# HDS family



## thermal guy (Jan 6, 2008)

Just took a quick picture of my HDS collection- thought I would share with you!
Dan




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p.s. It just slipped to my gf how much this collection is really worth:shakehead


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## TITAN1833 (Jan 6, 2008)

Nice collection,now that your gf knows the value"I wonder if she will spirit them away on BST.:devil:


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## thermal guy (Jan 6, 2008)

You should of seen the expression on her face when i tried to explain to her that the battery tubes were not a flashlight!:thinking:


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## thermal guy (Jan 6, 2008)

Not sure what happen that pic should of been bigger.


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## xevious (Jan 21, 2008)

thermal guy said:


> Not sure what happen that pic should of been bigger.


It looks like you linked your sig pic in the post body. Do you have the higher res version available? I'm really curious to see what the HDS family looks like in better detail. And if you could sort them chronologically, that would be superb.


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## Groundhog66 (Jan 21, 2008)

My ENTIRE collection, my EDC B60LE. Although I do have one more Milkymodded B42XRGT w/knurled tailcap.


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## tebore (Jan 21, 2008)

TG I just noticed in your pic those aren't all HDS' there's some Novatacs in there.


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## xevious (Jan 21, 2008)

tebore said:


> TG I just noticed in your pic those aren't all HDS' there's some Novatacs in there.


Well, I guess you could consider them "extended family".


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## swampgator (Jan 21, 2008)

thermal guy said:


> p.s. It just slipped to my gf how much this collection is really worth


 
Never admit what they're worth. "Ah, it's a flashlight, I'd probably only get $__ for it." 

Make sure the sum is ridiciously low so that if money ever becomes an issue she can't harp on you to sell anything. Works well with guns, knives or any "toy".


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## thermal guy (Jan 21, 2008)

Yep i can get a much better pic. I had it on once than i screwed around an put the small one in.And yes ONE of them is a novatac the rest are all hds


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## mraymer (Jan 23, 2008)

You're the person hogging all the HDS lights, especially those three with the knurled tailcaps. You need to share!

Since you have both Novatac and HDS lights I wanted to ask about the body and tails. Some of us can't seem to get our hands on the knurled tailcaps. I know the Novatac tailcap can be removed from the tail/body portion where the battery goes. Can you take the middle/body section from a Novatac and put it on an HDS head and then put the knurled tail switch end from something like the 2x123 tube on the Novatac body?

I have a spare 1x123 switch for my HDS but it appears impossible to remove the smooth switch portion so I could replace it with one of my knurled switches. Does anyone know of any methods that will release whatever it is bonding these two pieces together without significant damage?


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## greenLED (Jan 23, 2008)

The HDS is one of those lights that I "want" to have when I'm playing with one, but the feeling wears off soon after I give the light back to its owner. 

Not exactly sure why. The looks, maybe? Size? I really don't know. It just doesn't "do it" for me for some reason (or I'd have a couple) although I know it's a kick-A EDC light.


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## xevious (Jan 23, 2008)

greenLED said:


> The HDS is one of those lights that I "want" to have when I'm playing with one, but the feeling wears off soon after I give the light back to its owner.
> 
> Not exactly sure why. The looks, maybe? Size? I really don't know. It just doesn't "do it" for me for some reason (or I'd have a couple) although I know it's a kick-A EDC light.


Is it kind of a larger Novatac? And there isn't a programmable one like the EDC-120P, is there? If it's "yes" for both, then I understand why.


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## greenLED (Jan 23, 2008)

Not really. They're basically the same in terms of size and interface options, and the programmability doesn't bug me at all. I actually kinda like the double/triple/press/hold interface. 

Like I said, I'm not exactly sure what it is that's kept me from getting one. :shrug:


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## Gene (Jan 24, 2008)

Don't mean to intrude on thermal guy's thread but I concur with Migs. I never could understand why these are so popular especially with their larger size. When I first saw one, I almost yawned. But VERY POPULAR they are and good for them and the people who like them!


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## tebore (Jan 24, 2008)

Gene said:


> Don't mean to intrude on thermal guy's thread but I concur with Migs. I never could understand why these are so popular especially with their larger size. When I first saw one, I almost yawned. But VERY POPULAR they are and good for them and the people who like them!



1. They're built well as good if not better than surefire (which seems to be a benchmark).

2. WHO CARES ABOUT THE LOOK? This light took function over form first.

3. It's reliable once you get the right switch. Out of the 5000 I think I've only seen 1 case where there was a short in the electronics. 

4. To each his own. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

5. Use one and you'll know why it's popular. Don't just hold and play with one. ACTUALLY USE IT. You'll see that a lot of thought was put in to the design when you use it.


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## Gene (Jan 24, 2008)

Okay tebore. I didn't mean to suffer the rath of owners but I guess I did. My post was polite and it's just my opinion and what does my opinion matter as these are some of the most popular lights ever?  Looks and size mean a lot to me. Again, just MY opinion! PLEASE enjoy your lights.


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## tebore (Jan 24, 2008)

I didn't mean to come off hostile but I bet I did. I'm was .... excited? that's all. 

I understand it's your opinion. I was just giving some common reasons. I'm telling you you gotta just try one out in actual use and I'm sure your opinion will be different. 

This light was one of the first to have brightness options that was user selectable and have built in safeties like temp and battery warnings.


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## Ctechlite (Jan 24, 2008)

Gene said:


> ... size mean a lot to me ...


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## xevious (Jan 25, 2008)

Wow Tebore, I can see why you got upset--you've got 4 of them in your arsenal!

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", is indeed true. When I first saw these, I wasn't that impressed. I thought they looked kind of "primitive" in design. But after reading a number of posts about the programming, the shape began to work on me. Now I really like it, and have trouble relating to how I felt previously. And when you dress it up with a silver colored bezel, the look is immediately transformed (for the better).

Someone complained about the reaction time of the interface being 1/3 of a second... which I think is absurd. The timing is pretty much the best it can be, slow enough to delineate between commands but fast enough not to feel like there's an appreciable lag.

Until someone else comes out with as versatile a light of the same build quality, I expect to always have a NovaTac/HDS in my possession.


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## thermal guy (Feb 3, 2008)

[/IMG]


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## thermal guy (Feb 3, 2008)

Here is a little better pic of my Babbie's thanks for looking


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## DM51 (Feb 3, 2008)

thermal guy said:


> Sorry way to big! not sure how to reduce it.


Yes, it is 1023 x 769 pixels. The maximum permitted is 800 x 600.

Do you have photoshop, or some other pic editing program? You usually click 'Image', then 'Resize', then enter the size you need, then save it. You will then need to re-upload the new saved version.

Someone else mentioned that pics can be resized in Photobucket, but I have not tried this.


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## powernoodle (Feb 3, 2008)

Sorry for being OT, but you can download for free Microsoft's picture resizer. Lets you right click on a pic and select from different resizing options.

Link.


Edit: you can also do it using Microsoft Paint, which is already on almost every MS machine.


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## thermal guy (Feb 3, 2008)

Thanks powernoodle but i think i got it


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## FredericoFreire (Feb 4, 2008)

Here's my HDS collection, it consists on:
1 HDS EDC Basic 42 XR GT - mint, NIP.
1 HDS EDC Basic 42 - Used to play around the house.
2 HDS 2xCR123 tubes - new from Lighthound
1 HDS Nut kit w/ lens removal tool.


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## tebore (May 10, 2008)

TG when are you gonna post pics of your newest long lost member of the family that just got reunited?












These have got to be one of the cutest pics taken of an HDS.


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## thermal guy (May 11, 2008)

You know it is about time for an update.I'll see what i can do.


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## Chronos (May 12, 2008)

thermal guy said:


> You know it is about time for an update.I'll see what i can do.


Please do!


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## thermal guy (May 12, 2008)

Well that didn't work! Dam! now it's to big someone help before i get yelled at.


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## thermal guy (May 13, 2008)

Got it!


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## Aluminous (May 28, 2008)

thermal guy said:


> Well that didn't work! Dam! now it's to big someone help before i get yelled at.



You shouldn't make the main image tiny like that, now there's no big version to link to.  You want to either resize your images to 800px wide (or 800px tall, if they're taller than they are wide), which is allowed to be fully displayed in your post; or else you want to post thumbnails (small versions) _with_ links to the full-size versions. 

Photobucket automatically creates thumbnails, which have a "th_" in front of the filename. For example, for the image i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Danny14510/dan2.jpg, the thumbnail is i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Danny14510/th_dan2.jpg. Link them like this:


> [url=http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Danny14510/dan2.jpg] [img]http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Danny14510/th_dan2.jpg[/img] [/url]


Which looks like this: 






I took a look in your album, and here are the only HDS photos with big versions available... click to see the big version. (The first two really aren't very big, only 640x480 and 567x369 - ought to be bigger for this purpose.)



 

 

 



Hope that helps.


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## DM51 (May 28, 2008)

Aluminous, that is a useful tutorial post, and I have placed a copy of it in this thread in Questions/Problems/Suggestions.


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## thermal guy (Sep 6, 2008)

Getting bigger! "Sorry about the crappy pic it does not do Justice to them"


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## RGB_LED (Sep 24, 2008)

tebore said:


> 1. They're built well as good if not better than surefire (which seems to be a benchmark).
> 
> 2. WHO CARES ABOUT THE LOOK? This light took function over form first.
> 
> ...


tebore, I agree with you 100% on points 1, 3, 4 and 5. 

Don't forget about the insanely long regulated runtime at 50% which, at the time, was unheard of. As for point 2... when I first heard about the HDS, I was excited to see what light everyone was talking about. I found the links to various retailers selling the light and thought... 'wow, that is one bu**-ugly light!'. Then I started to research other lights and compared them to HDS' specs and realized that this light could do what most lights - at that time - could not! For me, that the turning point. 

I picked up an HDS U60 XRGT and, as soon as I got the light, I realized that it was an incredibly beautiful light; everything on the light serves a function with no wasted material, no bizarre bezel configuration, perfect size and shape and switch that worked well. When I started using my HDS, I realized how versatile that light was in such a small package. The UI did take some getting used-to but after a few minutes, that was easy as well. 

I have since picked up titanium clips / screws, stainless steel bezel and a 2xCR123 battery tube (wish I had the 1x18650 and 2xAA tubes but that's for another day perhaps). One of my projects is to add a new emitter to the light which will bring it up to the same class as my current lights in terms of output. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing!

Btw, tebore, was modding your HDS w/ a P7 difficult? Just wondering also how much runtime you get out of that...


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## tebore (Sep 24, 2008)

RGB_LED said:


> tebore, I agree with you 100% on points 1, 3, 4 and 5.
> 
> As for point 2... when I first heard about the HDS, I was excited to see what light everyone was talking about. I found the links to various retailers selling the light and thought... 'wow, that is one bu**-ugly light!'. Then I started to research other lights and compared them to HDS' specs and realized that this light could do what most lights - at that time - could not! For me, that the turning point.
> 
> ...



The light could look better. However you'd have to go to an AA sized light to get the same kind of wall thickness which is part of the build quality. Going to AA you'd loose runtime and the ability to push the LED as hard. 

The P7 isn't easy but it's not super hard. I've since reverted back to using a traditional U2-bin P4. I just had a change of heart for more throw. Runtime was the same since the module does all the regulation.

I hate to say it but I'm starting to develop a "Flavour of the month" towards LEDs. I'm interested in high CRI and color temp. It's just my way of avoiding buying new lights. I've tested out the P7 and now the high CRI P4. The P7 is a gimmick if anything it's not driven hard enough to really get a good beam down range. The high CRI P4 really makes colors pop but I miss the higher output of the U2 bin P4. My next LED if I can get my hands on it would be a U2SUNH. Lower color temp while retaining the U2 bin. Knowing how CRI works it should have a better CRI than a SWO or a SVO.

I've played with optics in the HDS setup as well while I could tighten the beam I wasn't sure about waterproofing. It could take a dunk but any deeper than a pool would worry me.


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