Texas_Ace BLF Calibrated Lumen tube / Sphere No math skills needed - Several spheres still available

To be honest I am impressed and quite happy with the consistency, that proves the concept is solid, it just needs proper calibration. Thus far is appears that my +/-5% goal is holding up to the real world.

Now I just need to get the calibration right.

I don’t know what skylumen use… i am going to retest more lights again with the fully charged 18650/26650.,

Probably acebeam L16, lumintop odf30, thrunite tc20, fenix tk35ue, blf gt, and fenix tk15. I will try to use manufacture cells. So that’s way it is fair…,

Are the “TA Lumens” you post here from the TA Lumen Tube exactly as you received it? No correction factor or additional plastic or wax paper over the sensor??

If so…. it seems to raise more questions as to any applicable possible correction factor and/or the accuracy of the stated lumens of the lights mentioned by their makers or modders.

Why are your measurements so low? Are you using a correction factor, if so, what number?

For you to get around 5000 lumen, your TA tube would need to be reading about 6750 lumen. Is that what your getting?

I don’t recall anyone saying this, much less two or more. Did I miss something? I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if this was said.

I think I do understand what you are saying / trying to say, Ozythemandias. :+1: BUT, it does appear the the tubes are calibrated very closely with each other. It just seems, at this point; they were not calibrated with lights of true known values. They were calibrated with lights of assumed lumen values… :frowning:

BUT…… The upside is, as TA stated; once he gets a light or lights of true known lumen output & figures out a true correction factor based on these lights…… it should be very easy for us to calibrate all of our tubes accordingly. :+1:

I have no doubt TA will accomplish this. Stuff happens & this is but a bump in the road I think…… :slight_smile:

I totally agree Ozythemandias…… until there is a conversion factor worked out with lights of a known accurate lumen output, this is all a crap shoot not based on reality. :wink:

@ JasonWW……… That is a very interesting & informative video you posted about Integrated Spheres!! Thank you for sharing that……. :+1:

I wonder if that is similar to what Maukka has???

I am envious………. :smiley: . :smiley:

I have a few lights and drop-in’s from Randy Brogden @PFlexPro with the test sheets. https://www.pflexpro.com/Flashlight-Real-lumen-output-s/1839.htm

Excellent…. looks to me info like this would be very valuable information. :slight_smile:

Personally…… I have no lights that are verifiable. :frowning:

With or without the plastic bag mod? Or were these results mathematically corrected?

Since results are being posted with and without correction methods, I think it can be a bit confusing here if results are posted without stating one or the other.

I mentioned many times. The only thing I did was put one layer of grocery plastic on the light meter sensor. That’s all.

I know nothing… all I did was put one plastic and tape it to secure the meter… I fully charged the battery and turn on the light and get the reading @ 30 seconds…

OK great……thank’s for clarifying that, unless noted otherwise; all of your posted results will be of your particular plastic bag ’fix’ to your TA Tube. This is important……

So that means your results are a corrected measurement you came up with to correct your tube to lights you either know, or assume to know; their tested or advertised lumen rating…
BUT… not a measurement from the TA Tube as you received it.

Interesting stuff I'm learning. Anyone else besides HDS Systems and pflexpro that calibrated each light they sell? pflexpro offers tested lights for as little as $60 (modified Convoy S2+). From what I see on their website, they don't necessarily fine-tune the output, but instead give you a sheet telling you what the output measured on their integrating sphere.

So far even if the tubes aren’t accurate, they are calibrated consistently and very easy to use. There simply isn’t another similar premade product available under a few thousand dollars that can allow us to so easily measure lumens like this can. So even if I knew from the start, it wasn’t going to be accurate but at least consistent, I would still buy it and calibrate it myself because I’m not going to go through the trouble to research and build my own. It is normal for retail products to not be perfect upon initial release regardless of whether it is a Chinese flashlight company or a premium American brand. Even Apple/Android/Microsoft/Tesla/Sony have to constantly release updates/patches to fix bugs after the initial release as problems are discovered.

I know TA tried his very best in this endeavor and given his reputation here, I’m sure he will come up with a good simple solution given some time.

I have two S2+ 219b triples from PflexPro that came with lumen graphs. But I swapped the optics so I’ll have to change it back to test it. Will post results at a later date.

Blf gt
Factory. 2500 lumen
TA. 1990 lumen

Acebeam L16
Factory. 2000 lumen
TA. 2040 lumen

Lumintop odf30
Factory. 3500 lumen
TA. 3540 lumen

Thrunite TC20
Factory. 3800 lumen
TA. 3210 lumen

Fenix tk35ue
Factory. 3200 lumen
TA. 4290 lumen

Fenix tk15
Factory. 1000 lumen
TA. 1249 lumen

Foursevens mmx
Factory. 950 lumen
TA. 931 lumen

Foursevens mmu-x3
Factory. 1600 lumen
TA. 2470 lumen.

MT09r xhp35 hi cw @30 seconds… 6300 lumen

Mt07s single xhp70.2 5700k… @30 seconds. 8320 lumen

Got my tube earlier this week, finally got a chance to play around and take some readings with a few lights, here's my data:

Model

Mfg.spec.

Review spec.

TA tube @ 30 seconds

Deli paper 1 sheet

Deli paper 2 sheets

Eagtac D25C2 XP-G2

530 (ANSI)

na

625

519

435

Eagtac MX25L3 MTG2

2375 (ANSI)

na

3350

2740

2360

Jetbeam E20R

990 (ANSI)

na

1290

1060

895

Nitecore HC30 (NW)

1000 (ANSI)

na

1453

1165

995

Jaxman E2L 3*Nichia

720

na

895

731

629

Sofirn C8F v2

2580

2756 (30 sec)

3340

2860

2510

ThruNite TC20 (NW)

3800

3560 (30 sec)

4240

3470

2960

BLF Q8

5000

5624 (30 sec)

6950

5730

4910

Convoy C8 7135*8 (XPL-HI V2-1A)

na

na

1148

968

786

The first thing I did was swap out the included batteries in the Lux Meter with a pair of fresh Duracell Alkaline OEM.

My tube also appears to be reading higher. For the DIY re-calibration mod I took readings with different plastic bags and sheets of deli paper, the readings progressively decreasing...

Walmart bag
Shop n Save bag
Deli paper 1 sheet
Deli paper 2 sheets

The Deli paper is the kind they have in convenience stores to handle self serve donuts, also what they use to wrap cheese in the deli.

The lower readings with the Deli papers were more in line with the factory specs and review testing than the plastic bags, the correct calibration is probably somewhere between 1 and 2 sheets (closer to 2 sheets for most lights).

Overall I very happy with this lumen tube, It's lots of fun and it's great to have a tool like this, finally I have something to take measurements and compare lights!

The calibration discrepancy doesn't bother me a bit, I'm confidant TA will eventually come up with a solution for that, so in the end we will have exactly what we paid for, and I'm sure it's already worth what we paid as it is. Thanks TA!

Nice work beam0. Very detailed & easy to understand. The detailed chart makes it easy to do comparisons & see what is going on with the stock TA Tube as well as when different levels of correction materials are used. :+1: