remove recursively all coppies of netscape without prejudice) - now I'm a solid IE 5.5 user. Plus hardware has changed - 3 years ago, my 125 MHz HPUX CAD system with the 22" monitor was rockin' - today, the company has scrapped it out and it is serving as my mail hub for hmmwv.net and uwave.com - plus a DNS server for about 5 dozen domains. It's happy. There's even been a version of IE ported to HPUX. 

My PC is a 900 MHz system - IE 5.5 screams on it. IE 5.5 is more compatible than netscape for "HTML" compatbility (whatever that means) 3 years ago, netscape was more compatible than IE! IE 5.5 loads faster than netscape. and IE 5.5 isn't watching what I'm doing (I have a network sniffer to verify this fact).

It's too bad that AOL bought netscape. That's when it went downhill fast. AOL is clearly to blame in my opinion. AOL loves pop-up adds, yet 89% of their users despise them. Now netscape incorporates the same philosophy. Netscape employees would have never done this witout management direction.

I do still occasionally use netscape for mail - I haven't made a complete switch to eudora or MS's product - the reason is that A- I'm familiar with it and B - I've heard (rumored) that of all the mail clients, netscape still is the most virus proof. 

But, being an old unix hack, I still get my mail in ELM (text based - can read it on a dumb terminal) - then if someone sends something important (my boss sends a spreadsheet) - I fire up netscape and read it there. If I get a "work from home and make money spam", I just hit the D key in elm.

Even now, running netscape mail, it complains that it can't "phone home" - which is why I'm switching to a new mail reader (it's behind a massive firewall - of course it can't phone home! - never will)

3 years ago - NETSCAPE was the only real browser. Today - I could care less if they went out of business.


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 5, 2001)

I used to use IE but my ISP pushes only Netscape. Sometimes, I de-activate my cookies just to move around at this BBS unless I'm posting. I probably should upgrade to the next version.


I got my XPR103 Radio Shack Xenon lamp today. It has the following specs....

Voltage 3.6 VDC
Current 800mA = 0.8A 
Brightness 3.0 MSCP
Average life 36 hours


They had Krypton, Xenon and Halogen lamps.

I need a crash course on Voltage & Current. 

The average life span of Halogen was 10 hours, Krypton was 15 hours and Xenon was 36 hours.

*What makes a bulb brighter? Voltage or Current?* 

I would think that the Halogen would out perform the Xenon?


I am not sure how much brighter the RS Xenon lamp is over the standard White Star lamp? Or if it is even brighter at all? I just don't know? I was so pissed off about something else that I was thinking about that I could not be objective.


----------



## DavidW (Feb 5, 2001)

The javascript that was hanging up Netscape browsers was changed. I'm posting with Netscape 4.76 right now. Things seem to be fine.

All things being equal wattage is what makes things brighter. v times amp equeals watt.

Take your RS xenon bulb for example: 3.6v x .8a = 2.88w

The Carley Xenon Star for 3 cells: 3.8v x .84w = 3.2w

What the gas fills like halogen and xenon do is keep the filament residue off the inside of the bulb. And affect color temperature.


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 5, 2001)

DavidW, thanks for working so hard to fix the software glitch. 

I like your formula for Wattage. Wattage determines brightness.

Voltage (X) Amps = Wattage

So my new Xenon lamp is only putting out 2.88 Watts? That is real sad. Considering a Streamlight Stinger uses a 6 Watt lamp and the Ultra Stingers use 10 Watt lamps.

My Princeton Tec 40 has a 4 watt Halogen lamp that is truly a weak "joke". How can the 2.88 watt Xenon Maglite out shine the Tec 40 halogen 4 watt lamp?

Thanks.


----------



## hmmwv (Feb 5, 2001)

I'm guessing here - but most small lamps seem to have a design life of 20 or 25 hours (guess its from reading the carley catalog so many late hours) - and there is a scale that lets you convert lifetime (20 hrs) at design voltage to lifetime at operating voltage, as well as the amount of increase/decrease in light output. I don't know much about the RS product line, but the 36 hour bulb makes me wonder if they took a design for a higher voltage and just went ahead and used it, resulting in the 36 hour lifetime prediction. Same goes for the 10 hour bulbs - I'll bet they're really bright. 

RS is on my black list of vendors (next to botach) so I don't know anything of their product line. The day they started charging for their catalog was the last day I bought from them, and that was years ago. Does anyone know who they are oem'ing their bulbs from?


----------



## Brock (Feb 6, 2001)

I don't know who RS is buying from, but I bet it changes all the time, and they probably carry from multiple vendors. I know the Halogen lamps from RS are brighter than the original MAG lamps by quite a bit. I still haven't gotten my Carley lamps from Walt so I can't compare them in wattages.

Brock


----------



## hmmwv (Feb 12, 2001)

I haven't gotten mine (carley) either, but some of the custom reflector metalization (like the surefires, only heavier) had to be done in Mexico and then shipped back here - so they cautioned me it may be a few weeks.

I've been watching my online CC statement - no charges from them! so at lease they don't play botach games.


I bought a handful of their Mondo 40 cp bulbls (the largest of the customer made xenon halogen) - These are going to be used to make a high quality, lightweight lithium ion driven video light ... Once I get the bulbs. 

I had 2 of them frosted for even better dispersion (I'm going for wide, broad beam coverage for video use rather than tightly focused searchlight beams) - Carley was really helpful - they have a "sure, we can do that" attitude. 

Let me know what you think when you get yours.


----------



## phyhsuts (Feb 15, 2001)

How 'bright' a lamp bulb is depends on many factors. IF we define 'brightness' as the total output of light power as seen by the eye (unit: lumen) then it depends on at least the following factors: filament temperature, filament area, filament geometry (shape) and the transmission efficiency of the envelope. 
Those are the basic parameters. Fron a user point of view, that translates roughly to: power (VxA for dc current and V(rms)xA(rms) for ac current), how SHORT the life of the lamp and the design of the lamp (gas filled, Halogen-cycle aided etc.). Gas filling decreases the evaporation rate of the filament material (usually tungsten) but conducts away heat from the filament. This can be used to increase lamp life for a fixed filament temperature or to increase the operating temperature of the filament and keep the life the same. Often we do a little of both. The heavier the gas molecule, the greater the effect -- thus Xenon gas is better than Krypton which in turn is better than Argon. The Halogen cycle helps to remove condensed tungsten from the envelope and keep the transmission of the envelope high. It may also re-deposite some tungsten back onto the filament thus extending the life of the lamp. Like the gases' effect, it may be used to extend life or increase output. Thus a halogen lamp is even better than an equivalent gas filled lamp. Gas fill is also used in Halogen cycle lamps, so the lamp performance is also dependent on the fill gas used (thus we have Xenon halogen (cycle) lamps). So you see, Watts alone does not tell how 'bright'a bulb is! Hope all this is clear??


----------



## **DONOTDELETE** (Feb 15, 2001)

phyhsuts is absolutely correct. Carley, for example, lists their lamps' brightness in spherical candlepower. Needless to say if you add a reflector, such information is meaningless.

The color temperature of the light is also important. Carley's alkaline cell lamps (KSA series) have a higher color temperature, thus appear bluer, than the lamps for NiCd batteries (KSR series). A lamp of the KSR series which is actually brighter than one of the KSA series may at first not appear so, due to the lower color temperature. In actual use, however, the KSR series lamp is indeed brighter.

The xenon lamps for alkaline batteries are the best available for flashlights today. They have a fairly high color temp, so appear bluish, but they are BRIGHT. They are better at detecting objects in the dark than comparable KSR series lamps. I have tried this in dark vineyards in Mendocino. 

The real great thing about the xenon lamps is that they achieve their brightness by being more efficient. Their amperage is only about 10% higher than a comparable KSA lamp, so battery life is hardly affected, and a flashlight will burn 10-12 hours, rather than the 90 min. of a comparable KSR series lamp.

If Carley had had xenon lamps 25 years ago, I would never have fooled with KSR lamps.





Walt


----------

