[PART 2] Official BLF GT Group Buy thread. Closed, but Public sales open!

They are 2 seperate companies.

You have not been following its development on BLF these last few months? We talked about it here a long time ago.

It’s not a direct copy. It’s basically a bigger reflector version of the Astrolux MF02 or Mateminco MT35. They started working on it way back when they saw the interest grow during the GT development. It’s running a more basic UI that does 2.5A, but can not do 2A like the GT. So it doesn’t have that longer run time the GT has or the other cool UI stuff you get with NarsilM.

Chinese light makers are always copying and cloning each other. It is what it is.

A driver is what regulates the power between the battery and LED. Electrical current (amperage) is what controls the brightness.

A buck driver is a type of driver that takes a higher voltage and regulates it down to a lower voltage. This is the design in the GT.

Vf stands for Forward Voltage. In this case, we are talking about an led. This one is complicated. I’ll skip it.

GA is the name Panasonic/Sanyo gave to one of their battery models, the NCR18650GA. We tend to say GA for short. Or Panny GA. The Panasonic NCR18650B is called the Panny B for short, etc… The full name is too long to write.

Regulation has to do with the Buck driver design. If you feed it with enough voltage above a certain point, 14.8v in this case, it will maintain a steady output current. 4 fully charged 18650 in series (4.2v each) delivers 16.8 volts. As power is used up from the battery the voltage will also start to drop. Also, as you put a load on the batteries the voltage will sag down a little. Some battery chemistries tend to sag a lot, some a little. The added protection circuitry also tends to add resistance which can cause the voltage to drop more than if it were unprotected. So as long as the driver receives 14.8 volts or above, it can deliver the full 2.5A output to the emitter. This is called regulated output.

Once the driver voltage gets below 14.8v, then the 2.5A starts to drop. So the steady brightness level will start to taper off.

There’s a lot more to it, but that is the basics.

I think you are wrong in lumping together all protected cells. You can’t really do that as the basic cell under the wrapper can have different characteristics. Plus the particular protection circuitry, which is added by a third party, can also very quite a bit.

As you can see here, the added protection circuitry definitely causes an added voltage drop on a 3A load.

The bigger thing to notice is that even without the protection circuitry, the Panny B just seems to have a lot more voltage sag under load compared to the Sanyo GA (and LG MJ1).

In the case of ChibiM, he got a triple whammy. Panny B cells, protection circuitry and only one carrier. The voltage to the driver probably dropped to under 14.8v within seconds of turning on Turbo, hence the reduced output.

When he used both carriers, reducing the load by half, it will take a bit longer before it drops out of regulation. 5 mins? 10 mins? Hard to say.

So I think we all learned something here. If you want to use a protected cell on the GT, you can. Just don’t use the Panny B, use the Sanyo GA or LG MJ1 as they have much less voltage sag. These two will allow the GT to stay in regulation much longer than the Panny B.

If you want the longest run time at the highest levels, then it’s best to use an unprotected cell. (not Panny B, though)

Post 101 here shows how the GT performs with four batteries only. 30Q and KD 3500 protected batteries were used in the comparison.

I try to follow along but I would do nothing but read this thread to keep up 100%, Sorry if my post was out of place.

Too bad Astrolux loves to over spec their flashlight. That is another HUGE difference between Astrolux MF04 and Lumintop BLF GT. I don’t side with any manufacturer, fact is fact and it hurts. Not sure Lumintop had over spec their previous products or not, but this BLF GT was properly designed, tested and reviewed before releasing to buyer. Astrolux should do that by sending out review samples.

Nah. I understand.

I tend to follow threads for lights I don’t even plan to buy. Lol

We didn’t talk very much about it in the GT thread because it’s sort of a competitor and it would be considered rude towards Lumintop to discuss it here. That’s all. There are plenty of discussions about it on other blf threads.

I was meaning to ask you, I don’t know what KD 3500 batteries are. Are those the Sanyo GA’s?

Heres the info on them.

http://www.kaidomain.com/p/S024244.KDLIGHT-KB3500mAh-3_6V-3500mAh-Rechargeable-Li-ion-18650-Battery-with-PCB

http://www.kaidomain.com/review/NCR18650GA-reviewpage.htm

That’s what I thought. They are GA’s. :+1:

Well I really like my GT and am glad I got it. I guess I was just surprised to see a copy so fast. I’ll have to check out the other threads on it, just out of curiosity. I’m usually on the knife forums :slight_smile:

On the latest MF02 the current was set to 2.7A, personally I prefer to set it down to 2.4-2.5A by a resistor mod. The modes are 15-35-1700-2700. On the 1700 mode the runtime will be longer and the range should be pretty good, the same or greater than on a GT on the 2A mode. The only drawback on the MF02 is the quality of the reflector which has a little op surface like so I suppose that the MF04 will be the same.

I don’t see how “1700 lumen” on the MF02 would be as bright as the GT at 2A. From 2.5A to 2A you only loose maybe 200-250 lumen. For Astrolux to say it is a 1000 lumen drop, the amp range is probably about 1.2A to 1.3A maybe? Definitely less than 2A. Has anyone measured all the brightness levels on the latest MF02?

BTW, Banggood still shows the MF02 Turbo to be 3000 lumen. The MF04 is showing 2700 lumen.

We are just being nit picky, I think. People can buy what they want. :beer:

Range and brightness are two different things.
MF04 has a bigger reflector so RANGE could be the same.
I ordered one so I will tell You more when I get it.
I’m curious did LT/ Neal send lost orders.

Hello,

I am on the list at number 1653 for a second light, but have not received a PM. Jason or someone else, could you check on this for me? Thank you!

PM sent.

I really considered also getting the MF04 am pretty sure I’m deciding against it. I have a GT and another one on the way, so that’s part of it. But mostly it comes down to UI. Had the MF04 something more to offer than just a different tint and slightly larger reflector as well as Narsil, it would have been a no-brainer. I’m thinking something like an ultra-throw Oslon or Luminous ver. I have a MF01 and I much prefer the Q8 and GT ramping. I actually really like the full on and release off on the GT. That is impossible with the UI of the MF04 since the best you can do is a double click turbo and hold to turn off. That plus it’s the imitation of the project started here on BLF and I like to support the real deal. Additionally, anybody that has followed the GT from the beginning knows how much scrutiny to details was done with this light in the design process and prototype testing. Not sure about that with the other light.

Is some of this copying supply chain related also? So like the reflector design ends up basically the same other than maybe slightly less spendy final maching/finishing regimes or something for some slightly lower grade that like Astrolux will buy….but like Astrolux copying maybe helps the eventual supply cost of the Lumitops by amortizing some of the heavier or prone to needing replaced a lot tooling? It seems things can get so cheap for what you would think is a bit of an oddball part over there, that a lot of crafty agreements maybe exist where the supplier almost demands that they be allowed to sell similar part to the copiers just to help ensure they can build at the volume needed to offer the prices they offer.

Lexer is selling driver for MF02 with Narsil soft so ramping in MF04 od quite possible.