Hotwire Resource Thread

[Ginseng]

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the Hotwire forum, the place to fulfill all your incandescent, HID and other hot technology desires. This thread will be stickied to provide a place for us to share resources and information about this potent technology. Please feel free to post links, formulas, tables and data, etc. In the near future, I'll be adding bulb and battery compatibility tables, common power, rerating and output formulas and more.

This is my first moderating gig so advice and feedback will be graciously accepted.

Wilkey

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Begin Resources
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1. Welch Allyn
Welch Allyn, commonly referred to by the acronym "WA" by flashaholics, is a large manufacturer of light engines and the devices they go into. Their business is quite diversified but encompasses medical and industrial markets among others. Flashaholics are most interested in their miniature halogen lamps and their Solarc HID systems.

The following documents can be found on the Welch Allyn Applications Notes page.

Portable Lighting Applications: Miniature Halogen and Solarc Lamps
A very nice sales-type introduction to their halogen lamps and Solarc HID offerings. Of particular note is a complete table of their halogen lamps organized by operating voltage.

Miniature Incandescent Lamp Overview
A short sheet with information about the different types of incandescent lamp technology. If you ever wondered about the differences between xenon and krypton and fill lamps, look here.

Lamp Optical Characteristics of Miniature Halogen Lamps
A short sheet with information about light output and color temperature. Formulas for calculating lumens and efficacy are provided.

Electrical Characteristics of Miniature Halogen
A short sheet that is important for the information it provides about re-rating bulbs. That is, how output and lamp life change as the bulb is underdriven or overdriven.

Mechanical Characteristics of Miniature Halogen Lamps
A short sheet with information on the mechanical aspects of their bulbs. You can learn about their bulb construction and lensed versus plain end bulbs.

Environmental and Operational Considerations of Halogen Lamps
A short sheet about physical stresses that bulbs might be subjected to and their effect.

[Lightstream]

I have a little bit of info collected in the LR MicroFAQ. Contains links to previous work done before.

[BigHonu]

Ginseng,

I remember reading a post of yours from back in the day that covered different bulbs and their applications in modded mag hosts.  It was  a favorite of mine and was wondering if that can be included in this resource thread? 


Thanks!
Brian

[MR Bulk]

Ginseng,

I remember reading a post of yours from back in the day that covered different bulbs and their applications in modded mag hosts.  It was  a favorite of mine and was wondering if that can be included in this resource thread? 


Thanks!
Brian

Hey, yeah Wilkey!  All I know is that a 3-cell Mag bulb works only SOME-times in a 4-cell Mag!  Other times, Blammo!!!  Whaddup wit' dat?

[Ginseng]

Hi Guys,

I'll be adding the bulb and battery cross-reference list shortly. It's the fruit of many different hot wire experiments by many folks so is a good base for developing a comprehensive list.

Charlie,
That's the wonderful world of overdrive. A whole bunch of factors come into play but when you are at a 4:3 overdrive ratio, small differences in cell freshness can result in bright or blown. Basically, the fewer the cells, the greater the stress when bumping up one cell because the percentage overdrive is large. So, you'd be much less likely to blow a 9-cell bulb using 10 cells.

Wilkey

[MR Bulk]

Thanks Wilkey.  I have used Mag 5-cell bulbs in 6-cell Mags (well, more like three CR123s sleeved inside a Maglite 2C for a similar 9V output) which worked beautifully.

My only real gripe is that the truly high performance bulbs are quite exotic and not easily available, and must be ordered through W-A, Carley, or from Europe (Phillips, et al).

So it brings to mind the question - exactly what specialized kinds of flashlights are these bulbs designed for, anyway?  Meaning the rated lives and output are gleaned from what particular kinds of applications?  Or are they primarily made just so's the HotWire dudes like yourself get to experiment?

[bwaites]

Charlie,

Actually most of the bulbs are for other uses: medical scopes, projectors, etc. where the power is coming from a power supply plugged in to 120 or 220 volt mains and the current is no real issue. That is why they require the high current capable cells instead of Alkalines

Some of the entrepreneurs on CPF like LightEdge and Flashlightlens.com are trying to keep them in stock, both in PR bases and Bipins for the various options.


Bill

[andrewwynn]

Working on some very useful charts.. here's the first... it shows the multitude of various battery solutions available for some of the different FiveMega (FM) bodies.. there are a lot of options available.. the chart is still growing if there is one missing you notice let me know and i'll update it.

for one.. i didn't include the 4.8V solution on the 1D because i ahve higher goals for that light.. i found a real 'gem' of a bulb that will run from 14.4V in that host with 4 14500 LiONs.

on to the chart:



How to read:
the battery size is on the left.. quantity across the top and the 'cross' is the 'watt-hour' capacity of the combination (i.e. 6 cells of R123 is 15.1 WH)..

The 'more interesting' combinations are color-coded in the chart and to the right using that color are explained.. e.g. with 'AA' size cells there are two nice options (well three).. a 10.8WH 4 cell battery pack will fit into a 1D-4-cut FM light.. and the default battery carrier is series and will net your 14.4V under load.. but tweaking that carrier to series-parallel you can get 7.4V... but in the same row there is the 21.6WH eight pack of AA-sized Lions... in a holder like modamag's (but series-parallel) you will have 14.4V and it will fit no problem into the FiveMega 3-bore 2D.

I suspect that some of you out there will realize you have more options with the FM light hosts... the 'bulb options' post is coming.

-awr

[Moorcroft]

AWR

Thanks for that info. It is very comprehensive.

I will have to wait until the 'Idiot's Guide' has been published. 

[rcnuk]

Thanks Ginseng,
Great Reference Thread. (GRT) 

[R. White]

Working on some very useful charts.. here's the first... it shows the multitude of various battery solutions available for some of the different FiveMega (FM) bodies.. there are a lot of options available.. the chart is still growing if there is one missing you notice let me know and i'll update it.

for one.. i didn't include the 4.8V solution on the 1D because i ahve higher goals for that led flashlight.. i found a real 'gem' of a bulb that will run from 14.4V in that host with 4 14500 LiONs.

on to the chart:



How to read:
the battery size is on the left.. quantity across the top and the 'cross' is the 'watt-hour' capacity of the combination (i.e. 6 cells of R123 is 15.1 WH)..

The 'more interesting' combinations are color-coded in the chart and to the right using that color are explained.. e.g. with 'AA' size cells there are two nice options (well three).. a 10.8WH 4 cell battery pack will fit into a 1D-4-cut FM light.. and the default battery carrier is series and will net your 14.4V under load.. but tweaking that carrier to series-parallel you can get 7.4V... but in the same row there is the 21.6WH eight pack of AA-sized Lions... in a holder like modamag's (but series-parallel) you will have 14.4V and it will fit no problem into the FiveMega 3-bore 2D.

I suspect that some of you out there will realize you have more options with the FM light hosts... the 'bulb options' post is coming.

-awr

Some one have to realize and i think everyone does.