Hoplite365 Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long does the bulb in the Hoplite last?

A: Well...what bulb? Unlike fragile and expensive mercury-bulbs burning a hot plasma, the Hoplite's single-die, solid-state LED has no fragile glass envelope that can break if dropped nor filament that can burn out over time. So with typical use, a Hoplite has a greater than 20,000 hour life expectancy. That's we were thinking of using the following tag line, "Hoplite365... you may burn out before it does!"

Q: Mercury bulb lights take a good 15 minutes to reach their operating intensity. How long does it take the Hoplite to do reach its maximum intensity?

A: Unlike mercury bulb-based lamps, the LED in the Hoplite reaches full intensity instantly. As soon as you turn it on, it's ready to go. This means that you can avoid heating up tight workspaces, save enormous amounts of energy and time, and safely turn the light on and off as often as you like. It's win, win, win all around!

Q: How long will the Hoplite run on one battery/cell?

A: On one, fully-charged, 3000mAh, #18650 cell, two of which are supplied with the kit, you can expect the Hoplite to run at full brightness for at least three hours. After that, it will run at a slightly reduced but still very bright level for another three hours or more. We did an extreme time test just to see (not good for the power cell) and gave up at 14 hours. It may have been dim by then, but it was still running. Amazing.

Q: Does the Hoplite365 get hot with prolonged use?

A: Actually it's the opposite with the Hoplite. Old-fashioned mercury bulb UV lights run very hot and can cause burns. Due to the high-efficiency of the LED and driver circuitry, very little energy is wasted as heat. Also, the aluminum body dissipates what little heat there is quickly away from the LED. The Hoplite remains cool to the touch the entire time. That's efficiency!

Q: Because FPI/MPI dye is made to leach into every possible place it can, we're constantly replacing and rewiring failed switches on our old-style lights. How hard is it to replace the switch on a Hoplite?

A: Unscrewing the tail cap switch is how you change the battery on the Hoplite, so replacing the switch takes all of 30 seconds. Hoplite switches are sealed and waterproof on both ends. In the unlikely event of a switch failure, replacement switches are available, affordable, and in stock.

Q: Ok, you say that the Hoplite365 is waterproof. Is it really?

A: Take a look at photo of the Hoplite in the tank on the home page, happily shining through the water and onto the yellow Wernerite fluorescent target. Just to prove the point, once the photo session was over, after a good 30 minutes, we dried the light off thoroughly and opened it up. As expected, there wasn’t a drop of water inside anywhere. The tail cap switch itself is waterproof and connects to the light body with an "O" ring and the rest of the parts comprising the flashlight body and head are factory-sealed. So Hoplites are waterproof, oilproof, and dyeproof!

Q: I see other lights that say they are 365nm and they are much cheaper than the Hoplite. What gives with that?

A: You're absolutely correct. There are plenty of other lights that claim to emit 365nm light, but very few that can really deliver the goods. The majority of cheap UV LED flashlights you see emit mostly very long wave UV, in the neighborhood of 395nm-405nm, along with tons of plain old purple light. Other brands such as TANK007 use Cree UV LED's that generate relatively feeble UV along with tons of yellow/brown visible light, rending them legally useless for NDT work and not much good for anything else. There's one flashlight on the market that uses five genuine Nichia .05 watt LED's. These devices do indeed emit clean, narrow-range UV that is mostly 365nm, but they only generate about 11 mW of unfocused UV. It's simply not enough. The Hoplite blasts its target with up to 370mW of focused UV. That's nearly 34 times the intensity of the 5-LED lights. It makes all the difference.

Q: What is the input voltage range of the battery charger?

A: We supply the TrustFire TR-001 multichannel charger, which is rated to accept from 100-240VAC @ 50-60Hz. The standard plug is twin-bladed U.S.A. style, so you may need an adapter for your region.

Q: What's an easy way for me to show others in my company the Hoplite's specs?

A: Simple: just download and print these two documents. HOP50-SC | HOP100-NC