sitelights
05-10-2008, 04:57 PM
Model FL-288B-MR16 was purchased online along with a small flood and a dome-type deck light; it took about a week to receive them in SE PA from Lightcraft East's N NJ location. The delay was caused by a wait for one item of the three that was not in stock. UPS Ground delivered the 05.08 shipment on 05.09. Like many low voltage lighting contractors we stock as little product as possible preferring "just-in-time" delivery to maintaining inventory.
The purchase price gave good value; unfortunately it was the 2007 price. The 2008 price averaged 20% higher for the three fixtures combined. Along with the other reservations (which will be detailed) this hefty bump may be a deal-breaker for us.
The attachment shows an "exploded" view; the "beauty" version is at lightcrafteast.com The micro bullet came with a spare set of gaskets, an extra knuckle bolt and a Phillips head machine screw that replaces the "tool-less" knurled tightening knob. The single, thicker gasket had no counterpart on the fixture; the spare bolt/knob threaded shaft was too short to mate with the threads inside the knuckle. I question the concept of "tool-less" since it invites tampering and we all carry tools anyway. Under ordinary conditions there are in fact, no tools necessary to relamp the fixture; the shroud/lens housing slips over the double gasketed body and has no locking screw.
The twin 36" leads are also the socket leads the internal portion of which is covered with a woven heat resistant sleeve; no butt splices or solder. The bottom of the socket has a brass mounting plate which is fitted (2 tiny machine screws) to cast, internally threaded bosses in a narrow cavity. Instead of a short taper to start the threads the holes are straight-sided thus requiring excessive accuracy when assembling. On my bench top I had to use straight-jawed, surplus surgical forceps to grasp the screw head in a way that allowed room for a small Phillips head screw driver. My preference for "floating sockets" for quick lamp and socket replacement is expressed in a number of posts; look at "Hadco old and new..." in this forum.
Take my word for it, this socket cannot be replaced in the field and eventually it will need to be replaced. We all know that sockets are wear items although some manufacturers pretend they are as long-lasting as the fixture. At the exit point the leads pass through a sturdy gasket in the stem; a very tight fit to the wires and perhaps water proof.
The twin leads are a bit of a problem for those who rely on pierce point connectors such as us. One can splice on a length of 18/2 but that is just another thing to do. The 18 gauge leads are imprinted: AWM 206809 CSA 18 AWG 300v 200C FENG TAI ELECTRONIC FM E204798 (whew!) barely discernable with a 5X jeweler's loupe.
The convex lens is plastic, not polycarbonate, glued in place inside the shroud the external edge of which has a scupper resulting in a water-shedding configuration. The lens magnifies the facets of the lamp reflector projecting onto nearby smooth surfaces a center hot spot surrounded by striations; this effect is not otherwise detectable The GU5.5 socket has the desired lamp clip. The micro bullet comes without a lamp. There is however a plastic stake familiar to all of us that requires theading the 1/2" NPT fixture stem into the stake prior to driving the combined fixture/stake into the ground! Why? How?
We instead use the patented Hadco stake cap for the fixture which can be fastened to the driven stake with 3 triangulated stainless steel #6 Phillips head screws. The top of the supplied stake has a buttress at each cardinal point of the threaded base; we nip these off and get a good fit to the Hadco cap. [In an upcoming review of Lightcraft's small flood a modified stake will be shown in the attachment.] A cap without a slot for the wire would not infringe on Hadco's patent; the wire could exit at the stake yoke. In fact since Hadco switched from a tubular stake (a simple piece of PVC "conduit" with a slant-cut end) to a type with a wire exit at the yoke the side slot in the cap is unnecessary so the patent is moot.
Those interested in other brass spotlights can find a few detailed in my post "Beauty and the Beast" in this forum. One of my earliest posts "white lab coats" in the Engineering Forum explains why these niggling details are important.
The purchase price gave good value; unfortunately it was the 2007 price. The 2008 price averaged 20% higher for the three fixtures combined. Along with the other reservations (which will be detailed) this hefty bump may be a deal-breaker for us.
The attachment shows an "exploded" view; the "beauty" version is at lightcrafteast.com The micro bullet came with a spare set of gaskets, an extra knuckle bolt and a Phillips head machine screw that replaces the "tool-less" knurled tightening knob. The single, thicker gasket had no counterpart on the fixture; the spare bolt/knob threaded shaft was too short to mate with the threads inside the knuckle. I question the concept of "tool-less" since it invites tampering and we all carry tools anyway. Under ordinary conditions there are in fact, no tools necessary to relamp the fixture; the shroud/lens housing slips over the double gasketed body and has no locking screw.
The twin 36" leads are also the socket leads the internal portion of which is covered with a woven heat resistant sleeve; no butt splices or solder. The bottom of the socket has a brass mounting plate which is fitted (2 tiny machine screws) to cast, internally threaded bosses in a narrow cavity. Instead of a short taper to start the threads the holes are straight-sided thus requiring excessive accuracy when assembling. On my bench top I had to use straight-jawed, surplus surgical forceps to grasp the screw head in a way that allowed room for a small Phillips head screw driver. My preference for "floating sockets" for quick lamp and socket replacement is expressed in a number of posts; look at "Hadco old and new..." in this forum.
Take my word for it, this socket cannot be replaced in the field and eventually it will need to be replaced. We all know that sockets are wear items although some manufacturers pretend they are as long-lasting as the fixture. At the exit point the leads pass through a sturdy gasket in the stem; a very tight fit to the wires and perhaps water proof.
The twin leads are a bit of a problem for those who rely on pierce point connectors such as us. One can splice on a length of 18/2 but that is just another thing to do. The 18 gauge leads are imprinted: AWM 206809 CSA 18 AWG 300v 200C FENG TAI ELECTRONIC FM E204798 (whew!) barely discernable with a 5X jeweler's loupe.
The convex lens is plastic, not polycarbonate, glued in place inside the shroud the external edge of which has a scupper resulting in a water-shedding configuration. The lens magnifies the facets of the lamp reflector projecting onto nearby smooth surfaces a center hot spot surrounded by striations; this effect is not otherwise detectable The GU5.5 socket has the desired lamp clip. The micro bullet comes without a lamp. There is however a plastic stake familiar to all of us that requires theading the 1/2" NPT fixture stem into the stake prior to driving the combined fixture/stake into the ground! Why? How?
We instead use the patented Hadco stake cap for the fixture which can be fastened to the driven stake with 3 triangulated stainless steel #6 Phillips head screws. The top of the supplied stake has a buttress at each cardinal point of the threaded base; we nip these off and get a good fit to the Hadco cap. [In an upcoming review of Lightcraft's small flood a modified stake will be shown in the attachment.] A cap without a slot for the wire would not infringe on Hadco's patent; the wire could exit at the stake yoke. In fact since Hadco switched from a tubular stake (a simple piece of PVC "conduit" with a slant-cut end) to a type with a wire exit at the yoke the side slot in the cap is unnecessary so the patent is moot.
Those interested in other brass spotlights can find a few detailed in my post "Beauty and the Beast" in this forum. One of my earliest posts "white lab coats" in the Engineering Forum explains why these niggling details are important.