Manufacturer:- http://darkgear.com/mrbulk/
Purchase Price :- $299 / £163 http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Size:- 94.13mm long 31.3mm Diameter at widest point.
Weight (With Batteries):- 3 1/2 oz. 98g
Battery Type / Qty :- 1off 150A PILA / Wolf-Eyes Lithium Ion 3.7V 1200mA
Battery Life :- Not yet Known but probably about 60plus Minutes on Full and many hours 100+ on low
LED Type :- 3W Luxeon
Rated Output:- Unknown but probably around 75 Lumens on High
Estimated LED Lifespan:- Over 100,000 Hours
Colour:- White
Reflector Type :- Plastic Drop in
Lens Material :- Ultra Clear Coated Glass
Electronics:- uController based electronics to allow dimming and other advanced features
Body Material :- Aluminium alloy with type III HA black anodising
Limited production run of only 125 lights makes this a collectors item

I just got this light after first ordering the original HA finish Lionheart. This light is so new that I have got it before the original batch of HA Lionhearts have been finished and sent out. This is mainly due to the short supply of the PILA Lithium Ion batteries that these lights use. I am not surprised at this as many people including myself have ordered more than one spare battery to go with their shiny new lights. So this delay is self inflicted :-) Mr Bulk and the HAT team have jumped through hoops to get these lights to people on time and all of their efforts are very much appreciated. Please take a well earned rest before committing yourself to another mind blowing creation.

Not to worry as I now have this Limited CPF Edition of the Lionheart. That not to say that the other versions of the Lionheart are not limited. Just this one is a little bit more so :-)

Plus the best feature of the this light. It's Colour!!! I was really disappointed when the original colour decision was to be HA Natural (I voted for Black) So it was a nice surprise to find these one a few weeks later in glorious Black! Not that I dislike the Natural HA finish. I just like the black finish more. Plus is makes the Laser engraved text and logos show up better.

So what do you get for your money? Probably the best custom flashlight ever produced! A bold statement you may think. But this really is the pinnacle of flashlight developments at the current moment in time. In my humble opinion anyway!

Lets start with the body design. Beautifully machined out of aluminium in three distinct parts. These have then been hard anodised (Type III) to give the deep gloss black finish. The internal body threads look to be coated with a conductive coating of some sort. The head has machined grooves to aid cooling and the battery tube has the deep groove pattern with knurling first seen on the VIP.

The head contains an IMS 27.5mm reflector assembly, the type that sits on three small legs. Please observe the instruction sheet if you remove this as it only fits back in one way round! The lens is an UCL type from our friends at http://www.flashlightlens.com/ this gives off a green tint if you catch the light at the correct angle. Just the anti reflective coating doing its thing.

Underneath the lens and the reflector sits the heart of the Lionheart so to speak. The LED. This is the so called Charlie binned Luxeons of a very very good BIN number (TWOJ). This gives an excellent white (very slight blue) that makes my VIP look very slightly green. All these comparisons are very subjective and really only matter if you compare against another light on a white surface. The reality of the light in use is that you cannot tell the difference. Your eyes adjust and compensate telling you that this is the new white. Don't believe me! Go into your garden and shine any two LED light onto the grass. Does it look the same shade of green? Thought so. Just keep away from white walls! LOL

That's enough ranting on LED's let move onto the really interesting bit. The On switch! This is a small rubber covered stud located on the top part of the light. This is where the advanced features of the light start to happen and we must learn two new terms.

1.) Click

2.) Press

A click is a fast less than 0.3 of a second press and release.

A Press is a longer than 0.3 second press and hold.

Got that. Good, lets move on.

Click the button and the light will turn on. Click it again and it will turn off. Easy.

How do we make the light get brighter or dimmer? (Yes this light can do that, that why it's so cool)

Once the light is on Press and hold. The light will slowly ramp up or down in brightness until you let go. If it gets brighter and you want dimmer, just let go and press again. The ramp will reverse direction.

To turn the light off just click (Thanks Bindibadgi :) . It will remember the last brightness setting the next time you turn it on.

The best and most simple light control system with one button on a flashlight! I love it!

Bored with this yet?

There's more ....

The advanced feature menu can be activated by removing the battery and holding down the switch whilst reconnecting the battery.

See here for exact instructions on all the advanced features.

http://darkgear.com/mrbulk/images/LionHeart%20Directions.doc

http://darkgear.com/mrbulk/images/LionHeart%20Directions.pdf

Have Fun.

You cannot use the Lionheart without describing the power source. This is the first time I have encountered it in any form and first impressions are very good.

The battery used it a Lithium Ion type from the PILA company. http://www.pilatorch.com/

I think they are actually make by someone else mine had a http://www.wolf-eyes.com/Wolf-Eyes/150liion.htm label on it.

Specifications are as follows :-

Features:

Small dimension
High capacity
Minimum self-discharge, no memory effect
Reliable long standby storage time, shelf-life around 10 years
Precision digital recharge & discharge protection circuit system built-in
Environmental friendly
Low reoccurring operation costs

Specifications:

Voltage: 3.7V
Capacity: 1200mAH for LRB-150A
Weight: 33g for LRB-150A
Length:50 mm
Diameter:18.50 mm for 150A

These are the manufacturers specs and comments. This cell is a very high capacity for its size and has excellent charge retention and advanced safety features. This is important because Lithium Ion cell are a LOT LESS tolerant of abuse that almost any other cell type. Please treat them with respect and ALWAYS use the recommended charging methods and NEVER charge them whilst unattended. These cells have a built in (PCM) Protection Control and Monitoring circuit contained within the body of the cell. This should stop any disaster from occurring by preventing over charging of the cell and also preventing the cell from becoming over discharged.

Over charging a NON protected Lithium Ion cell (As robbed out of old Laptop battery pack) is Very Dangerous. This could and probably would result in an explosive eruption of the cell and a fire. Don't play with ANY Lithium battery unless you fully understand what you are doing.

Right sermon over. Onto the charger! (This bit is on hold whilst the charger wings it's way over the pond to me. The bonus of this is that two more Lionhearts are travelling with it!.)
Please see the update 22 Dec 2004 below for more!

The clever bit of the design of the electronics on this light are that it is not regulated. The output from the cell goes directly across the LED and the BIN number of the LED determines the output against voltage. So what do all the electronics do then? Well as we can see above the light can be dimmed. The electronics do this by using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) What this means is that the electronics turn the power to the light on and off very rapidly. By altering the ratio of on time to off time the relative power and thus the brightness of the LED can be controlled.

The only downside is that the lower power setting will change the colour tint produced by the LED. There is a shift in colour towards blue as the power is reduced. Again this is all very subjective and not a problem in real world use.

This non regulated light is not the problem that some may think. Non regulation does have a few advantages. First of all is does not have any efficiency losses that a boost or buck converter would introduce. Secondly the very flat discharge from the Lithium Ion cell ensures that the LED gets an almost constant voltage for the vast majority of the life of the cell. Perhaps the best reason is that it reduced unnecessary cost and complexity and make the physical size of the electronic assembly smaller thus allowing us to have a small handy sized light with cool features.

Update 22 Dec 2004

I have now received my HAIII versions of the Lionheart along with the PILA charger system. What more can I say, they are all fantastic. But I can tell you a bit more about the charger and stuff.

First after a few comments on the first part of the review by Mr Bulk himself I would like to post with his approval a copy of his comments on the team that built the Lionheart.

Quote:-

I really must add that it was our entire TEAM which made this light available to enough end users' hands,

1) from the development partnership between Georges80 and Otokoyama as well as myself, to

2) JS Burly's who gave in to offering the lithium-ion chargers and batteries at very close to cost, to

3) FlashLightLens for developing the 1.9mm thick UCL lens specifically for the LionHeart, to

4) Tactical Warehouse for coming up with the inspired idea of offering a limited production CPF "Special" and convincing our own CPF Primary Administrator to provide her blessing of such, and finally to

5) the HAT team without which we would not have been able to build the 500 LionHearts as quickly as we did.

Thanks one and all, and my heartfelt gratitude to everybody.

(there - that enough of an Academy Awards acceptance speech for ya?)...

Mr Bulk (Charlie Wong)

Very well put I will add to the above!! Thank you for the comments.

The PILA charger (Well two of them) arrived with my HAIII Lionhearts along with four 150A PILA cells. The charger came fitted with a US two pin plug so this needed replacing with a UK 3 pin one before I could use it. This is O.K. because the specifications of the charger are as follows.

Input :- AC 90-240V 50/60Hz

Output :- DC4.6V / 1.5A x 2

So it should work in most countries around the world without any problems. Please note that there is no earth wire fitted to the device. This is because it is double insulated as denoted by the two concentric squares symbol. This means you should not be able to come into contact with any mains generated voltages.

The device seems to give a constant 4.542V DC output across the charge terminals. It is fitted with two dual colour LED's that can show either Red or Green.

When first powered on without and cells installed it will show two Green LED's. Installing a discharged or part discharged cell will cause Both LED's to turn Red. This indicated that the unit is charging. You still get both LED's changing colour even if only one cell has been fitted. I assume from this that there is a common parallel charge circuit for both cells. This you may think would be a problem, especially when we are charging potentially volatile Lithium Ion cells! But if you have been reading carefully above you will understand that each cell has been fitted with it's own PCM and this will cut off the power to the cell when it detects the cell is fully charged. So no problem.

You will also notice on the photos of the charger that the supplied brass spacers have been fitted to allow these 150A cells to be charged. By removing the spacers you can charge the longer and larger capacity 168A and 168S cells. So I am now set up for using PILA cells with some of my other lights. Great stuff.

Plus when my Otokoyama168A Lionheart bodies arrive (They are on the way) I will be able to use them with the 168A cells and get Twice the runtime!! Impressive.

Onto the HAIII versions. Well as you can see thay are a nice silver colour rather than the rather drab greenish versions we have see from various people. They look great and the engraving is much more subdued than on the black version. They sould last a few years and keep me going until the next Mr Bulk and company creation astounds us all again!

Just need the 168A bodies and the holsters and I will be able to finish off. Oh, almost forgot the all important beamshots at various power levels will also follow when I get chance.

Update 23 Dec 2004

Yet another update. But quite an important one. The beamshots. This shows the three Lionhearts that I have and includes the excellent UCL-LDF lens that arrived today!!!

The UCL-LDF Lens is a standard UCL lens with a high quality Lexan® diffusion film applied to one side, from FlashLightLens the suppliers of the original Lionheart lenses. This gives a much smoother beam than the standard lens with a small loss of light. I really like the diffused beam and think it will be much better for close up work than the standard one.

The beamshots were taken with three fully charged PILA's and all light set to the step mode of operation, it clearly shows the drop in light output on the UCL-LDF version.

Details of the test setup are given at the top of the Beasmshots section of the site.

Lionheart CPF 040 Level1

Lionheart CPF 040 Level2

Lionheart HAIII 061 Level2

Lionheart CPF 040 Level3

Lionheart HAIII 061 Level3

Lionheart CPF 040 Level4

Lionheart HAIII 061 Level4

Lionheart CPF 040 Level5

Lionheart HAIII 061 Level5

Lionheart HAIII 129 LDF Lens Level1

Lionheart HAIII 129 LDF Lens Level2

Lionheart HAIII 129 LDF Lens Level3

Lionheart HAIII 129 LDF Lens Level4

Lionheart HAIII 129 LDF Lens Level5

I really think this is one of the very best flashlights I have owned to date. I keep on saying this about various lights. But this time I think it could be a long time before someone manages to exceed the design and execution of this masterpiece. I really look forward to getting my standard HA versions and the various larger battery tubes and UCL lenses etc when they turn up. I will update this review and pictures in due time.

This is now my current favourite light. The king is dead. Long live the king.

www.candlepowerforums.com One of the best forums of any kind on the net. Lots of reviews, opinions and help for the novice to the expert on anything relating to illumination products.

I think some other members of CPF have also had these light for sale. So look round for them.