FREEME ✌ ASTROLUX FT03S SFH55 9300lm & FT03 SFT40 2200lm 1300m NarsilM v1.3 USB-C - ALIVE

Your a lucky man! I am a bit jealous!!!

I ordered mine February 14, 2019 and it was shipped April 4, 2019. You only waited 1 week , I[like a lot of others] have waited almost 7 weeks!

In any event, enjoy it when you get it! :partying_face:

Even better is the fact that it usually only take 5-6 days to arrive.

Sorry missed this post.

I was running a shocklii 26650 when I ran it through the paces. I haven’t squeezed a 40t in there yet.

Also, if it’s relevant to the comment above, my sphere is maukka light calibrated and corrected for color temp (scaled multiplier based on CW and NW calibration lights).

No one lopped a dome off yet???

Member “TM07” POST # 1673

De-domed CW 1700L/367Kcd

Dome on 235kcd = 969 meters
Dome off 367kcd = 1211 meters

So it sounds like I’m not missing out by only having the 15A Keeppower 26650?

Which one is that?
If the 5200, then your missing out.
If the 6000, then your not missing out.

5200. Damn.

But in terms of amps, am I understanding correctly from everyone’s posts that >15 or 20A is just wasted? Have been having a tough time deciphering it all.

You’ve got to stop using the Continous Discharge Rate when talking about batteries. I think that’s what’s confusing you. That info is somewhat irrelevant.

Use HKJ’s comparator more often to see what batteries are high drain and what are not.

I happen to know certain batteries off the top of my head, especially the ones I own. The Keeppower 5200mah is an old design with high internal resistance and is prone to voltage sag at higher loads. The Keeppower 6000 is a newer design and performs much better.

Here is a direct comparison at 10A. (Note that the Shockli 5500 is the same exact same cell as the Keeppower 6000)


.

Okay, I think I understand now. I’ll take a look to see if I can get them locally.

I guess I could figure out 1 and 2 when I charge the battery but anyone could answer question 3?

BTW, I cleaned all the contact points with deoxit, progold for the all the gold plated points and for the brass retaining ring and the bare aluminum thread I used Flitz polish and then then some No Alox, and the light seems brighter, the retaining ring was dirty from the inside where it contacts the driver, so that is something you could do to improve the current flow to the led.

I might open up the head to change the wires and put some Artic Silver 5 under the led later on.

I support efforts to improve conductivity and efficiency, but there’s been discussion in this thread about whether we should be pushing this emitter much harder. In terms of actual emitter current, the bond wires blew at 9.4A in koef3’s CW test.

It’s not clear what portion of the tail current actually passes through the emitter in the FT03, but some folks, like yourself, are measuring over 9A at the tail. keof3 considered 7.4A emitter current a safe maximum and efficiency sweet spot; anything higher overheats the bond wires. This can be seen as a (slightly) steeper rise in Vf above 7500mA in keof3’s chart titled “LED TEST”.

At some point, the emitter becomes a hybrid LED/incandescent light source and this is a prelude to no light at all :wink: .

Keep in mind that Koef3 powers his led with a bench power supply so he doesn’t have the battery related voltage sag and driver losses that we do. Using a 30T might be dangerous, but it seems most cells are fine.

NW received yesterday :+1:

Hi Oweban

Please report back if you have success in sourcing the KP 6000mah 26650 in AUS, I'd say there will be a few of us eager to jump on

Don’t forget the Shockli 5500mah. It’s the same battery, different wrapper.

That’s also damn hard to find, it seems. There’s a bunch of Efest local, but so far no shockli or KP 6000.

I’ll keep digging, though - if I find anything, I’ll post in the AU deals thread.

9 amps is 9 amps, wherever it comes from that is what the led sees, the driver will not eat significant current if it does not funny things. Tom pointed out that the tail adds a bit resistance (from the spring only, there is no switch) so the current will be a bit less in use (but not while measuring current, which might actually be a risky operation), but I still have some doubts how these leds in the FT03 fare over time.

Your thinking Astrolux designed a borderline defective light?

Let’s try to build a database of the tail current measurement details. I went back to about page 52. Let me know if I missed anyone.

TM07 used a UT210E with a wire across the tail cap along with a Shockli 5500mah and got 9.15 amp.

ZozzV6 says he measure 8.5A, but I don’t know how he measured or with what battery.

Lfatman measured 5.8A with Blue Liitokala, but I’m not clear on how he measured it.

Kawiboy used a wire and a Fluke 36 clamp meter to test several batteries.
Golisi Gold 4300 26650 - 9.1A
Molicel P42A - 9.0A
Samsung 48G - 9.3A
Samsung 30T - 9.9A

Nkresho used a wire and UT210E on his NW.
Shockli 5500 26650 at 4.2v right off charger 8.62A
Sofirn 4000 21700 at 4.2v right off charger 9.01A
Samsung 40T at 4.2v right off charger 9.21A

(I think all the above will measure a bit lower amps with the tail cap in place. There may also be some slight accuracy issues with certain meters)

It’s possible Astrolux tested a lot of cells including the 30T and then made tweaks so the light will survive. Maybe tweaks with the led wire diameter and length combined with the particular FET they used to get just enough resistance to not burn out the emitter? I don’t think Astrolux wants to have a bad reputation or warranty issues for a light that certain batteries will kill.

No one has reported any deaths yet (even after using a 30T), so that is good news.

Maybe we should focus on using high capacity 21700 cells? 48G, 50E, etc…? Maybe the Keeppower 5200mah is not such a bad choice afterall?