UTorch SF01 price drop to $6.99

Not enough details to know about the UI or internals but as far as being able to use cr123a, AA and AAA batteries, the SF01 would appear to be a copy of the Streamlight Protact 1L-1AA, which does take cr123a and AA (and possibly AAA although with a little wiggle.)


Looks promising. If anyone buys this light, let me know what cells it works with and I will update.

The springs seem to be “big” to be shrunk, so maybe it can take all of the 3 types!
I assume that it would only be good for AAs or AAAs (in my case) as CR123s are expensive and it doesn’t seem to be compatible with Li-Ion’s :zipper_mouth_face:

Hi to all, i received my Utorch SF01 yesterday, and i’m being testing it.

I can confirm that it work with AA, AAA and CR123A. It’s a bit tricky to put in the AAA, you have to center it well to make electric contact but once closed i can shake it hard without any problem( a very stiff spring keep it in place).

The LED seem a cool white Cree XP-G2( in the manual title says CREE XR-G2, gearbest says XR-E, maybe a mix of XR-E with XP-G2 :smiley: ), I tried to unscrew the head but didn’t managed to, yet!

This flashlight really is a streamlight copy it even has the same TEN-TAP® Programming from streamlight:
three different operating programs:

  1. high/strobe/low 2) high only 3) low/high

Visually i only see the two differences from the PROTAC 1L-1AA, the knurling in the tail cap and having just 3 instead of 4 fins around the head.

Tail cap currents:
CR123A:
High 0.884 A
Low 0.335 A
AA:
High 1.41 A
Low 0.430 A

Some photos:
Utorch SF01 album

It’s cheaper now.

Has anyone said whether it has mode memory? (searching “mode memory” in the thread doesn’t find any info)

No memory mode, is momentary On(forward clicky), Programmable with 3 different programs: 1) high/strobe/low 2) high only 3) low/high.

Does it seem to be well made? I’m thinking of getting a couple of them to give away. I don’t want to give junk. :smiley:

ui seems to be high , low , or strobe

high may be 350 lumens [seems like that would last about 5 mins with cr123a]
they don;t say what low is

wle

You can program it like the TEN TAP from streamlight, they copy everything… for me high seem more like 300 lumen with cr123a, i test it last night with ceilingbounce app and i didn’t see any drop in the first 71 minutes i had only one cr123a home and i use it to measure tail cap currents before, and other tests so was not completly new.

Low seems like 60-70 lumen on cr123a
High on AA around 150 lumen
Low on AA arround 40 lumen

Good enough for the price but don’t expect miracles, threads are triangular not square, didn’t come lubed, lens not AR coated and reasonable SMO reflector. But LED seems a original cree xp-g2, good springs and switch.

Can 16340 or RCR123 be used?

Probably not, didn’t test it because the info i gather says i doesn’t work and i don’t wanna “blow it up” … other think is that i didn’t manage to open the head(meaning didn’t see the driver yet)

I’ve run for a while (minutes) on 16340 without issue. no smoke or LED discoloration. All modes work with brighter levels but can’t say about long-term usage,

Finally tested it with a 14500 and a 16340 they work and they are brighter I estimate around 450 lumen @ 1.32A(tail cap current). I tested it briefly I don’t know how it will handle the extra power and heat…

Thanks for trying them .

0K, so that Utorch SF01 @ GB can take CR123/16340s, AAA/10440s or AA/14500s. From the above comments I can infer it may use a boost/linear hybrid driver. However, does it implements some sort of low voltage warning or cut-off? Piece of shit cake AA/AAAs plus one run and dump CR123s specs cell support tells me it may not, which is a bummer. :|

For the above people sticking li-ions inside beware: boost/linear driver will continue boosting and discharging li-ion/LiFePO4 cells maybe without too much discernible change in output until voltage is down to harmfully low levels, for li-ion cells at least. This is the same crap which happens with shooting range meat cheapass SK68 flashlights. :-D

Cheers ^:)

Ok so why not use only protected batts if unsure what’ll it do and leave the batts with the job of protecting themselves regardless of whatever this driver attempts. Should I try it with a protected 14500 outside in the middle of a concrete pad in a steel bucket? :person_facepalming:

Then again, maybe this particular hybrid driver won’t do that to a protected lion batt. Unprotected IDK. Buy one yourself for $9.99 and report back to us! :slight_smile:

Rechargeable cr123 based cells are an issue because the button top protected ones are too long and the light won’t function without the tailcap loosened a couple turns. If you use a protected cell, use one that is equal in length to a standard store-bought cell.
I sold mine for a few bucks so I don’t have one to test thoroughly but the contact issue is what happened to me. When I swithched from a rcr123a to a regular 123a it worked fine.

Wait a second. Contact issue? If I can run a AA and the tail cap fully tightens then how come ya can’t run a shorter rechargeable cr123 cell? :student:

Also this light can’t work if the tail cap isn’t fully tightened to begin with. Btw I think you meant that the light won’t function WITH the tail cap loosened a couple turns. Which is true. Again, this light must be fully tightened for it to contact the tube and close the circuit anyway.

I sometimes cut a coil or two off tail cap springs if I think there’s excessive/unnecessary pressure on the neg batt anode. On this light if one plans to run AA length size batts it prolly wouldn’t hurt.

When using rcr123/16340/cr123 this flashlight has a fixed holder on the positive end, this holder is larger than the AA so you can push it down, so rechargeable protected cells witch are longer than cr123a may not fit. I test it with my only button top ORB1607 from my OTR U16 flashlight and it works, but this battery are not protected so i don’t recommend using it(this driver will keep draining the batteries, it’s not made for rechargeable li-ion), with my flat top 16340 don’t work(don’t make contact). Other option is using protected 14500, i’m running it with a soshine 14500 protected cell… one disadvantage of the 14500 or AA cells in this flashlight is to be a bit harder to screw the tail cap while pushing down hard at the same time.