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

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.

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.

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.

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

Comparing two variations of the N219b 4500k 9080, the two Utorch lights on the right. The left light is a 2000k E21A

you can see one is more violet than the other… wait till you see what my iPhone sees when they are isolated:
(both are “identical” LEDs, this is normal variation)

now watch this (the light on the right in the photo that follows, is the middle light in the 3 beams shot above):

when I saw this next shot I was like, what?:

just goes to show how tricky beamshots can be, and how the tint colors change based on what else is in the picture… These pics were taken during the evening, the ambient light is a 3000k Incandescent.

Now lets look at 3 different N219b 4500k 9080 leds, the following photos taken during daylight hours, which implies the camera white balance is different than the pics in the post above

the 3 4500k LEDs, from left to right in pic above,
comparing to a 2000k E21A, the light on left:

comparing to a 2000k E21A, the light in middle:

comparing to a 2000k E21A, the light on right:

how about them Violets!:slight_smile:

Wow you put a lot of effort into doing this comparison! Thanks for sharing!

thank you for very much for taking the time to post kind words
it means a lot to me

New unreliability update for the Utorch S1 Mini
the red light charge indicator stopped working on the provided 16340,

however the battery is still charging even when the red light is off…

about 5 minutes later the red light started working again:

Im waiting to see if the green light still works…

fwiw, this Utorch S1 Mini with N219b 4500k 9080, continues to have intermittent failure to access Turbo. I usually fix it by removing the lens and sliding the board around. But lately I have been testing simply pressing harder on the lens, with my finger, and that seems to help it find Turbo again.

Utorch S1 Mini are still on sale at gearbest for under $20, but I honestly cannot recommend them, due to the grounding unreliability.

I hope to try a Klarus Mi1c with Aspheric lens next. Hopefully none of the grounding problems will be present in that assembly.

Im still loving the Aspheric Lens.

The Utorch that Clemence put the 2000k E21A into is my favorite, and there is No reliability problem, because he completely disassembled the light, and soldered the loose ground wire to the pill housing, And replaced the board with a hand lapped board of his own, that makes better contact on the grounding shelf.

The weak link in the Utorch design is still that the LED board is only held down by the pressure of the bezel via the plastic centering ring, not screwed in place. But, so far Clemences E21A mod has had zero failures to cycle through turbo.

Im loving the Orange Ball of Balinese Sunfire that Clemence stuffed into this Utorch. He went miles beyond the call of duty and basically redesigned the Utorch grounding pathway… the man deserves a medal, for taking on my mod project.

oh
the green light just came on:


charging still works, it stopped at 4.14 v…

does anybody want to sell me a Klarus Mi1c Aluminum?:slight_smile:

You can glue the mcpcb with Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive.
look here

thanks for the suggestion joechina… I have never tried doing a mod myself… will keep it in mind if I ask a modder to work on another Utorch S1 Mini for me.

Jon, there is a successful mod of the S1 mini.

Have you seen it?

Also a few Flickr fotos are missing on the first page. They changed the free accounts. Can you read them?

I searched for a lee filter book (I need two)
And found this “decent” offer

is this a bigger size?
24,5cm x 13,5cm x 6,5 cm

wow, thats an awesome mod, no had not seen it, thanks!

Flickr changed their rules (no suprise)
I had to delete photos in excess of 1000, or pay for an account

I chose to delete the excess, and got a new account… at imgur

if there is an image you need, googling the text in the post can find it with google image views (they store their own copies)

let me know if you need help finding something

.

I dont know the answer to your question, this is the Lee Filters I have bought
https://shop.leefiltersusa.com/Swatch-Book-Designers-Edition-SWB.htm

but, Lee Filters are mostly just a novelty item for me, I dont take them too seriously, since on brighter lights, they deform… if I was serious, I would use their Zircon line that is heat resistant:

The 802 Zircon Minus Green reduces lumens by 25, that would be closest to the 1/2 minus Green, that reduces by 28

Lee 248 Half minus green: 71.5%
Zircon 802: 75%

Zircon 803: 79.9% (this is the filter I like for 219c LEDs)
Lee 249 -Quarter minus green : 81.5%

Zircon 804: 83.6%

Zircon 805: 86.6%
Lee 279 -Eighth minus green : 87.2%

.

I dont like N219c because the tint is above the BBL, imo Lee filters help there, but they lower the brightness as much as a swap to N219b…

Im starting to hear, and see some nice photos, of other options, like the 5000k samsung in the S1 Mini mod you linked…
pics are links to maukkas measurements

That LH351D is a huge improvement in R9 CRI (Red Bar)
”:Samsung LH351D color testing

compared to the stock Low CRI XM-L in the S1 Mini Cool White:

the LH351D also has higher R9 CRI than the stock XP-G3 LED in the S1 Mini High CRI:

that XP-G3 LED has very green tint, and the R9 values are similar to a Zebra High CRI

for reference here is an N219b 4000k 9050

.

here is another LED I have not tried yet, the SST-20… it looks pretty good

.

what lights and LEDs are you thinking of using the Lee Filters for?

I have a LH351D (4000K) in my Utorch S1 mini.
Works very well.
Vf is not as low as Nichia. (but not as high as XP-L either)
I also have a TIR optic in it, but the beam turned out a little narrower than i hoped.

Only one light, for the Olight S1 mini Baton HCRI.

Mine has a green corona, without it could be a perfect light.

Emisar offers his lights D4 and D4S with a 95CRI SST20 in 3000K and 4000K and if you ask you can get 2x3000K and 2x4000K in one light.

How did you get the lamp apart?

My Olight S1 Mini HCRI also has green corona… I dreamed about an N219b 4500k 9080, but instead gave the light to one of my kids, and got the LED put into an RRT-01 that Im in love with now. That LED makes any flashlight better…

fwiw, the Utorch S1 Mini bezel unscrews, its much easier than the Olight S1 Mini. And I LOVE my Utorch S1 Mini Aspheric beam, with an N219b 4500k 9080 mod.

.

I look forward to you getting an LED you like, into your Olight S1 Mini HCRI.

Jon, I doubt you will like the lh351d. For me I hate it as much as the 219c or even more. It is very greenish when compared to Cree A And D tint or E21A amd 219b 9080. You want an emitter with negative DUV. The Lh351D is positive duv.

TA is testing something very special which should look as good or better than the 219b 9080 but with better efficiency. We should have more options soon.

Thank You!

> You want an emitter with negative DUV

I had not learned to interpret below bbl via negative DUV… super helpful that you helped make me aware of that spec… until now I found it beyond my comprehension…