# I've come full circle!



## kelmo (Sep 23, 2016)

Hello fellow Hot Wires!

My flashaholism has wained in the past 5 years. I have a lot of lights and lots of batteries lying around. As I get older I really don't need the bleeding edge brightest smallest light anymore. What really pleases me is a good incan. Fall has always been a transition season for me EDC wise, LED to incan. Nothing like a good incan to cut through the mist and not blind you with reflective glare. Now I find my self carrying incans more then LEDs year round as a primary light. I was always a flashlight geek at heart and grew up with PR bulb lights using zinc carbide batteries. It's ironic that the brightest light that I carry most of the time is the tiny AAA LED light in my pant pocket I consider my backup! 

I just put fresh cells in my trusty G2, E2e, M3, and M6.

Thanks for sharing!

kelmo


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## sgt253 (Sep 24, 2016)

Amen! Carried an E2E all day at work. I have been putting away more and more led lights to focus on the icands. Just something about them that does it for me...


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## Fuchshp (Sep 24, 2016)

Same here. My EDC is an E2e incandescent (tad customs bulb / 16650)


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## bykfixer (Sep 24, 2016)

Love it. 

The other night at work I was typing a post here on my phone when a fellow walks up and asks who I was talking to. Yeah... my phone is my computer... who'd-uh thunk that in 01?

I told him I was editing a post about a 1946 flashlight at a flashlight forum. He says "they have flashlight forums now?" 
I responded that this one began in the days when folks long'd for automotive headlight beams from their 2D Maglites, but as of late is all about how much smaller, brighter and cheaper are the best. He said "sounds like it must be boring these days but it musta been fun back then". 

Yeah, it seems like during the summer, at least on the US east coast the air is so thick with moisture and so much light pollution bouncing around it requires a lot more brightness to know your light is even on. But when that crisp fall air sets in it seems.... darker-like. And with summer action settling towards winter hibernating less folks are out stirring around after sunset on the shorter days. The incan light gets it done just fine in my world shortly after Labor Day. 

One thing I noticed here is the incan talk picks up as the weather gets cooler. Oh, the din of the crowds over there in the LED section all yelling over each other and cash registers jingling can be heard in the distance while hanging out in almost whisper quiet Incan section. 

Meanwhile they ask over their "is SureFire still any good?" and over here the fabled SureFires still reign supreme.


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## RollerBoySE (Sep 24, 2016)

Interesting view and I do agree that the blueish low CRI light from many LEDs is not very useful.
I'm just curious: Have you ever tried high CRI LEDs, like Nichia 219B?


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## ven (Sep 24, 2016)

I will certainly be going incan for Halloween.............I find i come full circle in many things, i remember the camping side, tent, elec hook up, trailer to tow it all to save room. Then to a caravan for ease, then fully loaded with all the gear and awning etc....................became a working holiday to back to a pop up tent, no trailer, no hook up.......back to basics!!! Lot to be said imo, sometimes its fresh to get away from the norm or just to break it up.


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## bykfixer (Sep 24, 2016)

RollerBoySE said:


> Interesting view and I do agree that the blueish low CRI light from many LEDs is not very useful.
> I'm just curious: Have you ever tried high CRI LEDs, like Nichia 219B?



True _*accurate*_ CRI still evades the LED. 
The "red" every 219 fan crows about is an 80 rating. R9... look it up. 
Even a blue tint LED can match that. And Nichia doesn't even note their R13 and 15 number... hmmm, wonder why?
Perhaps it is because those colors don't even rate a 75? 
Nice try Nichia, but the old edison bulb is still king of CRI.


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## Aggressor (Sep 24, 2016)

Why stop there? A collection of *torches*, anyone?


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## ven (Sep 24, 2016)

Aggressor said:


> Why stop there? A collection of *torches*, anyone?




Nah, waste of time and money..............


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## kelmo (Sep 24, 2016)

ven said:


> I will certainly be going incan for Halloween...



My Halloween light is an M3 w/MN11 LA!


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## ven (Sep 24, 2016)

kelmo said:


> My Halloween light is an M3 w/MN11 LA!





:naughty: i bet you have a "jason" mask as well

Always admired the m3, have the baby m2 which is a fav SF of mine...........no incan though, has a 5000k xhp70 SD inside and 2x 16340 IMR cells to feed it.


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## Sambob (Sep 25, 2016)

I'm actually leaning more to the neutral to warm white leds reminds me of that comforting glow form an Ican without the black hole In the middle.


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## ampdude (Sep 28, 2016)

I've always carried an incan. Never could get into carrying an LED light except a red squeeze light on the keychain. Been incan carrying since the 90's and have seen no reason to EDC an LED to this day. I still edc an E2e with an MN03 more than 95% of the time at night. I know I'm not missing out on anything by doing so.


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## bykfixer (Sep 29, 2016)

ampdude said:


> I've always carried an incan. Never could get into carrying an LED light except a red squeeze light on the keychain. Been incan carrying since the 90's and have seen no reason to EDC an LED to this day. I still edc an E2e with an MN03 more than 95% of the time at night. I know I'm not missing out on anything by doing so.



Pressing inviso like button.


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## Incan Lurker (Jan 2, 2017)

Yeh, I've come full circle also. My most used flashlight is an 6 Volt Rayovac Incan Krypton Lantern. I use a Rayovac Rechargeable 6 Volt Lead Acid Battery with it, to keep the Battery Costs down.


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## vicv (Jan 2, 2017)

Should try a battery pack consisting of a123 or battery station lifepo4 26650 2s and however many parallel strings you can fit in there. Would be awesome. Cut the weight way down and gain capacity with basically regulated output


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## ampdude (Jan 2, 2017)

Incan Lurker said:


> Yeh, I've come full circle also. My most used flashlight is an 6 Volt Rayovac Incan Krypton Lantern. I use a Rayovac Rechargeable 6 Volt Lead Acid Battery with it, to keep the Battery Costs down.



I have a 6 volt Energizer Industrial lantern in a backpack in my main ride. It has a Magnumstar xenon PR lamp and and large smooth reflector so it throws a laser beam. It's really nice to have out in the middle of nowhere at night. Much more useful than any LED.


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## chillinn (Jan 2, 2017)

Love LED for runtime and guilt-free brightness, but love incan for all else. Even though I recently, finally, have acquired an E1e to begin to customize, and I am using it daily now, I just went long on MagLite Solitaire. I already have a red one, so I just ordered a new green one, along with 24 _MiniMag_ (Lamptronix brand) LM2A001 lamps, and bit the FastTech Li-ion shipping bullet :'( with 12 new LifePO4 3.2V Coolworld 10440's. I am considering attempting an interest thread over at BLF to see if there is possibly enough desire in incan for a run of Solitaire soft-start tailswitches with a few modes (for the 12lm lamp swap/cell swap model I just described, not the 2lm stock model). Obviously, I'd need to find someone that could design that... get it made... etc. details, details


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## mcm308 (Jan 2, 2017)

I've always been an Incan guy. Never liked LED output. Slowly rebuilding my favorites I've let go. Never let me M3 go though. Even though it has an LED drop in. The only LED I like. Maybe because it's in the best platform going. Planning on another M3 just to have the Incan without having to switch heads. The Streamlight Ultra Stinger is another I use frequently. I will be mounting the 12V charge cradle into my Jeep and that will be the dedicated Jeep light. The A2 is downright my all time favorite and I never should of sold the 10 I had. I just scored a 4 flat off the block for 94 bucks! Then I have the M6 that I ordered a TAD bi pin socket and the FiveMega 3x16650 battery holder. 
Maybe 2 more A2's, another M3 and I'm set. I do keep some LED units in the house for when the power goes out but I use strictly incans.

Don't like LEDS so much I removed the Rigid Industries units on my Jeep and replaced with Lightforce halogens.


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## Incan Lurker (Jan 3, 2017)

vicv said:


> Should try a battery pack consisting of a123 or battery station lifepo4 26650 2s and however many parallel strings you can fit in there. Would be awesome. Cut the weight way down and gain capacity with basically regulated output



Thanks for the idea's Vicv, 
I will have to give that some thought. I did purchase some of those new Duracell 2500mAh Recharagable AA Batteries and have a 6 volt to 4-D adapter. The Rayovac Lead Acid only produces 5Ah while the 8 Duracell AA's produce 20Ah.


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## vicv (Jan 3, 2017)

And they'll give you a much flatter output than lead acid. You'll only have 10ah though. I presume the adaptor carries the cells 4s4p. 4s for the 6v and 4p for 2500mah x4 or 10ah. The beauty of the lifepo4 I mentioned is it will overdrive the bulb as you'll be providing 6.4-6.6v to the bulb instead of 4.8v for the 4s NIMH. May poof the bulb though😀


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## Incan Lurker (Jan 3, 2017)

vicv said:


> And they'll give you a much flatter output than lead acid. You'll only have 10ah though. I presume the adaptor carries the cells 4s4p. 4s for the 6v and 4p for 2500mah x4 or 10ah. The beauty of the lifepo4 I mentioned is it will overdrive the bulb as you'll be providing 6.4-6.6v to the bulb instead of 4.8v for the 4s NIMH. May poof the bulb though




Believe it or not, the D-adapters use 2 AA's per D adapter. That's how I'm able to put a total of 8 AA's in the 6 volt lantern using the 6 volt to 4-D adapter.


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## vicv (Jan 3, 2017)

I'm not sure I understand. I also have 2XAA adaptors which hold the cells in parallel. Are these what you have? If so you'd need 4 of these in series to get "6" volts. Or 4.8v nominal. To get 6v nominal you'd need 5 of them in series. But then you'd still only have 5ah. Not 20ah. To get 20ah you'd need 8 aa's in parallel


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## Incan Lurker (Jan 3, 2017)

vicv said:


> I'm not sure I understand. I also have 2XAA adaptors which hold the cells in parallel. Are these what you have? If so you'd need 4 of these in series to get "6" volts. Or 4.8v nominal. To get 6v nominal you'd need 5 of them in series. But then you'd still only have 5ah. Not 20ah. To get 20ah you'd need 8 aa's in parallel



You are absolutely correct, I have 5Ah in series with the 8 AA's.


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## vicv (Jan 3, 2017)

Ok thanks for the clarification


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## Tribull (Jan 6, 2017)

I am finding my interest taking me back to incandescent lights. I remember how I felt when I was a kid using my dads lights. I bought a mini mag 14 lumen, and the beam and tint take me back. I'm thinking of getting Maglites ml25lt.
Do the Xeon bulbs last awhile? Also where do you all find has the best selection of incandescents?


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## Incan Lurker (Jan 7, 2017)

Tribull said:


> I am finding my interest taking me back to incandescent lights. I remember how I felt when I was a kid using my dads lights. I bought a mini mag 14 lumen, and the beam and tint take me back. I'm thinking of getting Maglites ml25lt.
> Do the Xeon bulbs last awhile? Also where do you all find has the best selection of incandescents?



I've gotten most of my bulk incandescent bulbs supplies and individual lights from different sellers on Ebay. Just this week, I scored 3 New Rayovac 6 Volt lanterns from an Ebay Seller pretty cheap. Most "Big Box" retailers (around these parts) are no longer selling Incandescent Flashlights and bulbs with the exception of Maglite Dealers. Ace Hardware has some residual Krypton 6 volt Lanterns that I've been snatching up a few at a time each paycheck. I recently bought a Maglight 2D Xenon bi-pin bulb from Galls. Other than that,.......It's pretty much doing Google Searches for what you are looking for and comparing prices.


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## bykfixer (Jan 7, 2017)

Tribull said:


> I am finding my interest taking me back to incandescent lights. I remember how I felt when I was a kid using my dads lights. I bought a mini mag 14 lumen, and the beam and tint take me back. I'm thinking of getting Maglites ml25lt.
> Do the Xeon bulbs last awhile? Also where do you all find has the best selection of incandescents?



eBay or Amazon for the best incan selection.

The ML25IT use regular Mag 2 and 3 cell bi-pin bulbs that are available at Home Depot near the check out area.
Last time I looked Zbattery.com had all flavors of the 2 cell IT and had black or silver 3 cell versions. 
The red 2 cell has a very nostalic look to it.


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## ampdude (Jan 7, 2017)

Incan Lurker said:


> Thanks for the idea's Vicv,
> I will have to give that some thought. I did purchase some of those new Duracell 2500mAh Recharagable AA Batteries and have a 6 volt to 4-D adapter. The Rayovac Lead Acid only produces 5Ah while the 8 Duracell AA's produce 20Ah.



Which adapter are you using? I like the extra capacity of the alkaline F cells in the top quality 6V lantern batteries made by Duracell and Energizer, but I hate buying them for $10 and knowing they've been sitting on the shelf for probably at least two years. And the cheap lantern batteries are either carbon zinc which is not suited for flashlights, or just 4 D cells in a container. Pretty sure that's what the current Rayovac alkaline ones are. Nothing wrong with Rayovac's standalone batteries though. Just seems they cheaped out on the 6V lantern batteries.


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## Incan Lurker (Jan 8, 2017)

ampdude said:


> Which adapter are you using? I like the extra capacity of the alkaline F cells in the top quality 6V lantern batteries made by Duracell and Energizer, but I hate buying them for $10 and knowing they've been sitting on the shelf for probably at least two years. And the cheap lantern batteries are either carbon zinc which is not suited for flashlights, or just 4 D cells in a container. Pretty sure that's what the current Rayovac alkaline ones are. Nothing wrong with Rayovac's standalone batteries though. Just seems they cheaped out on the 6V lantern batteries.



I am using the Dorcy 6V to 4D adapter. I do keep two 6Volt lantern batteries in stock incase of emergency. (Mostly if Neighbors or Relatives need them). The Ray-O-Vac cheapos are better than nothing,..........I suppose.


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## kelmo (Jan 17, 2017)

Been using a M4 with Lumens Factory high output lamp lately!


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## mcm308 (Jan 18, 2017)

kelmo said:


> Been using a M4 with Lumens Factory high output lamp lately!


Yes, i snagged an M4 off ebay and it arrived yesterday. Was advertised as having a blown bulb that looked like a LF. The bulb is unmarked so not exactly sure what it is. Upon inspection with a meter, the bulb checks out good! I popped in 4 primaries and no go. Playing around with it for an hour I got it to flicker. Seems it dont want to make contact somehow.. I popped in 2x16650 and bam. She fires right up! It's pretty bright but I think it can be brighter. I might try this bulb in an M6 with 3x16650 and see what happens. 

My original intention with the M4 is a TAD socket with 2x16650 power. Not sure what bulb yet.. probably the 7387 TAD recommends.

I forgot how sweet the M4 is... 
Between my M3,M4,and M6. I'm going to be doing alot of experimenting!


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## vicv (Jan 18, 2017)

You'll like that 7387. At least I do in a mag. Nice white ~400 lumens


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## mcm308 (Jan 18, 2017)

vicv said:


> You'll like that 7387. At least I do in a mag. Nice white ~400 lumens


What voltage are you sending through yours? I am contemplating a few different bulb options. I want to get my hands on an Osram 64250 to try.


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## vicv (Jan 18, 2017)

2x26650. Another nice one to try is the factory magcharger bulb. Nice tight 250-300 beam


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## [email protected] (Jan 27, 2017)

ampdude said:


> I've always carried an incan. Never could get into carrying an LED light except a red squeeze light on the keychain. Been incan carrying since the 90's and have seen no reason to EDC an LED to this day. I still edc an E2e with an MN03 more than 95% of the time at night. I know I'm not missing out on anything by doing so.



Well said. When packing some lights for work, I have to remind myself to have "one" LED in the gear bag. Usually 2 incans to 1 LED. The E2E is still one of my all time favorites.


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## Chauncey Gardiner (Jan 27, 2017)

I've come full circle, is just another way of saying, I'm lost. 

Just kidding.  

~ Chance


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## jellydonut (Jan 27, 2017)

I used to chase the ever-increasing lumens from the newer LED lights.. but then I realized I do not actually need all of that light. Quality over quantity, I now carry an A2.


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## KiwiMark (Jan 27, 2017)

I remember when I thought that Maglite were the way to go, I got a 2D for the glove box and another 2D for around home, a Solitaire for my key ring and a 2 x AA for pocket/bag. Then LEDs came out and I bought a Jetbeam and a Fenix, as far as I was concerned they made my Maglites redundant with more brightness and a better size.

I wondered what to do with my old Maglites. Could I convert them to LED? That is when I found this site and learned about hotwires and ROP bulbs. My Maglites are now still in use and put out impressive light with all the CRI I can eat!

What I've come to realise is that LED aren't better and incan aren't better. There are some things that LED are better for and some things that incan lights are better for.
For a small keychain light I prefer a Nichia AAA light like my Astrolux A01 that cost ~$10 and has multimode that works fantastic.
For an EDC light I have many that work well, mostly LED lights with neutral tint.
For a light around the house - my Maglite 2D with ROP low bulb powered by 2 x 32650 or 2 x 26650 Li-Ion cells will run for 2 hours and put out great light, very nice light!
That 2D Maglite also works well for camping, the browns and greens really do look better from the incan light and it is plenty bright enough.

Currently I'm playing around with my Maglite 6D. I've got one of my AW 3-stage soft-start switches with KIU socket, an Osram 64458 bulb and arriving early next week will be 6 x 32650 LiFePO4 cells to power it. It also has a fivemega extension tube making it a 6.5D so it can fit the 65mm long cells (32650) rather than the 60mm D cells it was designed for. With (UCL) glass lens and aluminium reflector it can handle the heat and it should be putting out ~6,000 lumens - good light for such a large flashlight. Only ~30m run time, but I'm not going to be wanting 6,000 lumens for hours on end anyway. This light isn't necessarily all that practical for most uses, but it is fun to play with.

I do agree that the blue tint on most cool white LEDs is not all that appealing to look at, I have a preference for neutral or warm output when I buy LEDs.
Similarly a sickly orange colour from an incan light isn't very nice, I like to overdrive my hot wires for a nice white light, even if the bulbs blow much earlier.
For smaller lights I just can't get passed the efficiency of LED, the amount of light for the amount of battery power is so much better.
Where a light can be bigger I'm fine with using an Incan, my only reasonably small incan is my Surefire A2. When you go bigger and can have 5,000mAh cells powering a light then the efficiency of LEDs isn't nearly so vital. My old Maglite 2D and bigger lights make great hosts for really nice incan flashlights that can put out all the lumens I need.


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