Short Review of Sofirn SP33 v2 with XHP50.2

This is a nice thread. I have not seen it before. There is a picture of the driver bottom with no retaining ring for those interested.

My pics won’t be up until late tonight.

Thanks Jason. :+1:
I might want to try a Nichia 144 and a TIR in there.

So Jason, how is the tint?
Ugly cool or acceptable white?

I can see in my pictures that there is an adhesive of some type around the driver.

It’s cooler than the C8F. I have both beams side by side. I like it and don’t plan to change it.

Okay, pics are added and I think post 1 is pretty complete. I still need to get the driver out, though.

Thanks Jason for the update. Sounds like a very nice light overall. Do you think high mode would overheat it if used for a long time? Does it step down from high?

I don’t know. I usually use it on Med for walking around and it doesn’t even get warm.

I’ll try High mode tonight and see what happens.

What are the screws under the MCPCB holding?

Do they hold the T-shaped driver/switch board in place?

Great review JasonWW! :-)

Lately, I took some beamshots outside at 3°C / 37°F and the SP33 didn't get substantially warmer than my hand, even after quite some runtime on turbo.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/47363/165

The tint shift is hardly noticeable when outside. You might recognize some yellowish tint on the edge of the spot, somehow identical to the SP32A V2 that uses the XP-L2. FWIW, the SP32A V2.0 heats up significantly on turbo while the SP33, being far more hefty, remains comfortable as a summer breeze.

For comparison:

Sofirn SP32A V2.0 (XP-L2)

Sofirn SP33 (XHP50.2)

Any idea on US availability?

They could be holding nothing and just prevent the MCPCB from rotating (and shearing the ledwires) when closing the bezel.

I noted those screws in another thread and wondered if they were doing retention duty for driver components.

Since then, I’ve removed and inspected them.

They are quite short, not long enough to retain anything on the other side of the MCPCB shelf, so they must be there to keep the MCPCB from rotating… or as conversation starters.

This is also what I think. They are just for anti rotation.

You can see in Dale’s thread where they don’t do anything as far as the driver is concerned.

I ran High mode continously for about 20 minutes walking around. It’s a slightly chilly 60°F and windy night. Heat was not even a concern and it didn’t step down. It was just barely warm. Should be fine.

If left in a hot room with no airflow it would surely get warmer, but even then I doubt it would get so hot that it would need to step down.

By this, do you mean buying it on Amazon US? I have not heard anything about it. Sorry.

Yes JasonWW, that's what I meant. Thanks.

Thanks for the review Jason, looks like a decent all around light. Will it fit the longer protected keeppower 26650 5200 as that's the only 26650's I have at the moment.

I think the sp33 ver.2 is referring to the current retail version with the xhp50.2.

There was an earlier version of the sp33 using the xp-l led.

I don’t have any protected 26650 anymore to try, but 21700 fits. The springs have a lot of height to them and can compress a lot.

So even though the protected KP 5200 is a poor choice for this light in my opinion, I think it would fit.

Obviously, you can also use an 18650 as well.

Did someone ask about this? I thought it was well known.

Why would it be a poor choice since turbo only uses 5.8A and the protected KP can sustain 12A?

I asked about ver.2 as I didn't follow anything about the SP33 at all until today!

That is such an old cell with poor chemistry and high internal resistance. You get a lot of voltage sag with it and boost drivers need as much voltage as possible.

The protection circuitry also adds resistance and reduces voltage.

What I’m refering to is mainly in reference to turbo run times. If you are only concerned about steady output on the lower levels, then it’s an okay battery for that.

I must have missed your question.

Here is DB Custom’s thread on the first version that uses the xp-l.

The thread transitions to the newer version.