Review: ThruNite TN42 LED Searchlight

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
30

F**king great!!

£150 I’ve paid!

EDIT:

Well mine arrived today………OH MY GOD it’s bright!!

Can’t determine if it’s genuine or not. I’ve emailed Thrunite to ask them if there’s anything I can do to determine it’s authenticity!! But fake or not it’s ridiculously bright.

I can’t wait for total darkness to arrive!

Cheers

Rob

31

Glad you like it.

Does it have a serial number on it?? Thrunite should be able to verify it if it does.

I will have mine in a few weeks,TN42vn.

32

It does! I’ll await their response.

Oh and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Cheers

Rob

33

I agree,because mine is modded and will have a little more output than yours! :wink: Stock is still amazing.

With the new LED’s and several manufacturers pushing the lights like modders, the results are very good.

34

Totally awesome!
Way beyond my budget though…

35

Well,

I was happy with my newly acquired TN42, until I inspected it a bit further, the hotspot is quite mishapen, with a good sized ‘egg shaped’ belt of
corona around it. The AR lens is dirty both sides, and what appears to be metallic remnants from the reflector manufacturing process are on the reflector! One piece (when looking from the side of the beam) glows like a meteor entering earths atmosphere. it’s my first Thrunite purchase, which they assure me is geniune, and I’m somewhat upset.

So it’s gonna have to go back, Unless they send a new reflector, but I’m afraid that the LED may be defective!!!

I wait a lifetime for it to be delivered too.

Cheers

Rob

36

Wait a minute guys, I see some of you were talking about “genuine” and “fake” Thrunite - Do we really have a fake Thrunite, or a fake TN42 to be exact? I have been in this hobby for quite some time and as far as I know those “clone companies” (i.e. Ultrafire, Uranusfire…) rarely clone these premium lights for the cost and technical complexity reasons I guess, or at the very least they would clone them in the very obvious way, and the price would have obvious difference too. Not to mention that if they happen to clone these premium lights they will never, ever use the same packaging as the original one - again for the cost reason, because they are going to sell at the real “budget” price, right?

I mean if there is really a “clone” TN42 available (which is quite unlikely IMHO), and the price is 1/3 of the original price, then I would buy it in a heartbeat lol.

37

Why strobe is only 680lm?

38

AFAIK there are no clones of any ThruNite lights except for some of the older Acebeam lights which were basically copies of the Thrunites. One of Thrunite’s engineers left them to work for Acebeam and a few lights were near copies.

39

No clue. Overkill maybe? :wink:

40

Fantastic Review!!! Thank you…… :+1:

41

Thanks for the review.
What is current going to LED? Anyone measured that?
Mike

42

I think it is around 2.7A, best I remember.

43

2.15amp Stock. 2.25amp 24awg Tinergy Leads and Bypassed Battery carrier springs. Measured at the LED with both a Fluke 36 and a UNI-T clamp meter.

Now the modded TN42 is 3.01-3.03amp at the LED with a De-domed XHP35HD E4 1C using the LD-2 M2 set at 3.0amps. Power is supplied by a K70 4S battery carrier with bypassed springs.

Burning the de-domed E4 1C in, before installing, didn’t want to chance smoking my Reflector up! Good thing, there was some residue left over that I didn’t see and it did burn the left over thin film of silicone, which just scrapped off, with out any further issues. The modded TN42 kicks some serious Booty! :smiley:

Stock shot’s with phone camera CW and NW

44

How many Kcd gives now?

45

So, someone sum up — is $200 worth paying for this flashlight?

Yes, I know opinions will vary. But I’d like to know what experienced flashlight users think from experience.

I figure we’re going to be seeing new li-ion sizes showing up with better explosion prevention in coming years, and flashlights will have to accommodate new size battery tubes.
So I think of flashlight buying as choosing the best available head.
I’m hoping we’ll see adapter rings coming out — like those that let you use a variety of SLR camera lenses on any given SLR camera body

46

If you had ordered it till 12/23,you would pay 20% less.

47

Nice pictures. By chance, did you measure the lumens and lux in stock and modded form?
I have a modded tn42vn and here’s my numbers for comparison.
Stock:
Lumens 2140
Lux 703k
Modded:
Lumens 2430
Lux 775k

48

I took LUX readings between stock and just the de-domed TN42 with a little focusing, shaved the centering ring flat then added a .006” shim, before adding the LD-2 M2 driver. Both measured at the same 2M distance. Nothing at 5M-10M measurements yet. I have 6 other lights using the XHP35HI that need testing too.

Stock CW TN42 at 2M.

TN42 De-domed with stock bypassed carrier and 24awg Tinergy leads on stock driver, 2.25amps at the LED.

I don’t really care about the number’s, I just do it to do it! Visually the beam is warmer, more intense and the hot spot is visually smaller. Outside yeah you can really see the difference, no doubt about it, when shining both at my neighbors white garage door across the street! And even more with the 4S linear LD-2 M2 3.0 amp driver installed. I’m working out of state and when I get home for good I’ll do some long distance measurements and beam shot’s, of all of them!! :wink:

My T90-2 and my SD75 XHP35 HI’s are pretty impressive too! :+1:

49

Yep, I got mine for $165 & change.
I think they were maybe even a little lower than that a time or two on some other ‘sales’. :+1:
:wink: