Remember that little 5W light with the big head? Yeah, mebbe a little too big, but the output in such a small package running on just a single CR123 was too intriguing to shelve, so until my search for an example of the new Fraen Low Profile optic bears fruit, I decided to wrap some SAT (no, this isn't what you college students might think, it stands for Self Amalgamating Tape) around the body threads -- and screwing on perfectly like it was made for it, I used my "Legend LX On A Diet" head that was so elegantly trimmed down by our very own CPF'er Matt the Machinist.

Here it is standing on its own (one) foot next to the only two regular production 5W lights in existence today, the Streamlight TL-3 and SureFire L4:

A look down the business end of these lights:

Here are comparison beamshots of the lights in the same order:

As you can see, the little-bighead Baby Pin was obviously brighter by a good margin. And this is using just one CR123, against two lithiums in the SureFire and three in the Streamlight.

And finally, on this night the light meter said:

The circuit used in this particular Baby Pin was the new-style BadBoy 750, courtesy of dat2zip (Thanks, Wayne!).

The search for a brighter yet smaller head/optic combination for the Baby Pin continues, but we are indeed getting closer...hmmm, wonder how the head would look anodized black?

9.19.03

FINAL CONFIGURATION

Some kind hearted CPF'er heard of my plight looking for a Fraen Low Profile (FLP) optic and sent me one out of the blue, just received it this afternoon. Not one to sit around wondering what to do with it, I immediately set up another shootout.

Here's the competition (our soon-to-be-named champ is second from the right):

The light is the Fox Outdoor Xenon Tactical Flashlight, which turns out to be a great discovery by CPFe'r jcciv, Very mod friendly (and so is the light).

Here are the one-on-one beamshots with the Baby Pin on the right. First up, the Arc LSH-P:

Vs. the SF KL1:

Vs. the SF L1:

And finally, vs. its own brethren, the original HF light-based Baby Pin with the big LX head and vaunted 30mm optics -- and keep in mind this light is using a 5 watt Luxeon that makes 823 lux, which handily BEAT both the SF L4 (two CR123s) and the SL TL-3 (three CR123s):

And on this day the lux meter said:

Hmmm, over ONE THOUSAND LUX at one meter, all from a tiny single-cell light that could be easily made to disappear in my smallish hands:

Here's what the Fraen looks like next to an NX-05:

At this time I have enough parts on hand to make five more of these.

Introducing -- The Baby Pin (I wonder if anybody can guess what my new EDC will be now?).

9.23.03

Did a somewhat botched up runtime test tonight -- new battery, luxed just over a thousand, left it on (in a white porcelain bowl -- just in case), and the glare from the pure white bowl candlelit the little laundry room like nobody's business. I would be checking brightness every 5 to 10 minutes to see how it progressed (or so I thought).

Went out to the workshop and prepared to Arctic Alumina epoxy a heatsink onto a light tube with e-can dropped inside and the two wires sticking up from the board (exactly like in my avatar).

Cleaned all contact surfaces with denatured alcohol, mixed up a batch of epoxy at which time you have about 5 minutes or so to get everything lined up and clamped down, spread a thin layer on the mating surfaces of the parts, and then -- I realized I had not drilled the three required holes in the heatsink nor tapped the largest one for the grounding screw!

Bounded like a madman over to the drill press, drilled out the two different sized holes using cutting oil, set up the tap, and then -- realized I would be way, Way, WAY too late. The epoxy had already set to the point where you could just dent it with your thumbnail.

Razor bladed the nearly hardened epoxy off the parts, stuck a wire brush into the Dremel and got the surfaces cleaned up all shiny again, redid everything and finally got the parts Arctic'd together, and then...hey! The runtime test!!!

I glanced at my watch and 55 minutes had elapsed. Rushed back in the house and even before I got to the laundry room it was obvious from the reflected light coming from the doorway that the Baby Pin was quite dim by now -- but still going.

I took a meter reading without ever turning it off and got 85 lux. Still lots of light to navigate by, read, see your feet, all the standard things. It does not go into any kind of "moon mode", just dims gradually, a feature I always appreciated in non-circuitized lights such as the Direct Drives I made. No sudden loss of light when you are out in the middle of nowhere, lots of warning to get to fresh batteries -- make that battery (Baby Pins do not need more than one CR123).

Turned it off for about five minutes while removing the head and tailcap to inspect the light inside and out, and everything appeared fine. Turned it on and it went back up to 260 lux. All right, still as bright or brighter in this depleted mode than most other LED lights on new batteries. Stuck in a fresh DP ("Daily Power") CR123 and readings were back to normal.

So there you have it, a messed up (longer than intended) runtime test, and the Baby Pin came out with flying colors.

Just thought you might like to know!

Oh yeah, imgadgetman2 asked whether the light is waterproof. The package claims it is "extreme waterproof" to a depth of "100 meters", and although there are o-rings in all the right places, I cannot guarantee this. It would probably survive a dunk in the pool, but water pressure at depth has a way of squeezing past the best of o-rings and other sealing devices, so I simply present a photograph of the actual packaging:

It also says it makes "8500 lux" in its original incandescent form (I don't think so, although it is markedly brighter than an E1), describes the expolded parts diagram as the "Decompose Graph", and depicts the head as having a separate bezel ring, but near as I can tell the head is machined from one solid piece of aluminum -- so I'll let you be the judge. I'm staying out of this one!

10.2.03 Build Update

Just a few update pics to let everyone know that in addition to being busy as a Moderator, I have also been busy as a Modder.

Just keeping track of parts from the donor hosts alone can take up all one's fingers as well as toes, several times over:

Then we still have some of the other parts involved:

But perservere and, Voilá! The first six have been completed tonight:

Of course they will need to undergo testing before shipping. Just thought you might like to know a bit about our progress...