Hi again,

I've got a new Nite lite catalog since I answered this post before. I see that they are going for some kind of digital regulation now which is a nice move. With the current state of LED, HID and light source technology and prices, the biggest and cheapest advances are possible today at the switch with regulation of the current to save as much as possible of the initial bunch of battery power at start up, then maintaining an even current for most of the life of the charge, followed by an energy "pulling" (not relying on losing power at resistors combined with what Terralux would call a light engine, but is really just a sophisticated device to attract current)) until there is not enough power to maintain regulation.

The hunting light world of nimh nicad lights is composed of two camps Camp I. (95% probably) Grayhill switch or II. 5 (5or less%) regulated rheostat with varying degrees of regulation. Most of the rheostat coon lights have about zero regulation for puposes of battery run time per charge.

Bicycle and hi-tech flashlight mfrs are doing digital type regulation right now with postage stamp size regulators (that they sell from $25 - 50 RETAIL right now). No dynamo, generator, or whatever. They will warm the bulb and come on gradually at every stage, come preprogrammed or with a uv light erasable reprogrammable 100 level switch, accept inputs from 2-28 v amps frpm .oo*- 20. Nobody is using them as far as I know in the coon light world.

An average good attempt at this type of regulation will easily extend burn times by 20%. If you've been getting by with selling your design for 30 years and you are a light builder whose customers don't care, why change?

Of the regulated lights that are out there in the coon world I'd trust Nite-Lite or Western Rivers, because they have been around long enough and they don't make any big claims about what the regulation can do for you.
There is some company called Competition Lights or Light Connection that I spoke to about their regulated product ( you should call them too, unless it was just a bad day, they will give you an education in "unearned self-satisfaction and how to use it to think you are succeeding" and I think they couldn't affords to keep the electrical engineer on payroll, they don't have much faith in their own system. Then there is Bright Eyes. The woman who answers his phone says he (ownwer) is a nuclear engineer and his ads claim essentially double burn times with the same or fewer batteries. This is possible, BUT He has been selling the things for two years now and I don't know of a single competitor of his size going out of business. -- and I would think that Bandit, "Brushy Busting Everybody", Tree or Mountain top everybody of the traditional "Grayhill switch with resistors" design - they are all the same pretty much, except for a very few using cheap batteries would be going out of business. The BE's cost less or the same than a lot of start up horse and buggy garage-light companies that are all claiming that their is magic. If they really work, maybe the coon hunting world just doesn't want to believe them (like me).

So who knows? With either BE, Nite-Lite, or Western Rivers you can get a good warranty, try regulation and spend about $340 on a 21v belt light with shipping variances options etc If you just want a real good switch 24v belt light with guarantee, there's folks like Ben Chapman that will sell you the whole smartcharge system for $250. He's retired from the electrical field and likes to keep busy. He gets the exact same stuff from the exact same place as the $330-350 Grayhill Switch (non-regulated) light builders. Unless you've been doing business with Grayhill for 20 years and will take an automatic shipment of over a hundred switches/ month you've got to buy a thousand per order something like that. You then pool with some middleman coon light builder supply co. down in Texas or over in Kentucky and buy the same thing as everybody else.

The coon light builders are either true believers or know that their market is composed of true believers, so nothing is happening in the night hunting light segment. -- A lot of old timers that grew up on the farm talking to themselves a lot of the time get this way, I know I do. You start to believe your own nonsense, because it's all you know.

Just remember, a rheostat knob doesn't mean that there is anything more sophisticated behind it than there is behind that dimmer switch they put on the wall of the master beedroom in a trailer

The Nite-Sport II is a fine product. It does what it claims to do. I've bought several as gifts - can't imagine a rancher without one.. The people who watched their charging that I was familiar with (there was not a smart charger for it - there may be now) got a year and a half prorated so that Nite Lite can sucker punch you $30 for a $10 battery available EVERYWHERE). They will last 5 or six hours/night for at least a couple hundred nights, but TIMEas CHARGED AGE is always the factor there. They will work twice in two years maybe if you don't exercise them a little, use or overcharge them. Therre is a lost freight company right now selling that 6v4Ah gell battery for $5 - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0177436983 - I emailed them, they say they have had them for nine months have sold most of them and no returns/complaints.

For Coleman: I broke a wole remuda of green horses to Ozark trail ride at night 4 year ago and one Nite Sport II was all I had. I rode 4-7 nights a week, and came home with a dying light after 6 hours many times. I was on a good schedule tor recharge - when it got dark - it was ready., I think it is about an hour and a half on the charger for every hour of use, not sure, am getting old.
At full rheo they give about as much light as a Maglight 3-4D cell cop light with an adjustable beam and crude rheostat., I blew a 35 cent PR bulb about every week and kept the light on all of the time. That type rheostat really doesn't extend burn times on low, it's just throwing away power at the resistors when you turn it down. A horse can see at night, but I don't like getting poked in the eye by limbs. It ain't a perfect product, but mine was darn near perfect for me. I quit using it and charge it once in a while and at 2 years it would only hold an hours charge, but I only paid $65 from a veterinarian (on the web) retailer and it is feather-light.

walkin_mark

_________________
WALKIN_MARK

Join the forum today and remove this ad!

I DONT KNOW ABOUT NITE SPORT 11 BUT IHAVE ONE OF THE FRIST ONES THAT THEY MADE MY UNCLE USED IT UNTILL HE PASSED AWAY THEN I GOT IT MY GRAND SON USEDIT UNTILL LAST YEAR .ALL THETIME IVE HAD IT IVE USED IT AS FLASH LIGHT .

_________________
CB&L Kennels
home of
TREETALKIN B&Ts

I have a Belt light pro with 21 volts. Had it for about 1 year with no prob. Awesome light always works and never fails. I would use nothing but it. during our coon season it gets used almost every night and always stands up to a lot of abuse. Its a good light for the money.

_________________
A midnight bawl makes life worth it.

Hey Gravelpit_blueticks,
I tooka look at that Pro -Lite web site and read the whole thing, even thier pdf stuff. They seem like about the best up front in writing of any I've seen. With the 30 day "try it" warranty and the good materials they are using, thir prices are pretty reasonable.

That dimmer switch on the first level of lowside is a good idea on the 20V+ units. I've thought about just carrying a small kerosene lantern with me to get the coon to hook on. He also says what I was saying in the reply I made a few days ago. The rheostats that most of the light builders are using do nothing to extend burn times - including his dimmer. As he explains, the light is going to chug along using the amps available to it. That's why I wish more of these guys would get into some serious regulation to improve burn-time. There are some excellent quality flashlights out there with Surefire quality without being Surefire priced like from fenixstore.com (Fenix) VERY SMALL LIGHTS - IT'S good to carry a small reliable light ot two with you, but for less than $50 shipping included, they've got Class III anodized coated pyrex lensed lights thast will shine a mile, blink SOS,five light levels from 12- 250 lumens. /all kinds of light tricks that might interest a coon & the light is color-temped like sunlight which coons seem to respond to. They have the mind-blowing Crees and the Luxeon Rebel diodes for that kind of performance. A person is a lttle behind the times if he counts on a bulb-blowing mini-mag back-up while there are LEDs of that quality for that price.

I purchased a 21v last year and have used it 2 seasons. It is an all right light. I haven't had much experience with the competition, but it works all right for me. I think they might be a little liberal on the burn time. One thing I like, is that when you turn on the spot light, your head light will go out automatically and will come back on when you turn the spot off. Another thing is that the reostat will work on the high side as well as the low side. At the World Finals this year, I tried the new Blazer head on it and had to go get my money back. The circuit board was not compatable and the light just flickered, like the flicker switch on the Old Favorate. I have only went through one bulb since I have had it and it was the low side that went out. Conclusion, I am not dissapointed, but there may be better, just haven't had any comparison. Don't spend the money on the led head that Nite light has put on the market. It is not very bright and the beams shoot straight out of the head. In order to look at your watch you have to hold your wrist up in front of the head. Also, makes things seem different and was tripping over more things, than usual. lol

_________________
Winners Train, Losers Complain!

the flickering problem For: Tim MACHA :

Thanks a lot for writing in about your experience with the Nite lite 21v belt light. NL hardly ever gives the same set of info about any of its systems and over the years it has made me not trust them. One of the reasons that I liked that Pro-Lite Co. ws they have a table that lists ALL of their products by column and row and you can compare any two lights in a heart beat. NL seems to think that "Gee Whiz, it's bright!" is a technical statement. When I have seriously tried to buy from their catalog I have to phone them for the missing info so much that I just say it ain't worth it. I'm not surprised that the run times are overstated. That pack that is pictured will barely hold 16@ A4/3 batteries.

The fact that you could not interchange with the sophisticated head tells me that there is some regulation directed toward run time being employed by NL instead of just dumping amps at the dimmer. Unfortunately, what probably caused the flickering is the cheapest form of regulation. The light is caused to strobe so fast that it is not detected by the human eye. Of course during the microseconds that the bulb is not energized, it is not using power. Some flashlight cvompamies have this on their cheap regulated models (some not so cheap also, but how many people know!). Some people get headaches from it, some feel sick, nervous, or wierd, and don't know why, and some aren't bothered at all. You could call NL and ask them.

As far as their led head goes, if you know leds you can see that it is junk tfrom the picture - particularly for coon hunting. It is filled with some generic no-name leds, maybe so they can say "See, we told you, LED's won't work for coon hunting, and then they don't have to hire an electrical engineer to fix stuff or go back to school themselves. Look for the name Luxeon, Cree, or Nichia. If the company is using them they will say so, bewcause they are the best and they cost more. The Luxeon and Cree co.s have some led product lines that are practically the same as sunlight and will go over a football fields length in a properly designed 3v diode system, will run off of 2 AA rechargeables (2700mah) all night long, are waterproof (In Australia they are replacing all the street lights with high power LEDs. There's leds ready to hunt as far as power goes, but a 5100 head won't sink enough heat- look at a Princetontec Apex4AA They make an Apex Pro that uses 2 123 lithiums, but the AA Apex light with rechargeables is a source of pure white light that lasts forever with batteries that last forever (rechargeable)in a well made comfortable featherweight trustworthy light. Don't go to Wal-Mart for cells. Get MAHA 2700mah and a MAHA charger from Bill Rouch 760 945-9503or Radio Shack. Bill's way cheaper and he's Dunn and Broad Street rated. I don't care if nimh cells say Duracell. The stuff in the stores is crap. I wouldn't want to enter the Nationals with the Apex, but (It's a headlight, ebay sometimes under $60 with ship, forever guarantee) and... The Apex has 1@3v Luxeon Maxbright with a good spot and plenty of side throw and 4@ 0.5mm wide throw Nichias (low side) around the side for camping and walking light, but they aren't bad Nichias. On low on the low Nichia side I'd take apart a couple of fishing reels on he tailgate of a truck on a moonless night. The Nichias are still kind of blue to me, but are nothing like the junk that is out there in those 28 led flashlights at Harbor Freight.
I've got a neighbor that coon hunts with one all the time. Makes a heck of a better spare than a Nite Sport II or a Maglight.
There is a site: www.flashlightreviews.com. The guy retiredlast June but he left the archives up:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/pt_apex.htm will give you a review. That one hour run time on high is for an alkaline primary set of AAs (1600mah??). The rechargeables last 4.5 hours on high/high before the unit takes itself out of regulation. - then you still have plenty of light to walk out.

Somewhere on the web site he explains the strobing regulation I was refering to in your NL also.

Walkin_mark,

I personally still have a hot light but my son has a Competition Box light. I bought for him this year. I have been hunting with a group that uses Competition Light Connection lights with no problems.

they are local and I know the guys building them. The store front is a gun/archery/sporting goods store. You may not have talked to someone directly knowledgeable with the lights.

I just got a nitelite 21v belt lite. I havent used it alot yet to see how well it holds up but it will last a whole night of hunting. It can go really dim and gets really bright. I really like the adjustable led walklight it has to, pretty bright and says it wont attract bugs. I am impressed so far but time will tell.

I have a Pro Lite 26v belt light and it is great. Has not let me down in any way shape or form.
Iike that the control knobs are on top and that they don't get snagged on anything walking thriough the woods.
Very bright all night long...... Best warrenty,,,,,,,,,,

Just for a little insight Cree makes Blazer's new headpiece. So from your saying it should be of high quality? You seem to know a lot of technical stuff about coon lights in general sir. Have you talked to Bright Eyes? I have one of their Dominators that I got in 2001. It still works great. I was told the reason they burn so long is they have a chip built into the rheostat that limits power so you get long burn times. I was told that it is not as bright as other lights but have never ever needed more brightness.

_________________
"Do not argue about guns with a gunsmith"
P.S I am a gunsmith

Anyone in the market for a new light I would as you to read this before buying from these guys! I've been looking for a new belt light for about two months now and decided to order from nite lite. I ordered the 28v exteme belt lit pro and ordered my wife a hot lite. I payed for over night shipping and a week later I got the lights( tracking system still on back order!!!) I was able to use the light the first night and was very impressed. The very next night in the woods my dimmer on the belt stopped working the head will burn full stregth no matter what I do. the hot light switch is broken now and we've had the lights in the woods 3 times!!!!!! $600 for 2 lights and 3 nights of hunting.... Not to good if you ask me. They're saying repairs could take over a month!!! Just wanted you guys to be advised if you're looking for a lite don't want you to be a month without TWO lights like we are!!! Hope this helps

Sorry you had to find this out the hard way,but i had heard that the belt light was junk.But then again i never hunted with anyone who had one,so it was just rumors.I think if i were you i would try to get a complete refund.My son has a 24 volt competition light for around a year now and has had know problems whatsoever.And they have the best warrenty as far as im concerned.3 year NO HASSEL WARRENTY.If they cant giude you through the problem on the phone then you send it all back to them and within 24 hrs of reciveing it if they cant fix it they will send you a new light.Thats the way it should be.

One of the guys I hunt with has cajun lights running from 17-28v he had a problem with his 21v he sent it back and within a week he was back hunting with his 21v Cajun, I have a couple of different lights so I am not brand specific.

Yup, I think everyone has been burnt by nite lite. I dont see how they are still in business. I had one of there lights several years ago and it did'nt even last a season. I changed brand and never looked back. Sorry to hear about you bad luck, I would want my money back.

_________________

yeah i was burnt several times also. never anything as big as a light, but was sent the wrong sizes of gear and dog collars. also i ordered some bulbs that showed up all broke, they said they would send some out right away. that was a few months ago and i havent seem them yet. LOL. all that aside i cant believe how everything is china made now. i buy a lot of amish made hunting gear now, the quality is top notch.

_________________
once you go black you never go back.
b&ts forever