Olight S1 Mini High CRI and Utorch S1 Mini NW, now w N219b and E21A

LED Flashlights – General Info CR123A Flashlights
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Yes, Clemence has been nothing but a joy to work with. The Utorch not so much. Now Im thinking of trying a Klarus Mi1c, still aspheric. Reports from djozz indicate the Klarus runtime on Medium (6.5 hours stock) drops 23, to 5 hours with an E21A, but that still beats the runtime of the Utorch (3.25 hours stock), w quad E21A, that drops 38, to 2 hours. The reason the Klarus runs longer is because it is at a lower brightness. The reason the runtime drops is that the drivers increase current when presented with lower Vf than the stock XPL. I think…

The Utorch has a 100 lumen medium, and the Klarus has a 45 lumen medium, in stock form. The Utorch drops to 39 lumens w a quad e21A, (thats a 61% drop), while the Klarus drops to 30 lumens w a single E21A (a 33% drop).

The Klarus also has a better pocket clip, as far as bezel up carry, that I value for HatLamp Use…

stay tuned for the adventures of HighR9 in the land of Luminosity, not to be confused with LuciFerocity, in the UnderWorld.

Meanwhile I continue to carry the sw45 N219b modded Utorch, thanks to Texas Ace. Love the LED.
And if you cant be, with the LED you Love, Love the one youre with!

Got Mods will Travel.

this post needs more photos… here are some of the LED swaps being discussed, Im particularly attracted to the options with high R9:

less interested in the Lower R9 variants

And for a single EDC selection, my vote goes to the now extinct in the wild sw45

bottom line is that for the Utorch and Klarus lights, changing to E21A reduces runtime, while changing to N219b does not.

59

I had the same problem:

The lamp turned only on in dim mode.
(An hour before I had it tailstand on high an it started flickering, so I charged it)

I opened the lense and turned away the LED-board from the screw an it works now normal.

It was shortened. The day before kids used it constantly on high. I assume the board can start to shift with heat.

60

Thanks for sharing your experience joechina

I also had dim mode only, after using High mode, even on a fully charged battery.

imo the actual source of the problem is this screw (covered in solder), that is attached to the white wire (not the end we see on the LED board, but the other end), which is a ground:

To access it requires removing the LED board

Here is a similar screw next to the white wire, on the Mi1c, but it is accessible without disassembly because the LED board is cut away to reveal it.

Clemence told me the screw at the bottom end of the white wire, on a Utorch I sent him to swap LED, was very loose. imo when you and I have “fixed” the problem, by sliding the LED board around, we are jiggling the screw in a way that makes better contact, temporarily. My hunch is that the poor contact makes the light unable to move enough power to run high mode, and causes it to step down to moonlight. Just a guess.

My Utorch modded to SW45 9080 has been reliable since Texas Ace did something to anchor the white wire to the LED board with sugru, though that did not actually address the loose screw under the board, it seems to have stabilized the connection. He also mentioned that it seemed like the white wire may have been “shorting to the LED board”.

Due to this Assembly flaw (loose grounding screw), I am not recommending buying any more Utorch S1 Mini. I recommend the Klarus Mi1C instead. I like the lower moon level (0.2 lm) on the Utorch, better than the 1 lm moon on Klarus, but not the unreliability of the Utorch. I like the lower Medium mode on the Klarus 45 lumens (6.5 hours runtime), instead of 100 lumens on the Utorch (3.25 hour runtime). The Klarus has not had reports of failure like you and I have experienced with our Utorch.

61

We are screwed!
Twisting the board was not enough!
I still have flickering on high and on a second opening the screw does wiggle.

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this is how Clemence solved the problem, he got rid of the screw and with his mastery of soldering, he got a blob to stick to the aluminum ring around the driver. It required complete disassembly, which includes removing the switch…

63

Update from Paradise
single E21A 2000k in a Utorch S1 Mini

you can buy the board here

and the LED here

and keep your eye on this link, if you want an N219b 9080

a little bird told me that the final batch have shipped to Bali, coming soon to a modder near you

and, let me give a plug for Clemence, the man has skills, contact him for modded Armytek lights, here is his store:

64

Wow, great thread! The UTorch tint is so much improved! I really like the look and features of that light, not so much the original yellow color. Love all of the examples you’ve provided with the different lights and their color representation.

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Yes, the stock NW Utorch tint looked awful on white paper, but it worked very well even in stock form

fwiw, they are on sale atm for $20
I am resisting buying more

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You don’t say? Do you have a link, I couldn’t find one for that price.

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cool white 19.99, NW 23.99
https://www.gearbest.com/utorch-s1-mini-\_gear/

68

Oh Jeez…. Nope, nope, nope I have two versions of the olight mini s and Imma be strong and ONLY buy the maratac brass AAA! That’ll total six aaa’s inside of a month. Stupid freaking flashlight rabbit hole.

69

It could be worse…
I dreamed replacing a nano Sim card in your phone was a model for emitters in flashlights.
Imagine having to buy all your favorite lights again to swap around your collection of little 9080 E21A chips….or whatever.

70

You’re right, it could be worse! :slight_smile: Thanks!

71

Lol
Dont buy a Utorch S1 Mini, they have a problem with a loose ground wire
I have not heard of that issue w the Klarus model, which also has a more reasonable medium mode, that lasts twice as long

or, wait a bit, and I might have an S1 Mini for sale… it has been on Vacation in Bali for the past 2 months, should be home soon… I has had a 9080 LED swap, and the ground wire has been repaired, so it wont be 19.99… start saving your pennies…

brilliant!
I could see Clemence coming out with a whole new line of preloaded Chip products, maybe they could be made to fit my iPhone… with ramping brightness using the volume buttons… LOL

72

[quote=jon_slider]

Thanks for the info about the groundwire. I pretty much fell in love with the massdrop Tool over the last few days, so I have the brass version as well as the regular copper with 219b coming. No more lights till next month! Maybe she’ll be back from vaca by then. OMG I wish I’d never found this forum. :slight_smile:

73

Just a heads up that the Utorch S1 Mini is on sale for 20 bucks… if I did not have 3 already, I would buy more.

Thanks to the aspheric lens, I think it is a really fun novelty light, for the price, even if I have to jiggle the white wire once in a while. It is a really fun beam for a close range indoor light and has one of the nicest, lowest moonmodes Ive tried…

I dont love the UI or the CRI, but then, no light is perfect, at least it has no PWM… :wink:

74

Thanks for the heads up. Too bad the UI kills it for me. Wish it was click for on/off and goes from Low to High instead of High to Low.

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I also wish the UI was like Olight, but Olight is not Nichia moddable.

fwiw, the mode sequence is Low to High, not High to Low…

the light clicks on to last mode used, then each click advances to the next higher level, low, med, high, low, med, high.

there is also hold for moonlight from off. moonlight btw is not memorized, so if moon was last mode used when the light is turned off, by holding the switch, not clicking, then the next click from off will give Low.

It is indeed a cheap Novelty light. Dont expect too much for $20. otoh, if you have never tried an aspheric lens, and even though it is plastic instead of Sapphire, you can get some idea what owners of the McGizmo Sundrop are enjoying, in terms of a smooth wide flood beam. No conventional reflector light has a beam anything like an aspheric. Neither is better, both is fun.

76

I just received 2 modded Utorch from Bali.
Clemence did an amazing job of LED swapping and lens frosting. The light on the right is a Rose Gold Olight S Mini for reference.

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Check out the beauty of the beam Clemence created by frosting the lens on the Utorch S1 Mini.

sw45 w frosted lens (edges of beam are a smoothly diffused gradient, more like a McGizmo Mule):

contrast the beam from the stock aspheric, here with the 2000k E21A (edge of the beam is a sharp cutoff, more like a McGizmo Sundrop)

I like choices, both lens styles are good for different things. I prefer the sharp cutoff when the light is stationary, because I use it to illuminate things on a table in front of me at arms reach. otoh, the diffused beam is better when moving, creates less tunnel vision effect because the increase of brighness is gradual from edge to center.

Aspherics are a very unique type of beam, the outer perimeter is stronger than the middle, but the beam is very even accross the middle 90% of the beam. With the diffused beam, the edges are slightly less bright than the center. With a conventional reflector the edge is also less bright than the hotspot, but the differences are much less gradual…

Hotspots are good for situations where we want the beam to reach out for some distance, without spilling too much light into the foreground. An aspheric is exactly the opposite. It will light an object in my hands, in the center of my field of vision, better than it will light things further away, so an aspheric is basically useless for walking the dog, but fantastic imho, for a worklight.

Notice:
I caution people to be aware that Utorch S1 Mini have a reliability issue regarding the white wire. I cannot unconditionally recommend the light itself. otoh, I would buy Clemences LEDs again, and again, they are just awesome!

clear lens so I can see the gorgeous E21a, frosted lenses on a pair of SW45 9080

look closely at the two sw45, there is tint variation, the one on the right is more pink (relatively speaking)

left beam clear lens, middle beam frosted sw45 that is the middle light in the pic above (iow, the middle light looks less pink in the shot above, but still looks plenty pink in the shot below… tint looks different depending on the tint of other lights in the photo. Imo the tint of the middle light above, is more realistic. While I like the pink in Nichias, the SW45 on the right above is a bit excessive… really splitting snob hairs here… ignore if you dont understand