Spec me an LED Torch

mrk · 18 Jun 2011 at 00:09

Gotta say the C8 and L2 combo have been excellent purchases. I use them both at the same time and they work excellently together, one for spotting, the other for filling.

Best £30~ ever spent IMO

A few scuffs have started to show up, signs of a workshorse

Aod · 18 Jun 2011 at 02:18

very glad you're enjoying 'em Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

been keeping an eye on those 18650's after taking them off the charger?

mrk · 18 Jun 2011 at 08:34

Yup doesn't seem to have budged since last time although I've only charged them once since my last post

2StepSteve · 19 Jun 2011 at 01:20

Aod said:
looks very impressive!
by the looks of it each LED is being fed at around 890mA, which by Cree's datasheet would put that at 359lm per emitter, for a total of about 1,068 lumens for all three, at the emitter.

the reflectors look relatively efficient, so i'd say that you're probably looking at an out-the-front lumen rating of (very roughly estimated) 800 or so.

you're right, the XM-L with it's comparatively large die is not an LED for throw... in the P60 format. but on the other hand, lights such as the Olight SR90 uses the SST-90 LED which has an enormous emitter and is a veritable spotlight of a torch.

the XM-L can very easily deliver arseloads of throw if combined with a large reflector. a good example of this would be the Jetbeam M1Xm, which uses an XM-L driven at 3A and a large reflector to deliver 750 lumens out the front with enough throw to light objects up at 300 meters.

Either way, it's certainly a lot of light (in both ways! haha...) for the money

What makes you think each LED is having an equal share of the current like that?

My understanding is they are all receiving around the 1.7A mark as they are likely to be wired in series. Obviously what you get at the tailcap is not what the emitters are getting due to overheads and the efficiency of the driver.

From looks alone I can tell it's output is way higher than 800 lumens. My (now crappy in comparison) 36x5mm LED Maglite 3D dropin was confirmed as being just under 400 OTF lumens and that looks pathetic compared to the Sky Ray 3xT6.

molinari said:
Looks good! Anywhere in the UK that sells this? I'm looking for a decent budget torch with as long a throw as possible, any guess at the throw this has?

You will not find anywhere in the UK that sells the Sky Ray 3xT6. It isn't so bad buying outside of the UK you know

.

Throw is a difficult one. I would say around 70 metres or so.. this is a total guess as I haven't been able to properly test.

By the way; it isn't always about throw!

mrk · 21 Jun 2011 at 09:29

Edit*

Found a brand new battery (for an old laptop, they sent us the wrong battery) so I dismantled it and found some 2160mAh batteries inside

I think I need a new charge now though as the UltraFire one charges the Ultrafire 18650s 2 by 2 but only charges these laptop batteries 1 by 1, put 2 in and both lights go green and it doesn't charge.

Aod · 21 Jun 2011 at 17:07

nice job! i've dismantled two laptop batteries which is where all of my 18650's came from.

there's a tutorial of sorts on CPF which i followed when i did it, it has some handy voltage guidelines which i followed:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...Tutorial-Laptop-Battery-Pack-18650-Extraction

mrk · 21 Jun 2011 at 17:25

Ah cool, will keep that linked for older laptop battery dismantling, won't have an issue with these as they're new

I've ordered the WF-188 charger which was recommended on a bunch of boards and has various switching capabilities. I've also ordered an orange peel reflector from Manafont for the Ultrafire C8 as I like the cleaner light they give. All in a total of $15~

Aod · 21 Jun 2011 at 17:28

nice!

I've started going a bit flashlight nutty. I almost bought a Surefire A2 but decided against it in the end. My Surefire C2 is humming along with my XP-G 3000k drop in, i'm feeding it on AW's 17670 cells now so it's not gobbling up CR123As

my Surefire E2E is as yet unmodified but i have an LED dropin on the way for that too, but i'm going to keep that one on primaries i think

total spent: Waaaaay too much

fleming222 · 21 Jun 2011 at 17:53

I'd say lensers are the best, bought a P3 the other day and was really impressed.

silversurfer · 21 Jun 2011 at 18:04

How rapid is rapid and is that AA size

Aod · 21 Jun 2011 at 18:30

fleming222 said:
I'd say lensers are the best, bought a P3 the other day and was really impressed.

I'm glad you're happy with it. LED-Lenser torches are not all that well regarded however.
For a little bit more (well, i suppose it depends how much you paid...) you could have got a light with seven times the light output...

silversurfer said:
How rapid is rapid and is that AA size

Pardon?

mrk · 21 Jun 2011 at 19:19

I've checked out LED Lensers before my storming into the Cree LED torches and I thought the Lensers were good but once I saw the power of the Cree powered torches.....well the Lensers are all the ££ without the **!

Aod · 21 Jun 2011 at 19:24

well, that's not strictly true, some LED-Lenser products do use Cree emitters and cree products are not the be-all-and-end-all of LED devices (well, they are at the moment...).

It's just that LED-Lenser products are awful for the amount that they charge for them

mrk · 21 Jun 2011 at 19:26

I don't know what LED units the ones I saw were using but they were more inline with the zoomable ones I bought first time round off eBay, which are great of course, but the C8 and L2 are far far better with XP-G/XR-E!

Aod · 21 Jun 2011 at 19:27

it's hard to say, especially because many of them use optics it's hard to tell what emitters they use.

one thing's for sure, they don't use XP-G's

Gammawolf · 22 Jun 2011 at 11:24

Right i'm not sure i can read nearly 700 posts so was wondering if you guys keeping on top of the thread can help me! I'm looking for a torch similar to the lenser m14, in the sense that i'd like it to take AA batteries, be regulated, and must have flood to spot functions. Also no plastic casings >:(

, are there any alternatives to the M14 that are cheaper and still fulfill these requirements?

Aod · 22 Jun 2011 at 12:25

Not many flashlights other than Maglites, LED-lensers and chinacrap have flood-to-spot zoom capability, because a reflector is most efficient at only a single point, and anywhere outside of that large amounts of output are wasted.

if you want Flood-to-spot zoom, go for the LED lenser, but i wouldn't recommend it.
Figure out what you need from a flashlight (flood, throw, somewhere inbetween) and buy a flashlight that suits that.

a specialised light will almost certainly be of greater utility than a dodgy jack-of-all-trades.

<edit> for the £60 that that LED Lenser would cost you you could get a proper flashlight from a reputable manufacturer like Fenix or sunwayman. LED-Lenser torches are incredibly overpriced.

mrk · 22 Jun 2011 at 12:31

Get 2 like I did. One for spot, one for flood and both are excellent in their respective areas

Got shipment confirmation for the C8's orange peel reflector just now too so that should arrive in a few days

Aod · 22 Jun 2011 at 12:32

Khaaan! said:
Get 2 like I did. One for spot, one for flood and both are excellent in their respective areas

Exactly

See, mrk understands because he's been through exactly this

mrk · 22 Jun 2011 at 12:41

Going back to those batteries, I found a problem in the C8 with them. the C8's front end inside the host doesn't have a spring but is flat so the battery you use has to have the stub on the positive terminal. This is fine for normal 18650s but these laptop salvaged ones have no stub on the + terminals so could I say apply a tab of solder to imitate the stub or does it need to be something special in order for current to flow efficiently?