Waynes Elektrolumens lights with end cap lettering are certainly at the top of the custom made flashlight category. The fit and finish are first rate and set the benchmark pretty high for manufacturers. I'm afraid I'll have to wait till darkness falls to see where exactly this light fits in my modest collection but with the projected run time of this light, I'm a little sorry that I didn't get the Blaster V as well, I guess the Blaster VI will do fine(it's more than fine now running direct drive) when I get the 3 to D battery holder we are all waiting on.
Keep up the nice work Wayne, it's a delight to purchase your lights for the above reasons. The fit and finish of your lights would make it difficult to part with them for any but the most dire reasons.
keithhr
05-02-2003, 08:54 PM
Blaster II, the perfect compliment to the Blaster VI, tighter beam, less total light output but has a slightly longer throw with a whiter beam. Interesting application and design by Wayne, with amazing projected run time, perfect candle power application in an emergency, gee, I never knew I needed this many lights before. The direct drive Blaster VI still has the most total light output by far but I guess Wayne designed the II for light throw and compact beam, way to go Wayne.
bucken
05-03-2003, 10:42 PM
Also got my Green Blaster II this week. This is my third Blaster II. I converted the first two to direct drive. This latest green one however, is SO good, that I plan to keep it exactly as received (at least, for a while, anyway). It's beam easily equals (even exceeds) my other two Blasters.
The green anodizing also exceeded my high expectations. And fit and finish is superb. The anodizing of the end-cap threads has been eliminated too, which provides a MUCH better electrical connection. Although these are NOT pocket-lights, Wayne has certainly complemented the Luxeons well in his designs. Even after three Blasters, I'm still amazed that it's possible to squeeze so much light out of a simple 1W Luxeon.
keithhr
05-03-2003, 11:24 PM
Bucken, how is the beam on your Blaster II, mine is very, very narrow, but it is pretty bright for a 1 watt, my Blaster VI beam (direct drive) is very bright and has a wide, less focused beam. My Blaster II beam is like a Spaceneedle beam only not as bright. I have no light spill from the Blaster II beam to speak of.
Bucken, I know I shouldn't be asking this, but how much brighter are your Blaster II's that you modified to direct drive? I did that to my Blaster VI and it made a huge difference. If you were guessing, how much of a difference in run time would it be, of course that's probably difficult to calculate unless you did a long , long test with measurements in between.
bucken
05-04-2003, 07:26 PM
keithhr, my original Blaster II's have 1W LD's. Nice sized core beam with decent surround. Latest Green Blaster has 1W HD. Core beam size is about the same, with maybe a little less surround light (but more than adequate). Also has a little more "throw", and a great, natural white color. "Narrow", I guess, can be awful subjective. The core beams on all my Blasters will easily light up an entire large storage shed across the yard. My Blaster VI, however, will light up the whole yard (almost).
I think that converting to direct-drive had a more noticeable improvement in the Blaster VI than the Blaster II's. Have no idea of effect on run time.
keithhr
05-04-2003, 07:46 PM
Bucken, thanks. It's interesting how much of a wider dispersion beam the Blaster VI has. Maybe Wayne designed it like that because the Blaster VI is just that much brighter and can handle the beam being broader.
finboy1672
05-05-2003, 12:56 PM
Keithhr,
I went DD on my Blaster II as soon as I got it. I was really impressed by the light output and wanted to see if I could get more. I did... for about 3 minutes. Then I fried the LS. I put the resistor back in.
keithhr
05-05-2003, 02:16 PM
Finboy1672, thanks for the info, 3 whole minutes eh, hmmmm, I guess I'll pass on getting lucky like bucken, but maybe it was you that wasn't lucky, I guess I'll have to pass.
thanks again.
woodbender
05-05-2003, 06:34 PM
Just got home and had a nice green Blaster waiting for me. I don't know if I'll get to it tonight, but I'll post beam shots of my first run "cyan" Blaster and my Blaster III that arrived today. I'll also include a beam shot of a 2d micropuck mag that uses a 30mm optic.
bucken
05-07-2003, 02:42 PM
Being a little concerned about finboy1672's post about his LS only lasting 3 minutes on direct-drive, I turned on one of my modified Blasters, and let it run for 13 HOURS.
The Blaster II had previously been modded to direct-drive, and the LS was replaced with a Q2H bin HD LS. Using fresh Ray-O-Vac Maximum's, I turned it on, and placed it in the seat next to me for monitoring while I had to drive out-of-state (and back) to take care of some business.
For the first 2 hours, everything was pretty ho-hum, as it just kept pumping out light, and never even hinted at geting even slightly warm. After about 2 hours, the Blaster started to warm up, but just slightly. It was actually difficult to tell if the warming was due to the LS, or maybe because it was sitting in the sunlight. The warmth was greatest near the head, but you could actually feel that the heat was transferring down the length of the body, as well. (Amazing, Wayne, I'll bet you designed it to do that on purpose, right?)
The weirdest thing started happening around 4 hours... The Blaster actually started cooling down to normal room temperature (actually, slightly cool because of the metal.) It was also still putting out full brightness, according to a second reference Blaster II. It remained cool for the entire remainder of the test (another 9 hours).
After about 6 hours, I thought I began to notice just a slight dimming, compared to the reference Blaster. It was still putting out WAY more light than any other non-Blaster LS that I own (No, I don't own a SN II). The test continued on this way until I got tired of monitoring the fact that NOTHING was changing. The light output seemed about the same after 13 hours, that it did at 6 hours. It might have continued that way for a LONG time, but I figure that if I can depend on a light to give me over 12 hours of non-stop light, that's probably enough for me.
After the test, I measured the batteries on a bar-scale type RS battery tester. They measured 3 bars (of a possible 7 bars). CHEERS to Wayne for such an EXCELLENT, robust design.
keithhr
05-07-2003, 03:22 PM
Bucken, that's taking the bull by the horn and going for it. Glad to find out you had such good results with your Blaster. I'm sure that's quite reassuring for you to know that your light is so robust as well as good news for all of us that your light fared so well in such a test. Thanks much.
finboy1672
05-07-2003, 04:06 PM
Bucken,
I told Wayne about my LS frying on DD (btw: it was intermittent use, 3 minutes in total). He said about 1 in 25 burn up. So I guess I was in the lucky 4%.
