# Stanley HID Technical discussions...



## kramer5150 (Dec 28, 2009)

Curious, how long does your battery level indicator remain green?

I charge mine with the AC wall wart until the LED light stops red/flashing and turns solid green. However the LED never lights up green during use... it starts out orange from the get-go every time I pull the trigger.

Is this normal? I would expect the LED to light green when I turn it on with a fresh charge.

:thinking:

**EDIT**
I edited this thread to open it up for any technical discussions. The first two threads are HUGE and. The technical discussions are lost in the mix of sale questions, retail B&M, Amazon part numbering, product pricing...etc...

Most of the original thread picture links are dead too. So feel free to post up any pics you may have, beamshots, google earth screencaps, Mods and DIY... anything technical in nature is good to go. I would also like to see if anyone from the first two threads has successfully modded the 3Ah cell to something bigger/better.

Thanks!!!


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## Larbo (Dec 28, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level indicator?*

Mine acts the same way, I charge it till its green and as soon as I pull the trigger its orange. I never had a green led during operation.


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## kramer5150 (Dec 28, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level indicator?*

Further experimentation....

I used the cigarette lighter plug cord and connected the light to a fully charged 14.7V outboard 12V/6Ah SLA cell, and the LED turned green during operation as per the manual says it should.

So I think the charge indicator works, its just really sensitive. Either that or the internal SLA cell in mine is sagging tremendously under load or has a very limited capacity.

As a last ditch effort I plugged the cigarette lighter cord into the light and alligator clipped my hobby charger to the plug terminals. Let it fully charge to the 14.7 level, and the result is the same... no green. Measuring the voltage across the cigarette lighter plug I only get 13.04V, even minutes after a full 14.7V charge on my hobby charger.

Do any of you observe the same behavior from your light?
Should I be concerned about this? The light works fine, as far as I can tell. I haven't done a run time test on it yet and I have not fully depleted the cell yet either, I have been just topping it off since I got it.

thanks.

**EDIT**
After a bit of digging it seems there are scattered reports from others' lights doing the same thing. I plugged the cig lighter cord into my car tonight and it worked fine with the green LED shining bright, just as it did at home with the outboard SLA cell. So I think its just a matter of the charge indicator circuit not being very accurate, or being calibrated for vehicle electrical systems which top out much higher than the internal SLA cell.


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## jtrucktools34 (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level indicator?*

I have had mine for about 3 months and also have never seen a green LED while using the light. I checked the runtime against other reports here and it was close so I just disregarded the indicator.


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## BVH (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level indicator?*

Remember, the SLA is only 3 AH so it's going to sag even under initial load after a full charge. Especially since the light employs the power-sucking boost starting circuit. As long as you're getting about 26 - 28 minutes run time on high and 30 - 32 on low, then all is normal.


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## kramer5150 (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level indicator?*



BVH said:


> Remember, the SLA is only 3 AH so it's going to sag even under initial load after a full charge. Especially since the light employs the power-sucking boost starting circuit. As long as you're getting about 26 - 28 minutes run time on high and 30 - 32 on low, then all is normal.



Something doesn't add up:thinking: My apologies in advance, its the Grant Imahara (GEEK) in me. Plus I am new to HID.

Its a 35Watt HID. Assuming the ballast is ~75% efficient (ballpark) that would mean it draws 46.6 Watts from the cell to generate those 35 bulb watts.

I=W/V, and assuming the cell voltage sags to ~13.5V
I=46.6/13.5 = 3.45 Amps draw from the cell.

With a 3ah cell capacity
3A/3.45A = .86
.86 x 60 minutes = *52 Minute run times*

So why are the actual run times so low?
Is the internal cell sagging way down to sub 11Volts under load? (even at 11V, it should yield 42 minute run times)
Is the ballast way less efficient than I think (.75)?


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## BVH (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*

Kramer, this is from a post I made way back when the Stanley first came out.

"For this test, I hooked up the light to a 28 AH SLA from one of those emergency car starting units using the supplied car charger/operating cord. I wanted controlled values so I essentially took the lights battery out of the equation although electrically it is in the circuit.

On High power: This light is a TRUE 35 Watt light as advertised!

Output to the bulb

Initial starting Amps………………………………. 2.4
Turbo Boost start drop out Amps..……….. .9 (7 seconds to drop out)

Steady running after 3 minutes…………… .42 Amps @ 88.1 Volts AC = 37.00 Watts
While running steady after 3 minutes, I noticed a .05 Amp cycle up and down as Mr. TB has indicated in his description of how the ballast cycles.

Input power to the ballast 3.5 Amps @ 12.6 Volts DC = 44.1 Watts

Ballast is 84% efficient – not bad as compared to a lot of ballasts out there running at 75 to 80% efficiency.

Low Power

Steady running after 3 minutes…………… .37 Amps @ 88.1 Volts AC = 32.60 Watts

Time to cycle from High mode to Low mode after moving the switch – 52 seconds – based on Amp draw
Time to cycle from Low mode to High mode after moving the switch – 15 seconds – based on Amp draw

Of note – When I measured input power, I measured the Amps being contributed by the alternate power source as a separate test. In this test, the lights battery was contributing 2.5 Amps while the alternate source was contributing 1 Amp. The power source Amps rose over the 3 minutes I watched it. As the battery is depleted, the alternate source will provide the needed difference.

The SLA battery weighs 2 lbs, 1 oz. Almost half the weight of the light."


I'm sure Peukert's factor really affects these numbers when the light is running off of its own 3 AH battery and that's a big factor in the reduced run time.


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## kramer5150 (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*

Yikes... a lot of my assumptions were very close to your actual measurements.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have never heard of peukerts law, learned something new today:twothumbs
Peukert's Law

For those who dont know Garant Imahara (my geek reference above)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Imahara

Thanks BVH


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## elumen8 (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*

Kramer-Imahara, how do you like your HID? I had to return mine to Wallymart because the SLA didn't seem to want to hold a charge...granted, I bought what seemed to be a partially opened package. There might have been some tampering at the store. I'll pick up another one soon.

Have you thought about switching in any other battery configuration? (NiMh, Li-Ion, better SLA)

JB


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## BVH (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*

A lot of members have talked about modding in a different battery but I don't remember anyone actually doing it and reporting back. You'd most likely loose the ability to run off the DC cord and charge the battery through the same cord unless you have the ability to change out the charger pcb.


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## elumen8 (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*



BVH said:


> A lot of members have talked about modding in a different battery but I don't remember anyone actually doing it and reporting back. You'd most likely loose the ability to run off the DC cord and charge the battery through the same cord unless you have the ability to change out the charger pcb.


 
Thank you BVH...my limited knowledge of batteries is fairly evident. Any idea if it's possible or if it would make any difference if a 12V 7AH SLA were somehow fitted in place of the current 3AH without changing the charger pcb? (sorry if this is a silly question).

JB


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## BVH (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*

I've had both mine open and unfortunately, there is no where near the room needed for a even a 4 AH SLA, let alone 5-7 AH SLA. And, man, would it be really heavy it you could do the mod!


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## elumen8 (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: Stanley HID Charge level and cell capacity?*

Thanks again BVH. I guess the existing battery will have to do. 

JB


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## kramer5150 (Dec 29, 2009)

I finished modding mine to focus the bulb hot spot and ITS COMPLETELY WORTH the effort. I don't have any before/after pics, but shimming back the lamp concentrates the spill and really packs in the light surrounding the hot spot. It also ~90% eliminates the pie shaped wedge from the beam, and goes a long way to clean up many of the other bulb/smooth reflector artifacts.

Here are pics of the mod. I think BVH was the first one to do this. I used some copper plumbing pipe from OSH. Cut it and trued it flat/square. Thickness ended up being 1.85mm.






















I bevel'd one edge of the copper collar by about 45 degrees so that it would sit flat in the reflector. The reflector is not perfectly square, and has a bit of a "slant" to it.




















Good fit in the reflector.





I also had to mod the bulb retention clip. The added 1.85mm is too thick for the clips OEM dimensions. I used pliers and carefully flattened it out a little so it could encompass the bulb + copper shim.

Jamie... its a great light, incredible throw and brute output. Don't let the run time limitations fool you. You can always throw a 7-8 ah cell into a padded pelican case and plug that into the handle. Unfortunately I don't think there is any way to wrench a ~4h cell into this thing, its packed in really tight wall to wall. In fact, the 1.85mm I added to shim the bulb back pushed the lamp deeper into the light... hard up against the 3A cell!! I couldn't get the dam reflector back on. I had to trim some of the heatshrink tube off the back end of the bulb to get it all to fit.

Its also a bit un-nerving, knowing you have 10s of thousands of volts in your hands.... Kramer Imahara =>


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## BVH (Dec 29, 2009)

Very nice pictorial, Karl. IIRC, my shim ended up about .075" or 1.9mm - almost the same. By comparison, many of my other shim jobs are in the area of .005 - .010. I'm thinking that the mfg'r wanted more flood and purposely designed them to be pushed forward out of focus. My dramatic pic is in the original Stanley thread, part 1.


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## elumen8 (Dec 30, 2009)

kramer5150 said:


> Jamie... its a great light, incredible throw and brute output. Don't let the run time limitations fool you. You can always throw a 7-8 ah cell into a padded pelican case and plug that into the handle.
> Kramer Imahara =>


 
Thanks for the tip. I've heard you suggest the external pelican battery set-up before. I have a couple empty cases, I'll give that a shot..that should also work for another 12V halogen spotlight I have.

Great pics and mod tutorial as usual...now go bust some myths 

JB


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## Mjolnir (Dec 30, 2009)

The battery indicator on mine starts out orange when I first turn the light on, because of the "turbo" startup mode. However, it will sometimes actually switch to green for a little bit even on the high setting, but other times it does not. If I remember correctly, it used to stay on green for at least a small amount of time when freshly charged.

Any idea which would be the best combination for replacing the batteries? Wouldn't 4 lithium phosphate cells give a voltage pretty close to that of the stock battery?


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## kramer5150 (Dec 30, 2009)

Mjolnir said:


> The battery indicator on mine starts out orange when I first turn the light on, because of the "turbo" startup mode. However, it will sometimes actually switch to green for a little bit even on the high setting, but other times it does not. If I remember correctly, it used to stay on green for at least a small amount of time when freshly charged.
> 
> Any idea which would be the best combination for replacing the batteries? Wouldn't 4 lithium phosphate cells give a voltage pretty close to that of the stock battery?



Hmm no replies...:thinking:
The stock SLA is spec'd at 12V. But it sags under load, how much it dips, I am not sure. Certainly 4x26650 cells in series will surpass the OEM SLA, factoring its voltage sag under discharge. 4xLiPo would be 16.8V hot off the charger. Most automotive ballasts can handle that, but I am not sure what Vin the OEM stanley can handle.

AFIAK no one has successfully performed this mod. I speculate 2-3 road blocks that have stopped members.

-I think the 12V port at the end of the hand grip charges the internal SLA, hot current going in. There is a reverse polarity protection diode in the handle, but thats it. So if you were to plug the cig-cord into 4xLiPo cells, there would be a risk of over charging. them.

-Its doubtful you could retain the use of the OEM wall-wart and internal charge circuit. I am 99% certain it is not sophisticated enough to monitor the individual voltage levels of the 4 cells in series.

-Since the OEM charge methods are out of the picture, you would have to provide the necessary plug terminals for a balanced charging setup. This is the only way to ensure charging the LiPos safely in series, without removing them from the light. This actually wouldn't be all that hard. A Deans plug, multi-pin connector, some dremel work and quick setting epoxy, and I think you are in business.

I gave it some serious thought too... for now I am just going to leave mine OEM.


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## jcw122 (Dec 31, 2009)

This may be a bit of noobie ideas here...but has anyone tried using a lower amperage charger? I found a charger that will charge at the same voltage, but at 300mah instead of 500mah. Could this potentially give me a slight increase in the amount of juice in the battery, resulting in greater run times?


P.S. Kramer got any beamshots of afterwards?


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## Mjolnir (Dec 31, 2009)

Kramer I think you might have slightly misunderstood me. I was talking about Lithium phosphate cells (or lithium iron phosphate, or LiFePO4), which have a nominal voltage of around 3.3 volts, which would give a total voltage of a little over 13 volts. I think you thought that I meant lithium polymer (or LiPo), which is a different chemistry with a higher voltage.

Either way, a different charging system would have to be used, like a balancing hobby charger.

Actually, Batteryspace has some "12.8V" LiFePO4 packs of varying sizes; perhaps one of them would fit:
http://www.batteryspace.com/128vlifepo4batterypacks.aspx


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## KarstGhost (Dec 31, 2009)

Mine also goes straight to orange. It goes back to green very quickly once I start charging it though. Maybe they just aren't charging completely but the indicator says it is. I haven't tried a car charger yet. 

Is it a bad idea to leave it charging once it turns green? If I left it charging overnight would it hurt the battery? I know the manual says not to exceed 8 or 9 hours if I recall correctly. :thinking:


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## jcw122 (Jan 1, 2010)

KarstGhost said:


> Mine also goes straight to orange. It goes back to green very quickly once I start charging it though. Maybe they just aren't charging completely but the indicator says it is. I haven't tried a car charger yet.
> 
> Is it a bad idea to leave it charging once it turns green? If I left it charging overnight would it hurt the battery? I know the manual says not to exceed 8 or 9 hours if I recall correctly. :thinking:



From what I read in the big threads about it...people tested it and it cuts off the charging after reaching a certain voltage...so your OK to leave it sitting in the charger. SUCH a nice feature!


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## BVH (Jan 1, 2010)

IIRC, a couple of us got different results. Mine stopped charging and someone elses did not. I'd say it's ok if you forget and leave it plugged in for a while but I would not make a habit of doing so.


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## Bluemaxpilot (Jan 1, 2010)

Maybe some of you guys can tell whats wrong with my light?

I took it out last night on a fresh charge. I used for around 30-60 seconds with no problems. When I tried to use it agian, it would not fire "light" back up!

When I press the trigger the Status led stays a constant red for about 2 seconds, then it goes into amber, it will stay this color until I depress the trigger. All the time during this it will not light up? The ballast is humming though??

It was working great up to this point and is only about a month old. I wish now I had bought it at Wally world!!


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## nodoubt (Jan 3, 2010)

BVH said:


> Very nice pictorial, Karl. IIRC, my shim ended up about .075" or 1.9mm - almost the same. By comparison, many of my other shim jobs are in the area of .005 - .010. I'm thinking that the mfg'r wanted more flood and purposely designed them to be pushed forward out of focus. My dramatic pic is in the original Stanley thread, part 1.


i had to use a tension clip retainer....about twice as thin as the thinnest washer i could find.....didnt take much.....


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## kramer5150 (Jan 7, 2010)

Just a little update... for some reason I now have a green LED!!! I didn't do anything, other than charge/discharge the cell a few times... and now the LED lights up green with a fresh charge.:thinking:... not that I'm complaining.

The light still runs like a bat out of he11, easily illuminating my whole neighborhood street. So I don't think the ballast has weakened, or has reduced power consumption.

green light = happy geek!!


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## BVH (Jan 7, 2010)

After some charge cycles, the SLA is probably functioning at normal spec'd voltages and maybe that's why the led is now green?


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## killerwhale (Jan 8, 2010)

> AFIAK no one has successfully performed this mod. I speculate 2-3 road blocks that have stopped members.


Hi, guys! If it still interests anyone, I have successfully modded the Stanley HID and installed a 4 Ah 12.8 V LiFePO4 battery pack (akin to the one shown at http://www.batteryspace.com/lifepo418650battery128v4050mah5184wh7aratewpcb.aspx). It gives me about 48 minutes of runtime on HI. I can no longer use the supplied AC/DC adapter though.
Electronics-wise, no great changes were required. Of course, I had to disconnect the internal charging circuit since the battery pack I was using had its own charging and protection pcb. I reused the diode located in the handle to be able to power the light via the SAE connector (without recharging the LiFePO4 battery at the same time).
If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.


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## BVH (Jan 8, 2010)

I think you're the first one! I'll bet it's a lot lighter in weight now!


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## killerwhale (Jan 8, 2010)

BVH said:


> I think you're the first one! I'll bet it's a lot lighter in weight now!


Well, yes, it's a little bit lighter but not much. I didn't think LiFePO4 batteries were so heavy.


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## BVH (Jan 8, 2010)

Oh yeah, I was thinking Lipo, not LifeP04


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## killerwhale (Jan 8, 2010)

Well, I could have tried using Li-pos but I just didn't feel like taking chances (I leave the light in my car all the time, so thence temperature changes, high temperature inside, possible mishandling). Didn't want them to "vent with flames" someday.


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## jcw122 (Jan 9, 2010)

Congrats on the mod! I just ordered a 4300k bulb, that's what I'm excited about  I got frustrated with seeing so much of the beam and not enough of my target!


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## liteitup (Jan 10, 2010)

nice... was planning on doing the same thing with my stanley when the sla starts going out with a 5000mah lipo pack along with another custom hid spotlight..... then i have some 18650 li ion batteries to put into an extremely small hid spot light i made that has no room to spare (had to cut up the hid ballast to fit it inside! lol) hids are fun...

gonna have 3 hid spotlights... think thats enough????


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## shilent (Jan 11, 2010)

kramer5150 said:


> Just a little update... for some reason I now have a green LED!!! I didn't do anything, other than charge/discharge the cell a few times... and now the LED lights up green with a fresh charge.:thinking:... not that I'm complaining.
> 
> The light still runs like a bat out of he11, easily illuminating my whole neighborhood street. So I don't think the ballast has weakened, or has reduced power consumption.
> 
> green light = happy geek!!



After about 4-5 charge/discharge cycles, mine now stays green when I pull the trigger, though only for about a minute.


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## shilent (Jan 18, 2010)

My H3 4300K bulb that I ordered from Ebay came in. They are the same length as the stock bulb. How would one go about changing the bulb? Did you guys just splice the wires together?


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## jcw122 (Jan 19, 2010)

shilent said:


> My H3 4300K bulb that I ordered from Ebay came in. They are the same length as the stock bulb. How would one go about changing the bulb? Did you guys just splice the wires together?



I think someone mentioned in the big thread that they soldered the wires together. I'm not totally sure.


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## liteitup (Jan 19, 2010)

disconnect the battery first and foremost.................... your dealing with 20,000+ volts here.. proceed at your own risk and such

i took the gray enclosures apart and unsoldered the connections in there and then soldered on the new bulb. Then i shrinkwrapped it and put the enclosures back together. get some high voltage shrink wrap to be safe.


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## shilent (Jan 19, 2010)

liteitup said:


> disconnect the battery first and foremost.................... your dealing with 20,000+ volts here.. proceed at your own risk and such
> 
> i took the *gray enclosures* apart and unsoldered the connections in there and then soldered on the new bulb. Then i shrinkwrapped it and put the enclosures back together. get some high voltage shrink wrap to be safe.



Are you talking about those little gray cylinders on the wires? Or the gray rectangular box enclosure?


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## liteitup (Jan 19, 2010)

the cylinders. thats where the bulb is soldered to the wires coming out of the ballast


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## krazykevin76 (Jan 20, 2010)

*Stanley HID, have questions. Forgive the noobie*

Bought a Stanley HID at walmart yesterday. This is my first HID and I have a few questions.

I seem to have the few minutes after a hook it up the charging LED goes green. BUt when I pull the trigger it goes straight to red. Is this normal for a new light?

Also, when I pull the trigger the light is super bright, but a few seconds later it dims down. The initial brightness is awesome. Then once it dims, I'm not so impressed. Is it supposed to stay bright?

Lastly, the dim switch doesn't seem like it does anything at all. When I pull the trigger, the light is super bright. Then it dims considerably. Then if i move the dimmer switch its the same dim light. Nothing I can see changes. Overall I'm kinda disappointed in the light. Maybe my expectations were to high, but after hearing my brother rant and rave about the stanley 5w led light that is used, I thought this had to be just 100x better. I'm not so for sure now.


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## krazykevin76 (Jan 20, 2010)

Does the Stanley HID start up super bright and then dim down after a few seconds? Is this normal? Also, the dimmer switch. Mine doesn't seem to work, or the difference can't be seen with the human eye?


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## shilent (Jan 21, 2010)

Yes, it overvolts at first so it starts off brighter. As for the low setting, I can't see the difference either.


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## kramer5150 (Jan 21, 2010)

krazykevin76 said:


> Does the Stanley HID start up super bright and then dim down after a few seconds? Is this normal? Also, the dimmer switch. Mine doesn't seem to work, or the difference can't be seen with the human eye?



Yes both of those conditions are normal. The stanley starts out overdriving the bulb for a couple seconds in an effort to bring the "lamp" up to operating temperatures. As opposed to other HID lights that take longer to stabilize color tints and lumen output.

The dimmer switch is very subtle and a gradual increase / decrease. I can just _barely _ detect it doing a ceiling bounce. I can not tell a difference in the field.


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## SunFire900 (Jan 21, 2010)

krazykevin76 said:


> Does the Stanley HID start up super bright and then dim down after a few seconds? Is this normal? Also, the dimmer switch. Mine doesn't seem to work, or the difference can't be seen with the human eye?



I found that the best way to see the difference in brightness is to lay the light down on something while pointing it at a wall from a distance of about 2m.....Set the light on the Low setting and lock the light on..... Wait about a full minute for it to settle out completely......Now, switch the selector to High and watch the spot on the wall....You should see the brightness increase in 10, yes 10 subtle, but noticeable steps (each step is about 2 seconds apart)......Even if your eyes can't see the "steps", you should be able to notice how much more blinding the light on the wall becomes.

The process is reversed when switching the light back to the Low setting. 

Sooo, it takes about 20 seconds to go from Low to Hi and the same to go from Hi to Low (ten 2sec. steps each way). It is not an instant change and that makes it hard to see, but the difference between high and low is, ultimately, very noticeable.

Most all HID spotlights have but one setting...High. Having one that has a Low setting is a plus in my book. Book? What book?

In contrast, my Oracle dual-mode 35w HID switches immediately from high to low. It depends on how the ballast was designed.


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## kramer5150 (Jan 21, 2010)

*Re: Stanley HID, have questions. Forgive the noobie*



krazykevin76 said:


> Bought a Stanley HID at walmart yesterday. This is my first HID and I have a few questions.
> 
> I seem to have the few minutes after a hook it up the charging LED goes green. BUt when I pull the trigger it goes straight to red. Is this normal for a new light?
> 
> ...



When my light was brand new the LED would never light up green, even after a fresh recharge. I never noticed any performance shortcomings during this time. Then after 4-5 deep discharge cycles of the internal SLA, now it lights up green for the first few minutes.

The initial brightness is the ballast overdriving the bulb during the warm up period. Stanley designed it this way to bring bulb temperatures up faster, as opposed to other HIDs that need longer to stabilize. That is normal.

The dimmer switch is subtle. Its not an instantaneous change either, its a gradual stepped increase up or down over a ~15 second time period. The only time I notice it is on a ceiling bounce, where I can just barely perceive the lumen change. In the field I can not tell.


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## Mjolnir (Jan 21, 2010)

Killerwhale, it seems like you essentially doubled the runtime on high! Does that pack fit inside cleanly? How are you charging it with the battery wired up? Is the battery in the link the exact one that you used?


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## Mjolnir (Jan 21, 2010)

*Re: Stanley HID, have questions. Forgive the noobie*

If you read the original thread on the Stanley HID, all of your questions will be answered. The search function is a powerful tool...

Although the brightness that the stanley settles down to after the initial "turbo mode" might seem relatively dim, it is still very bright; MUCH brighter than any LED light out there, at least in terms of throw. It can easily put a useful amount of light on something 1000 feet away (enough light to easily identify something).


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## SunFire900 (Jan 21, 2010)

*Re: Stanley HID, have questions. Forgive the noobie*

+1 on that!

There are just too many new threads opened on this one subject. Can't hardly keep up with them.

Kevin.... First of all...the Stanley is anything _but_ dim.

The light on the Stanley HID is Green ONLY when fully charged *and* hooked up to the charger.

When the light is in use, it is Red.

When the battery is charging, it flashes Red.

That's pretty much the extent of it.

Get used to the light. It is many times brighter than the 5 watt Stanley LED. It's a joke to compare them to each other. Enjoy.

Oh, by the way...:welcome:.............


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## kramer5150 (Jan 21, 2010)

*Re: Stanley HID, have questions. Forgive the noobie*

Mods please feel free to merge this with my "Stanley HID technical discussions" thread. The problem with the first 2 original threads is they are HUGE and the technical information is lost in a maze of sale, pricing, availability, wal-mart, Amazon, shipping, part number ....etc... discussions.


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## liteitup (Jan 21, 2010)

*Re: Stanley HID, have questions. Forgive the noobie*



SunFire900 said:


> +1 on that!
> 
> There are just too many new threads opened on this one subject. Can't hardly keep up with them.
> 
> ...



ooooops wrong info...... here's whats up.

the light is green when fully charged and green for the first few minutes of operation. Sometimes it takes a few cycles of the battery for it to stay green for the first few minutes. The led then goes to ORANGE(its orange for the majority of the time) and then finally to red(last 3-4 minutes in my experience). The red/orange can be hard to notice if your not looking for it. The time the green light stays on after a full charge depends on the condition of your battery.... 

To confirm this for yourself hook up your 12v car adapter and notice the led will be green during operation (because a car when running will put out 14 volts). the led color is just a basic voltage guide....


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## killerwhale (Jan 25, 2010)

Mjolnir said:


> Killerwhale, it seems like you essentially doubled the runtime on high! Does that pack fit inside cleanly? How are you charging it with the battery wired up? Is the battery in the link the exact one that you used?


No, the pack did not fit cleanly inside, it's about 5 mm too long. And yes, the pack appears to be the same as in the link (12x18650 + PCB). Had to cut the metal strips leading to two 18650s and solder wires to them.
The battery is charged through the barrel plug connection that I wired directly to the battery.


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## bradpr (Jan 27, 2010)

I've been enjoying my HID for several months, but I'm worried its busted now. I put it on the charger tonight and after 2-3 hours, the charging indicator was green. I disconnected the charger, and pulled the trigger to make sure it was good. To my displeasure, the light didn't fire,and the led flashed red. What does this mean? It appears to indicate a system problem. 

I hooked the charger back up, but it was again green within 5 minutes.

Can someone tell me what this flashing LED (when not on a charger)means?


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## Overton-AR (Jan 28, 2010)

OK, I need to ask a question about the battery. Can I remove it all together?? I just want to run the Stanley HID 3000 with the cord ONLY. I need to shed some serious weight on this light. Can it be done, and how do I do it??

Any help. Thanks.


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## jcw122 (Jan 29, 2010)

Overton-AR said:


> OK, I need to ask a question about the battery. Can I remove it all together?? I just want to run the Stanley HID 3000 with the cord ONLY. I need to shed some serious weight on this light. Can it be done, and how do I do it??
> 
> Any help. Thanks.



From what I read in the big Stanley thread, the DC adapter wiring runs through the battery, so you couldn't remove the battery without rewiring I guess.


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## liteitup (Jan 31, 2010)

you can remove the battery. just take care of the leads going to the battery as they will be hot... the connections are all parallel if i recall correctly so you should be able to remove the battery and just tape up the connections inside..


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## shilent (Feb 1, 2010)

bradpr said:


> I've been enjoying my HID for several months, but I'm worried its busted now. I put it on the charger tonight and after 2-3 hours, the charging indicator was green. I disconnected the charger, and pulled the trigger to make sure it was good. To my displeasure, the light didn't fire,and the led flashed red. What does this mean? It appears to indicate a system problem.
> 
> I hooked the charger back up, but it was again green within 5 minutes.
> 
> Can someone tell me what this flashing LED (when not on a charger)means?



I'm having a similar problem. I purchased mines a little over a month ago and it's been working great until tonight. Right off the charger, the light works, but when trying to turn it on again, it doesn't work and all I hear is this noise like it's trying to start, and the LED is blinking red.

Hooking it back up to the charger, brings it to green in about 5 mins and the light works again, but won't on the 2nd try.

Update: Looks like my bulb burned out, it flickers a little when I try to turn it on and it smells bad heh. Guess that's what happens when you buy really cheap bulbs from ebay.


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## liteitup (Feb 1, 2010)

make sure the leads are not shorting out inside... how well did you insulate the bulb connections?


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## shilent (Feb 1, 2010)

liteitup said:


> make sure the leads are not shorting out inside... how well did you insulate the bulb connections?



about 5 layers of electrical tape, I'll check it tomorrow when I have time.


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## shilent (Feb 3, 2010)

Yup, turns out it was the bulb. I got the stock bulb back on for now.


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## jcw122 (Feb 3, 2010)

How was your bulb wired? I got one off eBay too.


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## shilent (Feb 3, 2010)

jcw122 said:


> How was your bulb wired? I got one off eBay too.



It was wired exactly like the stock bulb, I just spliced and soldered them together. The bulb just burned out, when I opened it up, the smoke seemed to have left a little haze on the reflector, but it cleaned right off with rubbing alcohol.


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## ki4hou (Feb 25, 2010)

liteitup said:


> you can remove the battery. just take care of the leads going to the battery as they will be hot... the connections are all parallel if i recall correctly so you should be able to remove the battery and just tape up the connections inside..



It may work but on the other hand the battery does serve as a buffer,especially during the high current cold starts. There is a chance that the bulb will strike then immediately extenguish due to voltage drop. Havent tried doing this with mine but I could see this as a possibility


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## ki4hou (Feb 25, 2010)

I just noticed that your models have a hi/lo switch on the back. If its not too much trouble could one of you send me a pic of the circuit board and where its connected to? I'm sure the board is the same but that feature just gets omitted on some models.


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## liteitup (Feb 26, 2010)

ki4hou said:


> It may work but on the other hand the battery does serve as a buffer,especially during the high current cold starts. There is a chance that the bulb will strike then immediately extenguish due to voltage drop. Havent tried doing this with mine but I could see this as a possibility



i can see your thinking but its only drawing 7.5 amps(90 watts) on startup. shouldnt be a problem


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## Apollo Cree (Feb 26, 2010)

I saw the Stanley HID at my local Lowe's store. It was the no high-low switch version. It was $69. They also had the Stanley 5 W LED for $39.


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## elumen8 (Apr 1, 2010)

Just picked up another Stanley at Wallyworld Story Rd for a whopping $35-. I returned my first one back in November because it had a bad battery. 

This one does not have the Hi-Lo switch. I'll try to shim the bulb for a better beam.

This is my only HID and I have to say that I think the beam is so cool when you first turn it on and the bulb heats up...its like the beam begins to fill out from the bottom upwards. I just find that fascinating.

There has been so much talk about using various other battery types both internal and external to no avail. I'm thinking of simply using a 7AH SLA battery that I happen to have laying around already and attaching it with the supplied DC cord if I want some additional runtime. I'll keep the cell in a Pelican case and carry it in lumbar pack.

Note* straight out of the package it ran for 19 minutes.

JB


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## csshih (Apr 1, 2010)

oh man, a bunch of bay area cpf members are getting deals on HIDs and I'm broke!~ lol!


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## crosstalk (Apr 2, 2010)

Although I do not have the money to buy one (although I want to,) I have been wondering if it would be possible to mod this with a bulb designed to run at a higher wattage (70?) and utilize the ballast's higher output.

I believe this would take a modification/replacement of the circuit board (to keep the ballast on full) and probably a new battery (to sink the current) in addition to the new bulb. You could also keep the hi/low functionality, but between the lowest and highest of the outputs.

Does someone more experienced/knowledgeable have any ideas about this? I think the largest problem, if I haven't overlooked any technical problems, is that a new battery may decrease the cost benefits of modding this versus buying a higher-powered light.

Thank you.


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## richardcpf (Apr 2, 2010)

I only get 15 minutes run time with my Stanley HID, and I mostly use it while wired to the car. 15 minutes runtime is way too short and the led is always orange or red, but considering what I paid for it ($58 ebay), it is not that bad.

Some guy offered $100 for it and I´m selling it soon, I think I own the only Stanley hid in my country, as well as many other flashlights.. I live in Panama and the stores don´t even carry LED maglites.


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## Apollo Cree (Apr 2, 2010)

I saw a Stanley Incandescent spotlight that looks almost exactly like the HID 0109 without a hi-low switch, so everyone needs to be careful if they're shopping for a Stanley HID. It would be real easy to buy the wrong one.


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## jcw122 (Apr 3, 2010)

Richardcpf, your saying you only get 15 minutes when it's PLUGGED into your car? That sounds odd.


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