Hello all. I am a duty light designer.

N

neoseikan

Active member
Hi. I am a flashlight designer in China.
Joined here to seek your advices about military lighting.
I have designed a few flashlights from 0.06 Lumen to 740 Lumens.
And might work on special lighting devices such as IR/UV headlamps for anti-bomb units.
After all, I feel quite great to find this forum.
Yours, Neoseikan
 
Welcome Neoseikan.

A very interesting subject, especially with all of the new bright LEDs that are now available. My son recently purchased one of these torches and it amazed me with it's output and long battery life.
 
Thank you!
Designing LED flashlight is quite challenging.
Because LED tech grows quite fast. We should keep the design upgradeable.
In 2004, most light use 5mm LEDs, and some of them use LUXEON 1W or 3W ones. It can produce 30~80 Lumens from the LED, and less than 60Lumens from the light.
After that, the output ability is 100Luemsn, 130 Lumens, 150 Lumens, 180 Lumens, and 200Lumens.
Last year, CREE released MC-E LED, most hi-end LED flashlights used it.
Designers have been working on it for more than a year.
In my poor experience, most police officers use bulb lights such as MAG 2D/3D or Pelican LED lights, such as 7060 or 8060. And military people use Surefire lights.
What's the model your son get?

BTW, I noticed your avatar, there is a headlamp. Is it a bulb one?

senojekips said:
Welcome Neoseikan.

A very interesting subject, especially with all of the new bright LEDs that are now available. My son recently purchased one of these torches and it amazed me with it's output and long battery life.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
neoseikan said:
Thank you!
Designing LED flashlight is quite challenging.
Because LED tech grows quite fast. We should keep the design upgradeable.
In 2004, most light use 5mm LEDs, and some of them use LUXEON 1W or 3W ones. It can produce 30~80 Lumens from the LED, and less than 60Lumens from the light.
After that, the output ability is 100Luemsn, 130 Lumens, 150 Lumens, 180 Lumens, and 200Lumens.
Last year, CREE released MC-E LED, most hi-end LED flashlights used it.
Designers have been working on it for more than a year.
In my poor experience, most police officers use bulb lights such as MAG 2D/3D or Pelican LED lights, such as 7060 or 8060. And military people use Surefire lights.
What's the model your son get?

BTW, I noticed your avatar, there is a headlamp. Is it a bulb one?
Click to expand...
I am not sure of the brand and model that my son bought and I cannot easily find out as he lives nearly 1000 kilometeres from me now, but i will see if i can find it on the internet, as I have seen it and had a play with it.

The caplamp I was using in my avatar is a Quartz halogen bulb, this photo is now about ten years old, higher powered LED technology was not available at that time. It would be very interesting to see if the lamp could be converted, it runs off of a 4.4V sealed lead acid battery, and a LED lamp would be far more reliable and give longer battery life. I still have it charged and stored in my shed as it is sometimes very handy.

Maybe you could start a thread on LED lighting on the forum, as I'm sure that many serving members would have some interest. A good reliable tactical torch is a very desireable thing to have.
 
Last edited:
senojekips said:
I am not sure of the brand and model that my son bought and I cannot easily find out as he lives nearly 1000 kilometeres from me now, but i will see if i can find it on the internet, as I have seen it and had a play with it.

The caplamp I was using in my avatar is a Quartz halogen bulb, this photo is now about ten years old, higher powered LED technology was not available at that time. It would be very interesting to see if the lamp could be converted, it runs off of a 4.4V sealed lead acid battery, and a LED lamp would be far more reliable and give longer battery life. I still have it charged and stored in my shed as it is sometimes very handy.

Maybe you could start a thread on LED lighting on the forum, as I'm sure that many serving members would have some interest. A good reliable tactical torch is a very desireable thing to have.
Click to expand...

Quite good advice. Thank you.
About your Quartz light. What's the voltage rage of the battery? The typical full voltage is 4.4V, and what's the lowest voltage when it's almost out of energy? By knowing this, I can give an advice for choosing the right LED driver. A LED driver is for regulating the voltage and current to the LED, and keep it in the right working condition.
 
As far as I know, Lead acid cells are considered flat when they drop to 2V per cell, without load. My battery is 2 cell and I believe that the battery has a capacity of 16Ah when new so it would be flat at 4v.

When I last used my lamp seriously, it still had at least 8Ah capacity but I do not know how much longer it would last (The main quartz halogen globe draws very close to 1A when in use)

as I said earlier, I always like to keep it charged up and I check the electrolyte level every 3 -6 months. Although it is a "maintenance free" battery, you can still add electrolyte to it if needed, so long as you have some special tools.
 
Last edited:
@captiva303.
Aha, It's by chance. When I was a graduated-student, I hope to earn some money.
Then I contacted some manufacturers of flashlight, and sell them.
When I found latest LED, and the manufacturers can not respond for it quickly, then I ordered my own model.
After that, Some friends and I start designing brand new products. It's 2 years ago.
 
Last edited:
The only ones I could afford were some rubbish 4th rate LEDs for work on facilities in the dark.
The real wish I could live longer... there's so much to learn.
 
senojekips said:
The caplamp I was using in my avatar is a Quartz halogen bulb, this photo is now about ten years old, higher powered LED technology was not available at that time. It would be very interesting to see if the lamp could be converted, it runs off of a 4.4V sealed lead acid battery, and a LED lamp would be far more reliable and give longer battery life. I still have it charged and stored in my shed as it is sometimes very handy.
Click to expand...
Don't know about yours, but I still have mine. It's a Koehler Wheat Lamp. Fully charged it will last 27.5 hours until it's plain dead. With LED, the voltage and milli amps is fine, may need a reducer I dunno. I understand that LED is better, but I prefer normal light.
 
Noeseikan, do you actually do the manufacturing of the flashlights or is that part of the operation outsourced?
You said two years ago you and your friends decided to design your own... really curious as to how you guys went about with the manufacturing and distribution.
 
I've noticed quite a few new cars, trucks and busses are now fitted with LED rear lights..

I fitted a high level led brake light to the wifes VW combi years ago, it still works fine with no problems
 
the_13th_redneck said:
Noeseikan, do you actually do the manufacturing of the flashlights or is that part of the operation outsourced?
You said two years ago you and your friends decided to design your own... really curious as to how you guys went about with the manufacturing and distribution.
Click to expand...

We design the body and produce the driver, and outsource the machining works.
Recently, we go well on the manufacturing, but still needs to learn a lot about distribution.
 
Really interesting...
I just don't have much of a clue about these things so I'm obviously interested in learning new stuff.
Wished I knew more about circuits and such...
 
Welcome aboard neoseikan....

Just to give you fair warning. I'm not a fan of the People's Republic of China.

But you appear to be different then the majority of the members from the PRC. So I guess I can let my guard down.

My experience with lights....

Surefire
Pentagon
Phoebus
Streamlight
Replacement LED Cree Bulbs

I'm always looking for the best and brightest light on the market. Needs to be small, light in weight, bright (over 100 lumens), and be able to handle the recoil from a M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun.

Right now this is my current set up.


Surefire 618FGA Forend 6 Volt system with P60 Bulb on the Remington 870 Express Magnum Shotgun

618fga_large.jpg


Phoebus PK-05-2CR123 Three Watt LED Combat Flashlight on the FN P90 Submachine Gun

PK053W.jpg


SureFire X200A 3 Watt LED Pistol Light on the GLOCK 22

surefire-x200-300x214.jpg


Surefire L2 LumaMax LED 3 Watt LED Hand Held Light

surefire_l2_glam.jpg


Pentagon UL200 LED Weapons Light on the Colt M4 Carbine

get_file.cfm


Lights to me are tools that I use and abuse. My lights are used as impact weapons, files, lights, etc... If you can produce a tube with the proper knurling to be used as a tool file you've made me happy. So far the knurling on my Surefire L2 is holding up fine. Type III Anodizing is also important along with using aircraft grade aluminum. I'm talking about high end stuff...... I've paid over three to four hundred dollars for some of my weapon lights and They're worth every penny.... I have a box full of older lights that get replaced.

I need my lights to take abuse. I've used my L2 as a impact weapon and I will continue to do so. They must be able to take the abuse from dropped, banged into walls, trucks, hit, stepped on, etc... They must function.

Replacable tail switches are a must. Different length pressure tape switches are also a must. They must have a monetary one pressure switch and a consent on/off pressure button on the tape switch also.

The standard tail cap must be pressure activated. For consent on, it must be twist. The on/off selection through multiple presses of the button is a no go. I don't want to have to go through a menu of light settings to simply turn it on or off.

My line of work is the following. I'm currently a Internal Affair Detective for a American Police Department but I also work the road as a patrol officer when needed. I'm prior service with the US Army as a infantry soldier and I have seen combat and had my gear used and abused. I play hard with my toys.... I want them to last.
 
Last edited:
This is a very intresting thread. Very good first post for a member. Hope we can attract more of this sort.
 
5.56X45mm said:
Welcome aboard neoseikan....
My experience with lights....
Click to expand...

Thank you man! There are too many people in P.R.C. Even the government employees, can be more than the total population of U.K I guess. So I really understand your feeling.

And you are really a gun lights user! And I am quite interested in the scene you use machine gun with a light, I am not familiar with them.

What kind of batteries do you use most? CR123A or AA?

Yours, Neoseikan
 
CR123A is the battery of choice. Though the use of AA would be better since it's a far more common battery size. I can find AA is just about any corner of the modern world. TV Remote Controls, Cameras, etc.... CR123As are common but not that common. Only issue of course is that AA are 1 volt batteries while a CR123A is a 3 volt. More juice per unit, hence higher output weapon lights use them. They need to be small and compact but need a powerful energy source, CR123As do that.... only thing better is a Charged Capacitor.... but that's a completely different creature.

LED is the future.... Cree LED to be exact. Better construction and output. Only thing that beats it is HID (High Intensity Discharge) build. High end auto lamp bulb being used in weapon lights. Only negative is the lead buildup time. The bulb doesn't go to full output at the moment it's turned on. It needs to warm up which takes a few mili-seconds to seconds. But you are getting output levels around 6,000 Lumens. Works great for weapon mounted lights on crew served machine guns. Surefire just came out with two hand held HID Arc Bulb lights. Going price is about $350-$400 US.

The use of weapon mounted lights is to help identify the target and also help in navigation without the need to hold a hand held flashlight in your other hand. Trying to hold a light and a rifle is a pain in the arse. I also carry and use hand held lights because sometimes you don't need your weapon drawn but you do need a light source.

I'm to lazy to bring out the camera but I can gladly show you set up of what I use....

The following photos aren't of my personal firearms but my firearms are set up in a similar fashion. The GLOCK shown is mine.

img5316fd2.jpg


My Colt M4 Carbine is in the same general configuration. Except it uses the Pentagon UL200 LED as the weapon light and the rail system is A.R.M.S. #50M-CV S.I.R..

02.jpg


Remington 870 with Surefire Forend Light Assembly.

img3890ky6.jpg


My GLOCK 17 with 33rd magazine and Surefire X200.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top