Short Review of Sofirn SP33 v2 with XHP50.2

Okay, I tried many different switch led combos.

This one is the orange-ish red led. It’s an led I had laying around and it seemed to run fine at 4.2v with no resistor. It was not even that bright. It lasted about 15 minutes. I guess it burned up. It drew a crazy 144mA. Not 144uA like you might expect, but 1000 times higher! Basically 144,000uA. No good at all.

Next I tried a white smd led and a 8k resistor. It was too dim. I tried a 2k resistor (850uA drain) and it was still too dim.

I decided to switch to a blue led (950uA drain) as well as elevate it up to the switch button tube to increase the brightness. It’s not as bright as I’d like, but we are limited by this switch design. This will get the job done. :partying_face:

I didn’t notice before. There are two footprints for FETs?

Oh, but the boost-converter has the switch built in, so the FET (s) is for reverse polarity protection?

Thanks Jason , I have to try remove the driver first.

Here is a guide. The best way is to push the wires down and out of the way. Then take a small diameter rod and tap lightly on the negative side hole. The positive side hole does have a few nearby components, so you have to feel around to make sure and avoid them.

Set the head on a vice or something solid. Something that will not absorb the energy of the hammer taps. Then do very light taps. The driver has to slide out evenly due to the vertical board. I did a few light taps on one side and then switched over to the other side. I went back and forth until it seemed like the glue had snapped loose. Then I was able to pull the driver out by the spring. I had to both pull and wiggle. You can also push the driver with a rod as you’re pulling. Just be careful not to get it crooked or it will jam up.

Here is a close up of the upper right area.


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That helpfull thanks again any idea to slice the dome of 50.2 ?

I have no reason to slice.

Thanks Jason for the run time explanation. I will have to just give mine a try and see how it lasts. It’s just odd that the 26650 SP33 doesn’t outlast the 18650s by a good margin on paper at least at about the1000 lumen mode.

Great light . Had mine out in a snow storm last night. I’m a NW fan so it took some time to adjust to CW. Not bad though. My MyBoxer IR reading was 071m ohm with the Sofirn battery. It reads about half this for the Schockli 5500 but I don’t put much faith in these readings. The UI is different from my other lights but ok. The beam is what is best, for me anyway. It fills the yard with even light with a little throw. This the kind of light I keep ready on the table for quick looks outside and walks. This is my third 26650 light and I like them all. They feel good in the hand and the extra capacity is nice. Good job Sofirn.

:+1:
Thanks for the pictures!
Very helpful.

I tried yesterday, not by tapping but by pushing.
I applied heat too.
Didn’t work…
So apparently the glue has to ‘crack’ or the PCB has to be tapped loose from the glue or the head.
No problems on the left, but a little risky on the right…

When going to ML with long press, does this light turn on to the memorized mode (potentially destroying night vision) before it goes to ML like the C8F does? I can put up with a lot, but that might be one thing with which up I cannot put.

No.
Press and hold opens ML mode. Short press for off.
No other way to turn on ML, not possible to go to other modes from ML.

will dedoming the led give a tighter hotspot? even with the orange peel reflector? I asked sofirn to include a smooth reflector in my order. the old one was SMO so i hope i can just switch it out. Does anyone have the old and the new model?

Are you refering to the 18650 version C8F?

My 21700 version goes straight to moonlight.

Well, you can go from moonlight to turbo if you want.

Yes. A bit tighter hotspot for longer throw, but also a bit less brightness.

The OP texture is really light. I doubt you would see much difference going to SMO. I imagine the SMO will measure a bit higher lux, though.

DB Custom will have both v1 and v2 pretty soon. Comparing pics, the reflector hole at the bottom of the SMO looks similar to the OP so you may not need to drill it bigger. You never know, it might require some massaging to get it to fit over the xhp50.2

Yep, the 18650 version. It turns on as soon as the button is pressed and goes to the remembered mode, and only goes to ML after the button has been held down long enough to distinguish that it’s a hold. It drives me crazy. They should have just skipped the ML altogether on that light.

I guess you can cover the end of the light real quick whenever you need moonlight. A bit inconvenient.

The newer UI on the 21700 is definitely an improvement. I didn’t even bother buying the 18650 version because of it’s UI. I think it was one click on, press/hold for off. That really annoys me.

When you go to turbo from off yes a single click turns the light off but when you go into turbo from any other mode the first click returns to the previous mode and only then does the subsequent click power off. I agree that’s quite a bit annoying!

I actually like this feature. I’ll be walking along on Med for instance and might need to look further than normal so I activate Turbo, look around, then go back to Med to continue my walk. I wish NarsilM did that. Instead, it goes off and you have to click the light back on. So you go completely dark for a second.

Oh well, you can’t have it both ways. Lol

i agree, i like it too.
Similar to other lights i have, like DQG 26650.
The momentary turbo of the Concept 1 is great too.

So, i’m trying to find a good TIR optic for the Nichia 144A…
The 3 candidates that would fit in the SP33 don’t make me happy…
The 144A is one difficult LED to work with…
Maybe i should slice the dome off…
But i ordered some TIRs i hadn’t seen before.
Waiting… maybe 1 month, maybe even 2…

+1… I like that feature a lot. :+1: … To each his own though. :wink: