Comments from milkyspit (Scott Clawson):
Additional Credit!
Not to leave some folks out, Leef has been working with
a terrific CNC machinist on his end who deserves a huge pat
on the back on working with Leef to pull off the body design...
I've seen this thing for months now, and it continues to
amaze. Don't know the guy's name, but if you happen to read
this, many thanks!
Same gent as above contributed to design of the new bezel
ring... it's a pattern introduced specifically for the Gotham
project (Lighthound also sells those bezel rings individually
in both stainless and Ti)... though it was Leef himself who
set the tone with the whole 'think different' concept here...
and I lobbied for the coin edge to the darned thing!
As for the electronics, it's true that the circuitry was
purpose-built for the Gotham and derived from my earlier
Milky Candle MC2 project... and I came up with the conceptual
design for the circuitry plus programmed the firmware myself
(and why not? I have a Computer Science degree, for gosh
sakes!)... but when it came to the physical design of the
board, specific componentry of the circuit, and the layout
itself, I went to one of the best: thanks to georges80 for
making the humble Acorn board (or so I've named it) come
to life! IMHO George is one of the true masters of his craft,
hat's off to him. Cheers!
As for the custom 'Gotham' art deco label applied to the
case itself, that would be the work of my wife, the artsy
chick who captured my heart.
More Specs
Gotham is optimized for 1x18650 operation, and under that
configuration delivers an average efficiency of 90-95%. This
is the cell to use for longest, best-regulated, and most
efficient runs... plus it is of course more friendly for
the environment... that said, you can also feed the Gotham
2x123 primaries in a pinch... won't run as long or as efficiently,
but it also shouldn't hurt anything... so if that's all ya
got, go for it!
The light could actually run with pretty much any LiON rechargeable
if you've got a suitable spacer... some examples: 17670;
14670; RCR123 plus dummy cell; probably others, too.
Max output delivers roughly 180-200 lumens continuous for
nearly 2 hours, with the vast majority of that time within
perhaps 10% of peak output.
Medium delivers perhaps 70-80 lumens? (educated guess) for
maybe 8-10 hours continuous.
Low output delivers perhaps 10-20 lumens (educated guess)
for something along the lines of 1-2 days continuous.
Ultralow output (think Milky Candle but with surprisingly
decent throw) delivers perhaps 3 lumens for somewhere along
the lines of 1-1.5 months continuous.
According to an informal scratch test by Leef, the nickel
plating on Gotham seems to be at LEAST as scratch resistant
as his usual hard anodize (which itself is quite good), and
possibly is actually a bit MORE scratch resistant.
It has been reported that heatsinking is copper, and that
is partially true... we did originally machine copper heatsinks
for the lights... but performance tests actually suggested
the copper wasn't helping to any significant degree with
the heatsinking, and in fact might have been worsening it
a bit (my theory here is the copper was getting saturated
then holding more heat against the emitter slug, allowing
the emitter to stew in its own heat, whereas aluminum was
actually holding onto less and moving it more steadily out
to the skin of the light)... most of the production lights
will incorporate aluminum heatsinks, and believe me, folks,
that's the one you probably want. If it matters at all, Leef
and I have aluminum heatsinks in our personal lights and
have no intention of changing.
For efficiency reasons, the Gotham is NOT equipped with
reverse polarity protection... so be careful to insert your
cells in the proper direction, people!
Length: 5-3/8 inches
Diameter: 1 inch (should fit most bicycle and weapon mounts)
Weight Without Battery: 3.1oz (86g)
User Interface(s) (c) 2006-2007 Scott W. Clawson and Quarry
Run Design, All Rights Reserved
At some point I'll write a more definitive UI guide for
Gotham, but for now, here's the condensed version...
Equipment
The Gotham ships with a McClicky tactical clicky switch.
Definitions
TAP: when the light is OFF, use the momentary on capability
to turn the light on then off again within half a second.
CLICK: when the light is OFF, click the light on, and leave
it on for more than half a second.
General UI (GenUI)
CLICK: light activates at same level where it had been turned
off previously.
TAP-CLICK: light activates at the next level from where it
had been turned off previously... for example, if the light
had been in low, it will activate in medium... the progression
is: high; ultralow; low; medium; high; etc.
Additional taps will continue to cycle through ultralow,
low, medium, high, ultralow, etc.
Available gestures...
TAP-TAP-CLICK: will ALWAYS cause light to latch into max
output... this will happen about 1/2 second after clicking
the light on... this is also known as 'SmartMax' capability.
20 TAPS: switches to Tactical UI (TacUI).
Tactical UI (TacUI)
CLICK: light activates at max output, always.
TAP-CLICK: light activates at medium output.
TAP-TAP-CLICK: light activates at low output.
TAP-TAP-TAP-CLICK: light activates at ultralow output.
Additional taps will continue to cycle through high, medium,
low, ultralow, high, etc.
Additional gestures...
20 TAPS: switches to General UI (GenUI).
Gestures
A gesture is a multi-tap sequence that performs some sort
of special action... the design goal here is to keep these
to a minimum, and to make gestures nice-to-have shortcuts
but NOT essential to basic operation of the light. Without
further ado...
(some of these also appear above)
TAP-TAP-CLICK: will ALWAYS cause light to latch into max
output... this will happen about 1/2 second after clicking
the light on... this is also known as 'SmartMax' capability.
Only available in GenUI, not in TacUI.
20 TAPS: toggles between GenUI and TacUI.
Upgradability
The light is neither Loktited nor potted to oblivion because
one of the design goals was ease of future upgradability.
Toward that end, the lens is UCL and identical in size
to those of both HDS and Aleph2 lights... the bezel ring
itself fits those same lights and is interchangeable with
their parts... emitter is epoxied into the heatsink but
could easily be snapped out, underlying surface cleaned,
and a newer, higher-flux emitter installed down the road
(I'll help with it if you wish)... the driver itself is
upgradable with new firmware by sending the light on a
brief vacation to the Milky Labs.
Reflector is 20mm smooth but should be replaceable with
McR20 if you wish... the head wasn't tested in this configuration
but the dimensions should be right to accommodate it.
Lens o-ring on MOST Gotham (Gothi?) will be Viton, but replacing
that with a 3/4 inch glow ring would be easy.
Tailswitch is SureFire C-Series and M-Series compatible
if you happen to feel the urge to use one of those switches.
Like any good little computer geek, I'm continuously developing
and tweaking the firmware, so don't be surprised if additional
capabilities become available! No worries though... all Gotham
lights will be easily upgradable for a nominal fee... it's
like getting a new light for peanuts!
Subject to availability, the Acorn driver will also be available
for my own Project-M and other builds, to endow them with
multi-brightness capabilities... but the Gotham project gets
first dibs on the boards so no promises on how many extras
will make their way into other builds. |
