[Review] Olight S1R Baton II

Olight clearly is still king in small 16340s. Although I still like the clean s mini design best.

Do you know the RSP?

I saw that Olight UK have it on sale for £109.95. It looks a good flashlight but when I can get an OTR M3 Pro for £15 it makes no sense.

Good review and I will be interested once I find a reasonably priced supplier.

rookiedaddy, thanks for your review!!
This is a quite nice light, indeed, and I guess there were some improvements, comparing with the S1R Baton I. I would emphasize that it only takes 1x double click to get to max output (S1R I was 2 x double clicks).

Am I right to say that this new cell won’t work on the S1R I? I don’t have mine currently, so I cannot check the design of the tailcap, but it seems that both battery and charger are “proprietary” to this flashlight, ain’t them?

Thanks for the review once again :wink:

(BTW, and just among us, a warmer emitter wouldn’t hurt anyone on this new version :smiley: :wink: )

Actually ignore that. Its £54.99 on the website. My bad.

Nice review. :slight_smile: love the knurling on the new model.

Thank you all for the kind words.

The US RSP is USD 64.99. At the moment, Olight US (OlightStore.com) and Olight UK (Olightstore.uk) is having a 25% discount for 1 piece and 30% discount for 2 pieces on the 28th September 2018. It's a time limited sales promotion.

You are right! The cell from this new S1R Baton II -- ORB-16C05-10C won't work in the older S1R. Likely due to the plastic disc surrounding the button is blocking the contact to the tailcap as there are no Voltage reading from the tailcap when using ORB-16C05-10C. and yeeeessss, a warmer emitter would be nice!

Thanks for the heads up.

Yes, totally agreed.

Thanks for confirming it :wink: Olight is good at creating new products, and new needs for those products. Some compatibility for this cell would be appreciated, to use it on the old S1R :stuck_out_tongue:

But I get their point! Thanks again for the review and…what a nice Olight family you got there :+1:

This thing with Olight continuing to introduce new proprietary batteries is becoming troubling.

I already have a bunch of their batteries with the negative ring around the positive terminal for some of their other tailcap charging lights (both 550 mAh ORB-163C05 and 650 mAh ORB-163C06 versions).

I see no caution statements in the S1R Baton II instruction scan about not using those batteries in this light so I wonder why a new bastard ring configuration 550 mAh battery is necessary. Is it a safety feature (shorting barrier?), a way to tie a higher current capable battery to this particular new turbo light, or are they just trying to tick people off?

I have a thing about not buying lights with proprietary battery packs any more, this is becoming almost as bad.

At least it looks like conventional 16340/RCR123A (or even USB charge port Olight 550 mAh ORBC-163C06) batteries can be used in this new S1R Baton II if one is willing to give up the convenience of in-light tailcap charging. Some rechargeables (like higher mAh rated ones) will behave like CR123A primaries and not allow full turbo output, but that’s always been the case with pocket rockets, one just has to use something that can provide more than a couple of Amps without too much sag (I’ve been having good luck with 2.4 Wh Nitecore RCR123A NL166s lately).

Thanks for the review great, interesting light but the 16340 suprised me :frowning: i thought it was gonna use 18650 finally… shame i feel the batons i have will have to do for now. I mean look at emisar its not that much bigger then smallest baton and it takes 18650. Olight need to start change this they cant release batons year after year and only use a small 550mah battery for a light that pushes 1000 lumens, its imo not really useful.

proprietary batteries can be a big turnoff for many, it shouldnt have to rely on those at all. Atleast it could take 18350 also like the astrolux s41 a little extra runtime would have been great.

But i like the knurling on it looks great.

Wow fast review. Did you check battery and light’s over discharge protection? Runtime on moon is a lot shorter than other similar lights.

Also, Olight is lagging in implementing proper thermal control, still relying on timers. Kind of outdated in late 2018.

due to my curiosity... I ran 2 more runtime test against the older S1R and S1R battery -- ORB-163C05 and I'm surprise by the results... I guess what I'm posting below may upset certain quarter... haha... anyway, here goes... first, I perform a runtime test using older S1R Baton to give a comparison of how the high mode on this new S1R Baton II stack against the older S1R Baton...


Looks like no surprises here, the lower output of S1R (2016) resulted in longer runtime for the battery.

and next, I use the older model ORB-163C05 battery (note this is a fresh new battery never used before to give a fair comparison) in the new S1R Baton II, and following is the results:

errr... so... hmmm... it looks like I need to stand corrected, now I'm not so sure about the improvement to the IMR battery... (question remains if the new ORB-16C05-10C is more durable? 10C discharge claim? or...), from the chart, you can clearly see that the older ORB-163C05 gives a bit longer runtime, ~4 minutes longer.

[quote=EDCba] Wow fast review. Did you check battery and light's over discharge protection? Runtime on moon is a lot shorter than other similar lights. [/quote]

yes, there is over discharge protection in S1R Baton II, the light will turn-off when the battery running out of juice.

When I saw that “knurling” I knew I was a goner, and put the time of the flash sale on my calendar.

I tend to only use my Batons as backups, for short periods of time (duh) , and turbo mode in short bursts, so I’m willing to put up with their short runtimes because I love the form/cute factor.

Some of my lights that I like the most also have some serious shortcomings, so this one might fit nicely into that group.

Thanks for the update rookiedday, you addressed some battery questions that were fermenting, without me having to ask.

As far as I know, ALL Olight RCR123As/16340 batteries have been protected, and/so prior Batons did not have low voltage cutoff built into the light. I’ve seen debate about the later on the intenets, but have never personally tested any of my Batons, just always used protected batteries (generally not a problem at these low current draws).

Outstanding review!

Thanks.

Is there a way to lose/destroy the magnet so i can hang the light to nu keychain without the light sticking to nu keys.

If you get a chance to check, I would be curious to know at what voltage the S1R v2 Built in OverDischarge Protection turns the light off?

.

True, those are Protected ICR chemistry (low drain, they wont give max lumens in the S1R)

the S1R lights use UNprotected IMR batteries (high drain, required for max lumens in the S1R models)
I do not recommend using S1R batteries in other Olight models that, as you said, have NO OverDischarge protection built into the light.

imo, the UNprotected IMR batteries are best used ONLY in the S1R not in other Olights that have no built in OverDischarge protection in the Light itself.

Note also that the latest S1R v2 battery cannot be charged on flat contact chargers… they are intended to be charged IN the S1R v2

I don’t think so. If I recall correctly, the S1R I used to have came with a protected Olight branded 2.0 Wh 550 mAh RCR123A ORB-163C05 battery with markings indicating it was for “HIGH DRAIN DEVICES” and “BUILT IN CIRCUIT BOARD PREVENTS OVER CHARGING, OVER DISCHARGING AND OVERDISCHARGE CURRENT”. Although I gave a couple of spares away with the light, I still have more because they’re also use in other Olights and I just checked their labels.

If my ex S1R had had some other Olight battery in it, I think I would have noted it at the time and ordered some of as spares, and I didn’t.

I do remember trying some unprotected AW cells (the red ones) in the S1R to see if the supplied Olight cells were current limiting the light, and the output bump was very slight, within the realm of statistical noise. Olight 650 mAh ORB-16306 batteries will definitely current limit an S1R and reduce output though.

Do you have an Olight part number off one of the unprotected IMR S1R batteries you referred to?

2018.09.24 Small Discharge Testing Update:

  • One significant runtime difference between S1R Baton (Turbo S) and S1R Baton II is S1R Baton (Turbo S) will switch off on ORB-163C05 Low Voltage (battery Over-discharge) Protection kicks-in, while the new S1R Baton II will turn itself off when ORB-16C05-10C is at ~2.4V (underload). In other words, this new S1R Baton II has battery Over-discharge Protection built-in.
  • When S1R Baton II battery Over-discharge protection kicks-in, the protection can be reset by connecting S1R Baton II to the MCC II. At ~3.5V, it will be reset as you can start the light back on.
  • The S1R Baton II battery Over-discharge Protection can be bypass (highly not recommended, unless you absolutely urgently need some lights) by loosening the body and tightening it back on, you should be able to get Low and possibly Medium Mode. However, note that the in-light Over-discharge Protection may not be activated as can be acknowledged via the non-functioning of the battery level indicator at the electronic side-switch.
  • If you go the bypass route, do take note that your battery, in this case, ORB-16C05-10C will be discharge as low as possible. I stop my discharge test when it reaches 1.8V underload to not risk further damaging the battery.

btw, just in case you are wondering, Olight has taken away the "feature" to light FIRE using steel wool in this new S1R Baton II. The exposed contacts at tailend has limited current, measured at ~2.4mA on my meter.

. -. -.. / --- ..-. / ..- .--. -.. .- - . ...

Hi jon, see my updates above for additional discharge information. Basically S1R Baton II built-in battery Over-discharge protection kicks-in at ~2.4V underload.

The older version of S1R depends on the ORB-163C05 battery's own LV protection. So that IMR battery is in fact a protected battery.

I was just wondering…this battery won’t even charge on the Olight UC Magnetic charger, will it? :expressionless:

I have no reason to doubt the S1R and S1r v2 use IMR batteries. The part numbers are posted by rookiedaddy in the first post…

a search of this thread for the keyword IMR, shows rookiedaddy used the term no less than 3 times, before I posted:

he goes into more detail further down:

Thanks for the details rookiedaddy
My prior reading of your posts left me to believe I should treat the IMR in the S1R v1 as unprotected

According to Olight, they are… well, somewhat. The specification table I received says that the Olight IMR battery has a max constant discharging current of 2.75A, and a protective discharging current of 5A. However, I would still treat them as unprotected regardless.[/QUOTE]

Maximum Discharge Current is not the same as OverDischarge Protection. So, now that Im totally confused about the use of the term Protected, I think I will simply avoid the S1R v1 and V2, so I dont have to deal with a unique, proprietary battery, that may or may not be protected, and may or may not be IMR, and may or may not be chargeable outside the light, which may or may not have built in OverDischarge Protection…

harrumph… Im taking my ball and going home to play by myself… LOL