After trashing my homemade headlight last night (don’t ask…) i fancy ‘cutting and shutting’ one of the DX P7s. I would use an external battery pack with AAs, not the lithiums….

However, I’m after a more spotty beam rather than spread.
Any of the torches there fit that bill?

This seems to be the one to get, but what’s the actual beam like (not the beam 2m away as shown in the photo!)

Cheers

DrP

not tried that one, but ive got 4 of the 240 lumen Q5’s, with the removable extension tube

once the extensions removed and a hole drilled in the side it weights about 56g and plenty bright enough for singletrack (makes a 1-2m diameter spot at a usefull distance with about 70deg of flood arround it).

2 of them is all i’ve ever used.

I think the MCE lights give more of a spot and less of a spread than the P7 ones. Lighthound (www.lighthound.com)have a pretty good one but it’s a bit more money than the Deal Extreme model

The beam of the P7 is a central spot with a large corona (?), though in use on the bike, only the spot is visible.
Versus any HID lap I’ve seen (Hope/lupine/Lumi), the P7 blows them away, all of a sudden the HID output seems useless….
My m8 strapped one next to his Hope HID last ride, and the back garden test… shining onto a row of leylandii around 15 ft away, the HID gives a large area of illumination (say 10ft across), with the P7 on, this area is totally overshadowed by the P7’s bright central spot.
The HID is competely redundant – well I definitley won’t be buying another or even getting mine repaired when it eventually breaks.
I think to get the best out of the P7, it needs to be head mounted, so the spot is specifically where your looking.

Thats a solid P7 model you’ve linked to IMO, it’s the one I like, as the medium beam setting is very useful.
A lot of ppl do recommend the 2 mode http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12325 and it is slightly cheaper.

If you going to cut and shut i, I think you’ll be doing away with the switch, so the 2 mode would do the job.
I’ve not seen both (2 & 5 mode), but I believe the only difference is the switch.

The other torch I’ve tried is this MC-E LED version:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16500
and I totally disagree with Stevemorg2’s report… my MC-E gives a 1/3 larger spot IMO, though is no more powerful output wise.
Though the thread/end shape on the switching unit is different to the P7, so the P7 stuff being developed on here won’t fit it… if your plans are to go that way, avoid this lamp.
(also the 8 modes are a nightmare to use, if you switching mid-trail).

I demo’d both types to my friend, and he bought the MC-E version (the P7 was already sold to another m8).

One final question, why not use the Li-Ion batteries, there dead cheap and pretty damned good… an hour a battery on full beam – you surely won’t get anywhere near that with a AA (not that I know the math)

DrP, that one you’ve linked to, I’ve actually been using to walk my dog. Borrowed from Rob (the Brewer.)
The full beam has an incredible throw on it, not spotty, quite broad, but with a very bright centre.
You could use it helmet or bar mounted as an only light really.
Modes are: med-low-hi-strobe-sos with a tap of the switch.