Ok, so since I was inside the light, and already sitting at my bench, what was I to do? Had to find out if 18 ga wires would fit, right? Well of course I did! And while I had the driver clamped in stats and held firmly in my vice, what better time to use my hot air station to remove their MOSFET and put mine on? So I used a Vishay SIR404DP, left everything else on the driver alone. (with 18ga leads of course)
It went together a bit more like a complex dance than before, having the larger wires and needing to screw the MCPCB to the reflector and still get the middle screw through the emitter shelf, but it was worth the effort!
I looked at output’s now, current only without taking lumens measurements.
……Sofirn……LG HE-2……Samsung 30Q…….Efest 3000mAh
0.005A…………….0.005A………………0.005A………………….0.005A
0.06A…………………0.05A……………….0.04A……………………0.05A
0.19A…………………0.18A……………….0.17A……………………0.18A
2.99A…………………2.79A……………….2.92A……………………2.80A
4.62A…………………4.08A……………….4.41A……………………4.41A
7.25A…………………6.47A……………….7.03A……………………6.86A
11.12A…………….10.26A………………10.56A………………….10.03A
So I charged up a Sony VTC5A and got 13.57A on Turbo, with a lumens output of 4036.5 at start, 3629.4 at 30 seconds.
This afternoon I got some UCL glass AR coated lenses from flashlightlens.com, put one in and charged up another VTC5A to see what changed… I’m now seeing 4288.35 lumens at start on the VTC5A, 3519 at start on the included Sofirn cell!
As you can see, simply by swapping out the FET and using larger wires, dropping in a nice AR coated lens, this little beauty is capable of 4000 out the front lumens! Just gotta love that!
I am told that these cells will also be sold on their site after the first of the year.
The pink color of the wrapper inside the Sofirn labeling matched my Samsung 30Q perfectly, but the 3 legged top plate looked different. There is a button top spot welded on, but it’s still easy to see there is a difference in the top plate. There is no laser marked branding on the pink wrapper. I cut the pink wrapper off too, nothing at all on the silver body of the light. So I’m not sure what the cell is. I know it works well though, up in the top 5 if not top 3.
I’ll say it again, I’m really impressed with Sofirn. I got the first C8F to review and it had XP-G3 emitters on aluminum, a protected cell came with it and there were issues with the emitters wanting more than the cell could provide. When I put a high drain cell in, fried an emitter! So I recommended they go to a DTP copper MCPCB with XP-L emitters and I rebuilt my sample in this way to show them what it would do… they listened! And promptly came out with a side switch with multiple groups and the required copper and emitter combination. It’s a real beauty, doesn’t need modification but lends itself well to a few tweaks.
For what it’s worth, my first sample the reflector fitted beautifully over an 32mm Noctigon, made for an easy upgrade.
Now, y’all know the XP-L2 is out, right? Imagine this triple C8 loaded with XP-L2’s……
Not kidding, I’ve seen the XP-L2 break 2300 lumens in a single emitter single cell application. So what would 3 of them do here? Interesting, very interesting….
Nice review, Dale. I’ve reviewed the Sofirn SF36 and have a C8 host in transit. I swear, I’m more and more impressed with Sofirn each day.
And you can’t even build this stuff for the prices they’re charging. Assuming you could get the triple reflector… C8 host: $10. 32mm MCPCB with 3 high-binned XP-L emitters: $25. Driver: $12. Battery: $5. Charger: $5. Total: $57. Pre-bypassed wires even. They’re going to put lesser modders out of business!
Thanks, I know there are some folks that really work wonders with charting and graphing and CRI rendering scopes and X-Ray machines and maybe some Martian help with the beam or something, so I don’t try to go all Einstein on anybody. Other’s are better at it, so I just like to show how it’s made, what makes it good (or bad) and how it can be made better. Sometimes, lately, a mfgr just get’s it so right I don’t even mod it! I know, I said it. sad times at modder’s high.
BTW, I have the 36 and like it a lot. It compares very favorably to the Lumintop SD26, albeit maybe not as sleek. Lights like those, drop in an SST-40 and you’re good to go!
Remember that this is a triple reflector light, like the Q8 is a quad reflector or like the BTU Shocker is a triple, only much smaller than that here in the C8 format. So, it’s better than building a C8 with a Ledil CUTE-3 Optic but of course less, much less, than a built C8 with throw in mind….
Hi everyone else :-D and Dale, saw your last comments in my C8T review thread a while ago. Ya know, don't be jealous about what others do in their reviews, jealousy virtue is not. Everyone shares his/her two cents and so do you. :THUMBS-UP:
I am also going to receive one of these C8F torches hopefully in a few days. This seems like a nice bundle, even if the chosen cell wrap seems funnily misleading.
In the meantime, my kitchen lamp's central 5730 led array got ruined and is now undergoing a prolonged downtime while I receive a new 100 pack of Osram Duris E5 CRI85 5700K 5730 emitters and bases. In about two weeks everything should be at home but damn, Christmas is just around the corner…
I’ve seen around 40-50% increase in a light running at about 3A, so say a light has 900 lumens max… swap in an SST-40 and it’ll be in the 1400 lumens range. A bit on the blue-white side, but not bad and certainly acceptable if that increase is needed. (most of the time)
So I used a Vishay SIR404DP, left everything else on the driver alone. (with 18ga leads of course)
I know, I said it. 
sad times at modder’s high. 
