Sofirn SP35 warning, light got a shelf floating in the air + LED wire came loose

Hi,

I got today a light to review, but definitely the manufactory did a very bad mistake when constructing this light.

To describe it short the LED shelf is floating in the air, or at lest just rests on the driver board, which gets hot as well
you can hear it rattle when it is not pushed from the reflector against the driver.
And the Star is big and from copper but no DTP.
So we got 30W of heat floating in the flashlight with very little heat transfer to the body.

And on top of that the negative LED wire came at the driver side loose when reassembling the light,
indicating a cold solder joint with poor electrical and mechanical bond

I made a video which I describe it harsh.

Well I’m sure that missing 0.1mm of material is really saving a lot of money

It’s a shame. Sofirn to me isn’t very well known but their remake of the C8 seems to be from good quality - but I also have the cheapest Sofirn - the K03 - 3.69$ 16640 flashlight.
That thing is very poorly made and doesn’t work properly.

But I am very anticipated for the C8F.

They generally seem to be piss poor.

Except in the minds of a recent plethora of, previously unknown to me, reviewers with freebies.

Barkuti seems to think there might be some small some merit to be extracted by knowledgeable modders prepared to change out major components, but I’ve seen no (believable) good reports, whatsoever, so far, for any of them.

Waiting to be convinced otherwise, and if Sofirn want to send me something they think is worth reviewing honestly, I’d be quite willing.

A shame, because it is difficult nowadays to make such elementary mistakes.

I ordered couple of lights and got C8F for a reivew, they are on the way, disassembly guaranteed…

Turn it on first with a decent cell inside, and see whether any emitters turn blue and die in the first seconds…

:person_facepalming:
will do.

yeah the light had potential on paper, nice boost driver with 3S input

The thickness of the shelf is not too bad, the LED should have on no serious problem on a non DTP copper star @2.54A

but without heat path to body good it wopuld probably kill the LED, which has a good light color at lest
but they definitely need to learn how to machine a part that gets press fit, so that the shelf outside has a small rim where it is a bit thinner than the body, and then the rest of it is a bit bigger than the body, so the “hollow” part of the shelf tube gets compressed

I am going to order a 20mm Sinkpad-II for XHP 50

http://www.leddna.com/pre-order-sinkpad-xhp50-21mm-copper-12v-or-6v/

I have gotten 3 Sofirn lights to review, the first was a big showerhead and while it didn’t meet output claims it is a decent robust light.

The 26650 SP33 is a really nice light, I like it a lot. Well built with nice features it does what they say and is very reminiscent of a Thorfire light. Side switch with the partially covered lit button, like the Thrunite TN42. Beam is a big hot spot with small aura and nice spill, this light is well done no matter who’s name is associated with it. It’s directly comparable to the Lumintop SD26, which I bought not too long ago, and for the price difference the Sofirn probably wins but the Lumintop is a more svelte light overall.

The third is a little AA light with a warm white emitter, it’s nice and works fine but it is way too warm for my taste. This is the SF31, a tube light with fins at the shelf area. It’s regulated output and you see a slight delay when shifting modes, smooth in use and likeable as an EDC, it has 4 modes with a very decent moon. I swapped out the LED to a whiter XP-L2 1D and the beam is much more to my liking. This small reflector light has a very mild orange peel, transition between hot spot and aura/spill is softer, less defined.

The only one of the three that seemed not well thought out is the big shower head SF22. Finish is a nice matte black and the 18 emitters actually do a pretty nice job, it just didn’t make the claimed output out of the box. A bit of work and it’s functioning at a pretty nice level. I’m using it with 2 cells instead of 4.

Just ordered the new C8F triple XP-G3 today, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m betting it’ll be sweet with the emitters swapped out for XP-L2 1D’s. :wink:

The 20mm SinkPAD for XM-L works perfectly for the XHP-50, same footprint. There are large diameter Maxtoch MCPCB’s in DTP copper that are made for the XM-L footprint as well, one of those may work best by covering the entire emitter shelf in that light. Of course, 20mm Noctigon’s for XM also work.

That “press fit” emitter shelf may not have had a fit side to side, but the aluminum shelf was still sitting on the aluminum body so heat transfer was still taking place even if not optimal. There are simple fixes for that, all P60 modders know how to take care of that problem really quickly. :wink:

I just (last week) ordered SF10 and SF12, both AA lights, hope they turn up nice, I like WW tints 3500-4000K is nice :smiley:

that is the problem here
The shelf sits on the driver, which is not a MCPCB

I checked the current with 2.45A, but you are right its a 6V board, not a 12V,
so the claimed lumens cant be reached even with a J4 bin and 12% losses they are

they not even driving the LED to its rated current

Topped-off 30Q right out of the charger, lit up a tree outside like it was on fire, almost like that NKVD comic.

SP10A, really nice and EDCable, even for me, and I’m not really a fan of eswitch-only lights.

In your video, you show the emitter shelf as a cup, with the sides being well below the shelf the emitter sits on. You also show bare aluminum inside the battery tube which holds this cup, so the emitter shelf/heat sink is in fact in contact with the bare metal of the battery tube thus heat sinking the emitter through contact. No? Did I see your video wrong?

That sucks! Maybe install copper tape and a small amount of Arctic Silver 5 around the base to help transfer the heat tot he body…

Review ongoing

The shelf rests on the driver!
worst case is when the bezel gets tightened the shelf has almost no contact to the body

Where did you check the 2.45 A current - at cell or at LED?

Lexel, I dont get it, you talk about press fit and using a tool and force to get it out but then it rattles and drops out…huh?
Does this mean that BEFORE yu used the tool and applied force it was firmly in, thus not floating, thus giving a good heatpath to the housing? And if it was floating why the need of using the tool and force?
puzzling, for the topic title make it seem like there is no heat path and just a floating thingy, but why why the tool and force and speaking of “hammered in there with a lotof force, hard to pull it out”?

The Miller, I had to watch the video several times until I understood that he used this tool with the Klarus flashlight and not with the Sofirn.

Ah hahaha that makes sense :slight_smile: