[Quick Look around] Wuben TO46R

I bought this from Rey’s Amazon site (presumably at the GB price). He asked if I could post the short review here since he wants to do a group buy on these.

The Wuben TO46R is a nicely made flashlight. The knurling is very comfortable and nicely machined… The black anodizing is perfect and smooth. No sharp edges. The light comes in a nice box with the standard stuff like warranty card, instructions, lanyard, a quality braided usb cable, clip, spare o-ring, and a protected 2600 mAh battery.

The TO46R has a triple Cree XP-G3 LED under a Carclo TIR. It is advertised at 90cri, but doesn’t say the color temp. My guess would be in the 5500k to 5800k range, at the outside 6000k. The flashlight driver is constant current. The bezel is not glued so, switching out the optics to a diffused TIR isn’t a problem. I’ve got a noctigon triple Nichia 219c 4000k on it’s way from Richard. Easy swap.

Carclo 10507 TIR

Carclo 10508 TIR

The threads are square cut, very smooth, and come well lubricated from the factory. Like I mentioned above, the light body is nicely machined with rather unique swirl knurling instead of the standard checkered look, and it tail stands well also. I personally think it looks great, and it’s very comfortable in the hand.

The operation of the light is simple. One click of the on/off button the light comes on. Subsequent clicks of the forward (W) button, and the light changes from Moonlight (7 lumen), Low (38 lumen), Med (200 lumen), High (604 lumen), Turbo (1300 lumen). To get to strobe from on, you simple hold the W button down, and as soon as you let up, it goes back to what ever last mode you were in. You can get straight to Turbo and Strobe from the off position as well. From off, hold the power button down and it goes straight to turbo. Hold the W button down and it goes straight to strobe.

There is a lock out mode. Hold the two buttons at the same time for a second, and the light will flash once. It is now in lock out and keeps the light from turning on. Hold the two buttons down again for a second, and it will unlock. You can mechanically lock it too, by un-screwing the tail cap a quarter turn. This is probably the easiest way to lock it.

Charging. Connect the usb cable to a power source. If the LED on the power button is flashing red, then the battery is below 31. If flashing Blue, the battery is between 31 and 99. Solid blue, the battery is fully charged. The light will also function while charging.
The charge rate is between .8amps and .14amps, depending on how discharged the battery is. It starts high, and when it comes close to fully charged, the rate drops.

Safety features. This light will step down to high when it senses too high of a temperature. That said, I ran the light for 5 minutes continuous on turbo, and the light did not step down or get too hot. The T046R has reverse polarity protection. If a battery is accidentally put in backwards it protects both the driver and the battery. It also has low voltage protection. (not mentioned in the manual) If the battery drains down to 2.8 volts, the light will shut off, protecting from over discharging. Allows you to run an un-protected high capacity flat top 18650 cell without worry.

Advertised run times are 1.7hrs Turbo, 3.5hrs High, 7hrs Med, 56hrs Low, and 125hrs on Moonlight. Your mileage may vary depending on the capacity cell you use.

The mode buttons are a little hard to find in the dark, but if you move your thumb side to side on the head of the light, you can find them. Would have been great if they would have machined a trit slot in front of the buttons. But it’s a wonderful well made light in my opinion.

With the stock Carclo 10507 TIR

Well, this is one hell of a doubt… I was thinking to buy this flashlight but at the same time I was also thinking about the Emisar D4. I opted by the D4 at the time.

Now that you say that it an hold max output for a while, and after seeing this review I’m thinking again about it…

Do you have any info about the price Rey intends to do? Also, can you link his store as well, please?
Thanks in advance :wink:

I’m not sure when Rey said he’d do a group buy, but I would imagine somewhere in the 40 to 50 dollar range. But don’t know for sure. He only has them on a US Amazon store right now, but will probably ship from China for the GB. The D4 is initially brighter for sure, but won’t hold that very long. This will though, and the reverse polarity protection actually works on the Wuben.

I added a triple Nichia 219C 4000K 90+ CRI on a Noctigon MCPCB. Although the output isn’t quite as bright as the XPG3 is, it is quite a nice beam.

Robert. Funny thing. I did the exact same thing as you down to emitter choice lol. I love this thing now!

Is it easy to change a driver?

I don’t think so. You have two switches plus, the head and the battery tube are bonded pretty tight.

Thanks for your answer RobertB :wink: Hum…I guess that price range seems a bit above others I’ve found, but let’s wait and see!

Yup, that’s one thing I really wanted and care about, runtime on high and RPP!
Do you know if this will work better on a Samsung 30Q and/or a Sony VTC6 cell? Comparing with the Wuben battery, I mean!

Nice one!!! I’m sure the beam will be super nice for outside use :open_mouth:
Does it get a lot hotter with the Nichias than the original XPG3 LEDs ?

Sorry for so many questions :person_facepalming: And thanks for the answers in advance :wink:

The Wuben cell is 2600mAh. So yeah, the 30Q will work much better. It does get warmer a little faster with the 219C’s. I did an unscientific experiment comparing the TO46R vs the D4. Shined both on the ceiling to same approx brightness. The Wuben (219C) on high and the D4 about half. The D4 still heated up twice as fast. It just doesn’t have any mass

Again, thank you so much for the answers :slight_smile: I asked about the batteries because sometimes brands have their specific cells that make “that” specific flashlight works better (ex: Nitecore), but I’m glad this ain’t the case :wink:

Also, nice to know about the heating/not heating. The D4 increases heat really fast and “can’t” be used for long time, so this may be a nice light to use with high output for some more minutes!… I’ll wait to see what Rey has to “offer” us and then decide to go for this one or not. I like the design, the modes (a Moonlight mode would be nice, though), and seems to be very well made as well. Never had a Wuben light but this could be a nice start :slight_smile:

Thanks again for the answers :+1:

good.

Thanks for support!