Imalent DX80 Gen2 .. need help to test for faults

I agree and failure rates have to happen on anything, especially something like this because one way or another humans are involved. I've scanned youtube and the web and still I don't see too many people saying they have problems with the DX80. Curious six more months from now what pops up. I've been lucky so far that none of my flashlights cheap or high end have had any problems yet.

The DX80 i received has the XHP70.2 lets, so far it works great with no issues. Where is the link to the thread where one has shorted?

I couldn’t find it here on BLF (yet), but here’s from TLF (scroll down): Imalent DX80 allgemeine Diskussionen | Taschenlampen Forum

That was a good find on the taschenlampen forum about the short. That is possibly the guy that posted in the banggood forum that I quoted in my first post when I started this thread. I translated a little and here is what he said how it happened.

"The dx80 was not turned on at all. The flashlight was not hot. As it happened, I mechanically locked the light when it was turned on in mid or high mode, then I unscrewed the battery compartment after a second to reset the mode memory, and there was a quick flash and pop then smoke."

Then further down the thread he said he was sorry and that he unscrewed the battery a little "whilst the light was on" so maybe he just did a no no. That is a real long thread and a detailed one and it will take time to read, but from what I read so far, it is suggested never to unscrew the battery pack with the light on and one guy said his shorted but his light was off and in lock mode and he was wondering maybe not to lock it when unscrewing the battery. Lots of really good info there I must say.

Even though i cant read & understand the test parts, the It looked like a trace blew out from the photo, (at 16 volts and high amps a blown trace can arc like a welder and do some damage. Concidering the battery pack is designed for high current & volts to drive that wattage, it can likely blow out a small trace easily if surged when on turbo and unscrew the body to cause a surge.
EDIT: i just looked at my DX80, and the one i have has a different driver cover, ( without those three openings showing the driver back.

DBSAR, google translate does a great job when reading that forum. If you have google chrome, just right click anywhere on the page and choose "translate to english".

For safety, it just make sense that the light is always off when unscrewing the battery pack. Maybe in newer versions, Imalent may take that into consideration and have some type of fail safe protection if unscrewed when the light is on for newbies. If you have a different driver cover, maybe its a newer and better driver too hopefully.

I did use Google translator after to read some of it. :slight_smile: He indicated he did unscrew the body when it was on. A bad idea in any light of that magnitude with high current & voltage. I even avoid that with smaller lights, ( except single cell 1.5 volt twisties i have.

If you have google chrome, you can also right click any page and choose "Translate to English" and will translate the whole page which makes it much easier to read a thread. I fully agree and that is why I started this thread in the first place. Now we know for sure it is a bad idea, especially with the power of the DX80. I've never done it on any of my lithium lights ever.

If i get the time i may do a amp load test (using a shunt-type amp meter with #10 gauge wires) to see how much the DX80 actually pulls from the battery pack on turbo after a full charge.

Different light, voltage and current, but it’s normal routine for something like a Convoy L6. The clicky switch does just that; it cuts off and connects power.
For a light like the DX80 there should simply be a design feature to handle manual cut off. Lot of electrical devices don’t like it when you just unplug the cord, but it is the same thing when you have a power outage. It’s not like your fridge or TV goes poof when the power comes back on. Manufacturers of course are aware of this, hence make sure it’s not a problem.

DBSAR, I'd be interested in those results. It's going to pull a lot of power for sure.

Especially when it puts out that amount of power. Another thing I noticed is that the holes in the side of the DX80 head exposes the heat sink as you can see it. Makes me wonder that it is not really waterproof and I did read somewhere, maybe even here at BLF, that someone dropped it in shallow water and it died.

I was tempted to try to take apart the head of my DX80 to see how the heat sinking is actually set up. I tried using a pair of magnifier glasses and a inspection light, and it is still difficult to see if the driver is exposed or not through those cooling fin openings.

I keep thinking that there are two big gaskets on each side of the huge heat sink; one on the led, and one on the driver side. If a gasket is misplaced, and sits not properly in its groove, then bye bye water resistance. I’m sure most of us have seen one of those Skyray King clones where part of the O ring is sticking out from the side of the lens.

I was also reading on the tashenlamp forum that the lens o-ring and foil melted on a DX80. Must have been too long in turbo I would think.

Not surprising. that number of XHP-70.2 LEDs driven as hard as they are in the DX80 is generating an immense amount of heat like a stove burner. I limit mine to maximum 10 to 15 seconds on turbo.

Manufacturers need to know max temperature of the light. Usually it’s around 50C to 70C. They need to use a material for the O ring or gasket that can easily handle something like 100C. Then you’re good. Of course if the light fails and max temperature exceeds, then the gasket can fail too.

10-15 seconds in turbo sounds about right after watching that youtube vid of the dx80 burning a paper lol

I've only read that once where the o-ring melted but you gotta think the owner may have been over enthusiastic showing off his turbo mode to all his family and friends. If I didn't start reading around here and doing searches, I could see myself firing off that turbo boost way longer than should be safe to impress the unsuspected

I found the DX80 is safer to run longer times at its lower modes no problems. Considering how large the Foursevens XM16 was with its massive heat sinking that had, ( and still got extremely hot after running for a minute at just 16000 lumens, the DX80 is tiny in comparison with twice the output. It only makes common sense to not run it for more than a few seconds at a time on turbo-mode because there is not not enough heat sinking metal possible in such a small light body to disperse that amount of heat at that lumens output safely for any amount of time.

Makes perfect sense. Eventually there is going to be a new generation of handheld flashlights that run way longer in turbo mode once they figure out a practical way of cooling them and then all our flashlights are going to feel somewhat ancient. I think liquid cooling and all that may not be so practical for the amount of energy it would need to run, but if they found a new type of alloy that could rapidly dissipate the heat, then whoever figures that out first is going to get a huge leap in sales.