Yeah, this is a light that gets really hot, really fast. Definitely limits its use on turbo, and gets painful hot in about 30 seconds. I measured 22uA / 94uA for the standby drains. I didn’t measure current on max (no clamp meter), but your number of 18.6A sounds about right considering how quickly it heats up.
If the XPG3 version runs cooler, it might give it longer run times.
My only real complaint is that it over-corrects when it steps down (gets quite dim), and never steps back up again after cooling off. But, it’s a budget light, so you can’t expect too much in terms of temperature controls.
Yeah, I intentionally updated the Narsil manuals way back to say thermal stepdown, and not thermal control.
I measured a 7% saving on my bezel mods. I used a fixed mode of the max single 7135 to compare/test with. This was my first rev:
After this I sanded the top down further, took a little more off the inner bezel, then gave the inner edge a bevel. It saved a little more to get up to 7%.
It’s definitely heavy for its size. That’s copper for you. I don’t have scales for accurate weighing, but it weighs about the same as the SP33 (including batteries).
Overall it’s not very efficient. The SP33 with a boost driver can get 2200 lumen at 6A while the S43S needs 18A to get 2000 lumen. That’s about 3 times the amperage for the same output. The SP33 is a much more practical general purpose light.
This flash gets so hot so quick that if it had a liquid cooling system it would need a second liquid cooling system to make sure the first liquid cooling system doesn’t boil off.
The Nichia 219C is a pretty small led. You have to push it hard to get decent output. The harder you push it the less efficient it becomes. More and more of the input power gets converted to heat rather than output.
Plus it seems the bezel is robbing output. I get and extra 500 lumen on turbo without the bezel.
Usually the people that prefer the Nichia usually know it’s not going to be as bright as the xpg2 and accept it. Your trading that extra output for the nicer tint.
It’s unfortunate that the bezel blocks off such a significant amount of output. Thanks for the info. 18A is alot of current. My multi-meter only measures up to 2A Do you have a link to the best method/equipment to take current measurements for flashlights?
1. Use a current shunt, like 10mOhms of 16AWG wire to know the specific voltage drop to calculate the current, on the tailcap. That’s my method, as I don’t need a current meter for now.
Yeah, but if you get 2000 lumens from four emitters, that’s only 500 lumens per emitter average. Even at 2600 lumens, it would only be 650 lumens per emitter. If it is using 18A to get there, that’s 4.5A per emitter, for an efficiency of less than 50 lumens per watt! That’s atrocious!
According to CREE PCT, the old XM-L in the LOWEST BIN, got an efficiency of 50.7 lumens per watt at 3 amps. So, this 219C is getting less than 50 lumens per watt at 4.5 amps, marginally better than the lowest bin XM-L of decades ago.
Well, I mean, the 219C has an efficiency of 69,6lm/W at 4,5A.
If you count the inefficiencies of the circuit, like the dual phosphor bronze springs having higher resistance than a single BeCu spring for some reason, and the less efficient optics, and thinner traces of the driver, no wonder the S43S is less efficient than even the Emisar D4.
Don’t forget the 219Cs in Astrolux’s tests may be lower binned than Intl Outdoors’ LEDs, and what not.
Just got my S43S NW today. My Texas_Ace lumen tube measured the same 1200 top of ramp, 2000 turbo using keeppower 18350 cells. Drains the cell really, really quick
I recommend everyone with this light to reset the temperature stepdown. In stock form it gets too hot then steps down to about 60 - 90 lumen. That’s no good.
I reset mine to step down a bit sooner. Now it acts much nicer and takes multiple small step downs over time.
I did a video. The 30Q was not fully charged due to a few turbo runs the day before so turbo output is a bit low.
35 seconds at Turbo
23 seconds at 550lm
23 seconds at 285lm
23 seconds at 130lm
Then steady at 87lm
I’m not sure I understand correctly, do you mean if the thermal temperature threshold is set lower, the stepdown will be in smaller steps? Though would step down faster when in Turbo mode?
I've been puzzled by these references in some reviews to the sudden fierce thermal regulation step down from turbo of the S43 and S43S. My S43S as out of the box unaltered (ordered early November, arrived about a week ago) has always stepped down in a sequence of steps like those you cite after lowering the thermal regulation temperature. The first step down from turbo varies quite a bit depending on the state of charge of the battery and which battery. I've seen a 43 sec minimum and a 110 sec maximum. After that the subsequent steps down always take place at regular intervals of around 23 seconds. It's the same behaviour whether I use a 30Q 18650 or an 18350, except that a fully charged 18350 can't reach the same initial turbo brightness or short time as the 30Q.
Do you have a link to the best method/equipment to take current measurements for flashlights?
