Photon Micro-Lights

Astonishing news! You can adjust the brightness of your Photon lights! Go to the Photon website, and read about this!: http://www.photonlight.com/

While there are varying degrees of improvement, the standout is the green, which can be made MUCH brighter. The red, in my testing, is significantly brighter. The shorter wavelength lamps (white, blue turquoise) can be made dimmer, but longer burning, as well.

This is done by simply switching a single cell (2032) Photon to a double cell (2016) light, or vice versa. The 2016's are thin enough that two will fit into any Photon body. I was concerned that since the batteries in two cell Photons are connected in series, the voltage is doubled, and I thought that LED life would be decreased.

Bryan Avery, the most knowledgeable guy about Photons (with the possible exception of Tim Flanagan), posted back, stating that ALL the LED's are rated at 3V, even the ones that actually are used at 6V. Further, Bryan stated that if the LED blows out, it is guaranteed, and will be replaced. He stated that the life of the LED's used at 6V is still in decades of use, constantly on.

So, get out those 000 Phillips screwdrivers, and your silicone grease (hit all around the edge of the case, the inside of the case around where the switch hole is, and don't forget where the collar of the LED fits. Also, put a glob of grease on the top of the switch to provide even more water resistance. Cover the batteries, of course, and the LED leads, but if you are making up two cell models, go easy on the grease between the batteries; the grease is a dielectric, but even so, just a thin film will do the job.

Have fun, and let me know your results.

Walt
 
Actually, Walt, I tried to change you into a Whacko again, but alas, it wouldn't take.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
500?

FIVE HUNDRED!?

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I've bought a total of three. My personal critter is a green, so I'm trying out the double 2016 trick ASAP.

Walt gave me a Krill at one point (THANX!
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). Krills are cool but IMHO not as useful as a Photon2. They're a nice "special use" light; they can do signaling, they can be used as a tent night-light of some sort since they spread low amounts of light in all directions and fill a small area reasonably well. Divers sometimes use them as a "position marker" underwater. But even my standard Photon green puts out far more light in the direction it points in, and is small enough to "get inside the job". I've even taped one to my finger once, that worked GREAT in a tight nasty space.

Awesome.

Jim
 
David; I have purchased from the wonderful Tim Flanagan, and given away to friends, neighbors, kids, waiters and waitresses, mechanics, and other folks, about 500 Photons in a little over a year. That is the 500 to which Jim refers. While your URL's to the Photon Discussion Board are correct, I frequently found that they would not work. If posters have trouble with this, I suggest just going to the website:
http://www.photonlight.com/ , and clicking on 'Discussion Board.'

I call the Photons I have increased from their standard 3V to 6V, 'Super Photons.'

I just checked a new 'Super Photon' (6V) red and green against the standard 6V turquoise, 6V white, and the standard 3V green and red.

You need search no farther than the 'Super Photon' 6V green. It is brighter than the 'Super Photon' red, much brighter than the white and turquoise, and much, much brighter than the standard green and red. It appears to be two or three times brighter than the turquoise or white, and this is the new white LED, which Brian Avery says was increased from about 2 to 20 Candelas! Part of this perceived brightness may be due to the fact that your retina is most sensitive to green under low light (mesopic) conditions, but so what? If you can see better with it, what does the reading on the light meter mean, anyway?

The 'Super Photon' red is useful only for very fine detail resolution. I tested these lights in my standard laboratory. Seven feet from a 1/4" LCD thermostat display for text discrimination, and the same distance from Manet's 'Bar at the Folies Bergere.' The 1/4" LCD display was slightly crisper with the 'Super Photon' red, but still easily legible with the 'Super Green.' When the white and turquoise was used, significantly less illumination, coupled with markedly greater chromatic aberration obscured the text, and the fine detail of the Manet (people in the background) . In fact, even the sad expression of the barmaid is lost (the young woman who posed was aware that Manet was nearly dead).

You may notice even more dramatic results if you get a new production green or red, and change it to 6V, and compare it with an old green or red Photon. Bryan Avery said that the green, blue, white, and turquoise LED's (from Nichia) have recently been upgraded into brighter models, but one poster thought he noticed that the red was brighter also. Red, orange, yellow LEDs are HP. Thus, the standard current red and green LEDs are probably brighter than the original ones, and thus the difference between the new LED's at standard and double voltages may be less than would be the original LEDs vs. the new ones at 6V.

Get out your Sears 000 Phillips screwdriver, your 2016 batteries, your silicone grease with Teflon, and prepare to have fun.
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Hope this helps, Walt
 
Tim Flanagan does not have a web site, but his contact info is: Tim Flanagan
E-mail Address:
noreastknives@bigfoot.com
Business Information:
Company: Nor'east Knives
Address:
PO Box 7902
31 Tall Oaks Court
Cumberland RI 02864
Phone: (401) 658-1839
Fax: (401) 725-4759

Tim is a great guy, and is a pleasure to do business with. He keeps me abreast of all the leading edge toys.

With respect to your reference to a punchline on the Community Forum, silicone grease has only been advocated by me for flashlight and Photon Light use. No, how shall I say it, RECREATIONAL use has ever been advocated, nor even alluded to, by me.
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Walt
 
Walt,

The blue, turqoise, and white photons last 10 hours. The rest of the colors last 150 hours and the green lasts 200 hours. So how long would the super green or red last?

Please forgive me if my stats are off as they are taken from memory.

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Johnny
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Johnny; good question. Even the factory statistics are off, as one tester turned on a green Photon, and the thing lasted nearly a month, constantly on (which is a 'worst case' scenario).

Due to a major brain fade, I did not apply my voltmeter to any of the 2016 batteries I put in the 'Super Photons.' I am getting some more 2016's from Tim Flanagan, and will do some testing of battery burn time, and will even toss a couple into some salt water to see how long they last.

Frankly, I don't see even a 10 hour burn time as much as a problem, as this exceeds the Solitare by about twice, and the AA and AAA MagLights as well, but not by as much.

Will report in a week or two. Walt
 
Just an update, the BladeForums.com Store now has Photon's and Krill Lamps.

Go to http://www.bladeforums.com/store/accessories/index.html for a listing and order from the appropriate pages.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Also saw a new Lithium Perssonal light. It is small like the Photon and Sapphire, and it is called the Microlight. Has patented solid state lamp that supposedly lasts 10,000 hours, and 2 Lithium batteries. Has green lens, and quick realease key-ring system. Seems brighter than the above mentioned. Produced by Emissive Energy. Suggested @ $9.95.
 
Bought the 2016 batteries today and tried them in my green Photon 2 and WOW. This is literally twice as bright as the blue or white. Geez Walt, now I have to buy more Photons so I'll have a set of longer burning ones and a set of super ones. Thanx a lot
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But seriously people, buy a pair of 2016's and try this out. Very impressive.

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ET

 
I just did the 6V thing with a green PII. WOW!!! I can't believe how much brighter it is now. It's quite a bit brighter than my updated white one. I'll probably keep the new white one on my keychain because I like the ability to see true colors, but the green will certainly get more use now. Thanks for the tip.

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Kelly

SenatorsPlace.com
AKTI Member #A000289

Deo Vindice


 
Ok, tested the rest of my Photons with the 2016's. Yes, the red is also significantly brighter. But the yellow is rather depressing. I don't have a second yellow Photon to compare with but it seems like there is no change in intensity at all. In fact, the colour of the yellow changes from that bright lemon yellow to a pale yellow-orange colour. Not too appealing. Red is just plain brighter. Period. With the green I noticed that the green changed to a somewhat pastel green. You can't see it if you actually shine it on the object but if you look at the side of the LED when it's on, it's definitely a different shade of green. It also seems to be warmer when you handle them but this might be me handling the Photons while changing the screws. Thanx again Walt for the great tips.

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ET

 
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