Mr.Lite PT1





Mr.Lite is a manufacturer with a broad selection of lights, here I am taking a look on a AAA light+laser. The light is a penlight with a laser in one end and a flashlight in the other end. The flashlight end has anodizing and the laser end has a coating with a rubbery feel to it. The flashlight is a twisty and the laser has a button that must be hold down to activated the laser.





The light arrives in a small box with the light and a instruction sheet. The instruction sheet describes the flashlight, but does not include anything about the laser.



Starting from the flashlight end, the led can be seen in a smooth reflector. Around the reflector is a solid looking head with cutouts that prevents the light from rolling, when placed on a flat table (The clip will also do that).



Just behind the bezel is the clip, it can easily be removed.



Looking into the back of the head, the driver board can be seen.



The battery tube has anodizing threads, the connection is done from the front. It also has a O-ring, but in this light its purpose is more adding some friction than sealing against water (The laser end does not have a O-ring). The light has a spring in the bottom of the battery tube, i.e. no battery crusher here. Note: The battery tube is for a single AAA battery!



The end of the flashlight battery tube is marked with some knurling, that is useful when twisting the light on/off. The connection to the laser part of the light is made with some solid threads.



This part of the laser looks like stainless steel and is the tail end of the battery holder for the laser. There is no O-ring here.



The tail of the battery holder was missing a spring, it is in the front end, that is also the head of the laser. This part of the battery tube has a rubber like coating (Note: the coating is not soft, the surface just feels like rubber). The switch for the laser is a small button that has to be held down to activate the laser.



The laser end just has a small hole where the laser light comes out.



Here are all the parts of the light.



I believe that people that regularly use a laser pointer could have good use for this combination, but I would have preferred a more stylish design on it. The laser is a rather strong laser for a laser pointer (rated at 50mW), this makes it dangerous for eyes, I would have preferred a weaker one (Mr.Lite already got this, it is called PT2).



Technical specification and measurements



The light uses two AAA batteries, one for the flashlight and one for the laser. They can be any 1.5 volt type, i.e. Alkaline, NiMH or Lithium.

Measured size and weight:
Length: 160 mm
Diameter: 14.4 mm to 16.5 mm
Weight: 80 gram with eneloop AAA battery

The light uses a Cree XR-E.

The light has 3 brightness settings, controlled with pwm and strobe.



I have collected all modes in a table. For the brightness I used a luxmeter and then scaled the values, the pwm is measured with my oscilloscope and a light sensor, the current with my DMM on peak/average (Fluke 289). For the estimated runtime I have take the current measurements and divided into 0.8 (i.e. a 800 mAh battery), this is a very rough estimate. The estimated lumens is calculated by scaling the 180 value with the measured lux brightness.
PS: The , in the table is a decimal point.






The light uses pwm at 290 Hz pwm to regulate the light, but looking at the signal it also contains frequencies from the regulation. The 3 traces above are low, medium and high. The initial spike on each pulse is the boost converter starting up, but before the regulation kicks in (This is normal).



Doing a voltage sweep, shows that the brightness rises with the voltage (This is normal for AAA lights). The light will turn on at about 0.83 volt and stay on down to about 0.4 volt.



Measuring the runtime, givers lower values than specified, but then I use eneloop batteries with only 800mAh.



Strobe is a fast 15 Hz strobe with brightness above the high setting and 50% duty cycle.




Looking at the laser beam when turning it on, shows that it does not immediately go to full power, but that it takes some time, it also shows that there is an unfiltered boost regulator to supply the laser.



Adding a filter to the light sensor, makes it much easier to see the startup. It takes about 0.8 second to reach full power.



A closer look at the "noise", shows that the laser driver is running at 28 kHz (This might vary with battery voltage).



Here is the light on max. and the laser, there is mist in the air, that is the reason the laser beam is visible and probably also the reason it is spread out.



Using a longer distance and a much more powerful light (Olight SR90) for comparison. The tight beam of the laser is still much brighter.



Comparison to other Flashlights

The comparison with other lights and beam shots are here.



Notes

The light was supplied by Mr.Lite for a review.