Tracy said they tried 4 samples of their 21700 batteries and they got an average of 7,200 lumen!
I am asking if they had to modify the battery tops to make contact or not. Looking at the battery, the positive end is flush with the wrapper, but the negative end is a bit recessed. Maybe the spring pressure is enough to push them together? It is hard to say for sure.
If they can reliably make contact, they may offer their 21700 with the light instead of their 26650.
About the SMO reflector she said:
“The Smooth reflector gives a beam with multi circles and yellow or blue spot in the core. That’s really ugly, you won’t like it. I don’t want to be complained about the beam. And the reflector design is shallow, I told that the throw range won’t be as good as GT. One more question, why the extremely long throw range is that attractive?”
I’m explaining that long throw range is what we prefer even if it doesn’t look pretty on a white wall. I’m trying to get them to try adjusting the centering ring height.
Has anyone experienced a yellow or blue dot in the center of a 70.2? Or rings? This sounds a bit strange to me. I didn’t see any of that when I was adjusting my L6 reflector.
I did say at the start the reflector seems a bit short at 50mm in depth that may be an issue with the throw numbers being so low?
As for the dots and stuff its an issue with the flip chip design its seen on these newer Cree LEDs and is no worse to a XPL2 or XPG3? Maybe its more visible because of the bigger die size?
It’s probably a combination of that, plus being heavy OP, plus low output, plus not being focused just right. Even with all that, 550 meters sounds low.
If Sofirn wanted to make the reflector deeper, I think they can extend the light maybe 10mm-12mm here, then reshape the reflector.
This should not be too difficult and it doesn’t change the look of the light very much. I don’t know if they want to go through the trouble of that, though.
I think the reflector needs another 12mm of depth to equal the proportions of the L6/S70 reflector.
I xan’t see well from pics but if the centering ring edge is lower than reflector thickness at hole that can allow light to reach the hole inner side and it can make ugly artifacts. They shold make the centering ring inner edfe higher just a bit to ptotrude in the reflector. Not much just a very tiny bit.
From Sofirn “We tried to make the picture showing the blue spot in the middle of the beam and circles.”
Sofirn SP70 pic.
For comparison, here is my L6.
I think the rings in the corona are being exaggerated by the camera and disappear at longer distances. I would disregard those.
I would disregard any color temperature differences as that can be due to the camera.
I think if they adjust the reflector height they can get rid of that blue dot. My light has a slight yellow dot in the center, but it’s hard to see in the picture and not seen at all at normal distances.
Here is my L6 at distance.
I think Sofirn needs to adjust the reflector height and try it at longer distances.
That is truly just a focusing problem. I told them to sent me a proto and I can 3D print multiple centering ring thicknesses and measure all and choose the best but I think they want to go their way.
I think they may want to produce two versions. One with an OP reflector to sell to the world (for people who care more about a pretty beam and not so much about maximum throw) and one with an SMO reflector for a BLF group buy.
I can see their point of view about not releasing a potentially ugly beam. Even if it doesn’t affect the look at a distance (which this light is designed for) it could be tough on sales if their light becomes infamous for a lousy looking beam.
Hopefully focusing the emitter is possible and will solve the issue.
I think that’s exactly why. “Most” people test their lights indoor on a white wall and when they see those ugly artifacts, it will either be returns time or negative reviews.
I’m going with the masses on this one. Unless they can get a SMO highly polished thrower out of this I cant justify it over the many multi-emitter lights I already have.
*please do not revive the myth that the depth of the reflector affects the throw number in a significant way, it does not, never did, never will. Can you guys and Sofirn leave that theory out please, for sake of designing a proper flashlight. It is the area of the front opening that makes the throw, that area is very close to lineair with the kcd.
*as Zozz pointed out, that beamshot most likely shows a led that is not focussed in the reflector, no wonder that it is ugly. It worries me if the Sofirn engineers missed that, for my confidence in Sofirn I even hope it is something different.
*7500 lumen sounds pretty good to me, good output but the led is not squeezed to the max.
If this light can be somewhere between an Acebeam K60/K65 with a different battery tube/UI I think it would be successful. Both of those lights are 88-90mm head diameter and use xhp70/xhp70.2 dedome and throw between 700-1000M. I don’t expect Sofirn to dedome or otherwise compare to a light triple its price point. However, no frills + cheap FET driver is fine at this price point.
They may have simply used the centering ring from the S70 as I’m sure they have plenty in stock.
Even that particular centering ring I think is not very well optimized for the S70 because I see a donut pattern with the xhp70 even though the reflector is a heavy OP. The stock L6 had a similar reflector and emitter, but the hotspot was much nicer with no obvious donut pattern.
So they may need to make a new centering ring just for this light.
It depends on how it’s measured. I’m squeezing 17A out of both a 6500K and a 5700K 70.2 and only measuring 5300 lumen at turn on and 5100 lumen at 20 seconds. This is using the TA Lumen Tube calibrated with Maukka’s light.
So if Sofirn was measuring 7200 lumen using their 21700 battery it probably means their integrating sphere is calibrated to read higher than mine. Still, I doubt it’s much higher. It would be helpful to know how many amps it pulls at the tail.
Basically, their 21700 battery can pull some high amps, so it MAY be maxed out. I know 4 x 18650 can push the amps up higher to over 20A, but we are limited to 2 batteries.
You are right, I did not have the XHP70.2 numbers correct in my head, if they really got 7200lm OTF, the led must be driven close to 20A and is maxed out.
Don't these numbers also depend on the voltage you apply on the XHP70.2? So, with 12V instead of 6V you need only half that current to run the LED, right?
