TK's Emisar D18 review -- 3x18650 photon grenade

Thank you. I have an Olight M3XS-UT it is rated at 250,000 Kcd and 1,200 lumens 1000 meters throw. However it is a larger light. It takes 3 or 4 CR123A’s or 2 18650 which makes it a little long and the head is about 2.5 inches I believe. I was just curious how the Emisar and the Olight stacked up. I think I will go for the Emisar. SST-20 5000k.

Exactly what I wanted to know! Thank you! Thank you!! :+1:

@Toykeeper

How much distance from the optics is required so that mixxed cct setup is not noticeable in the beam? Wondering specifically about close up use indoors. Is it fully blended at 1 ft away from light? Closer, further?

Thanks

It seems to blend in about 10 to 15 cm.

Thank you.

Thats a lot closer than I expected!

It is not true.discharge curve has stable current or power.
Fet driver has neither stable current nor stable power.

So what is not clear?
Is something really wrong with circuit than driver restrict pover. Usual 10A batteries has good enough resistans to hold turbo . About 25W/cell <10A
Ofcourse 10A cells provide less stabilized/nonstabilized rantime ratio but absolute turbo rantime is almost the same as using hidrain 3Ah cells.

The last question. Is contact betwin tail copper board and aluminium host cleaned too? (contact of two metals. best place for oxidation )

How do you feel about linear drivers in flashlights?

Strong like

Like

Neutral

Dislike

Strong dislike

AEDe

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Linear driver is good for moonlights where efficiency of buck and led on constant current are low.

ANSI lm of M43 is almost twice D18 ANSI lm.)

TK, what’s the emitter you got in your M43? Nichia D220 219B?

First impressions are good! Mine landed today and will be replacing the Q8 tonight :slight_smile:

Thank you TK for the review and work put into this :+1:

Hank puts together a gook looking light, no doubt!

AEDe, you obviously really like the Meteor M43, as a great many of us do. But the complexity of the driver and it’s UI make it a Love/Hate kind of thing, not everyone loves how it works and I know quite a few shelving the light or selling it for this reason. No need to target anyone here because they don’t hold your viewpoint, that’s an argument that really can’t be won.

I have modded the M43 to make it perform to my liking, but it was not an easy mod! The MCPCB creates limitations by it’s design, the compact nature of the build allows very little space for changes. I’m very happy with how Anduril works in my Meteor but the light doesn’t handle high temperature well due again to the extremely compact design. Love the M43’s style, as a first production Noctigon light it really is impressive although it did leave ample room for the improvements brought to the table by the D18.

TK has a lot invested in Hanks success and her involvement in his developments is greatly appreciated by a high majority in this forum. I may well be her biggest fan and have her firmware in as many of my lights as possible. The very fact that manufactured lights are coming out with TK UI’s attests to her success in this field, job well done and I am deeply grateful to her extensive efforts.

If the FET+ style driver is not your thing, there are other lights out there for you I’m sure.

I think that AEDe has a more in-depth understanding of the Meteors driver than most here do. Its obviously rather complicated compared to most drivers here.

In the turbo mode the Meteors driver provides constant brightness (>=90%) until the batteries are empty if the light is kept cool. All the diagrams posted here regarding this show this. I have also done this measurement myself and got the same result.

Emisar lights use FET drivers and so the D18 does too. This does not make them better than the boost driver in the Meteor. They are just different and certainly cheaper to develop and produce. Many people here on the forums care about the max output. Hank wants to sell lots of lights, so…

But of course, one developer pitted against another… each with a far different viewpoint on what constitutes correct. They will each gain a following, that’s how it works.

But what is the use of a flashlight that can’t be picked up and operated by just anyone? Any emergency scenario where the kids, the wife, a neighbor, a firefighter or police officer gets handed the light and they can’t work it. No time to figure it out, throw it down and grab the light that works.

There is a following of the coffee that comes from coffee beans eaten by an elephant and then collected from it’s dung. That doesn’t mean it’s a main stream coffee (no pun intended).

Ok, so the Meteor is capable of maintaining constant current in Siberia or during the worst cold snap to ever hit Chicago, but that doesn’t help me here in Texas where the nights can be 100º at midnight. In most scenario’s, the Meteor cannot maintain constant current because it Does in fact get to hot to run at sustained high levels. Quickly.

Like all opinions, I can only express mine based on the facts where I perceive them. But I paid good money for the Meteor M43 and where I live, it simply doesn’t work well. Thus, the driver components got scraped off into the trash bin and I rebuilt the light so it’s usable for me. With an FET driver and then with Anduril when it became available. And then with Samsung LH351D’s when those became available. Mine makes 11,000 lumens, gets really hot, again it still can’t sustain serious outputs for any real length of time due to lack of thermal dispersion.

I will be experimenting with the D18 when it makes it across the pond, will fit it with LH351D W6 emitters and see what she can do. :wink:

The funny thing is, that we are discussing the first 30s of operation here. After that both lights dim quickly and the Meteor might be slightly brighter because it has more mass.

Like usual, all of the big output lights have to step down or fry themselves. We’re making more power than a handheld flashlight can consistently handle.

I looked at my M43 again due to all this talk, I didn’ t put an FET in it… I put 4 in! A master and 3 slaves running LH351D W6 emitters… it makes 13,500 lumens at start on 30Q cells in my now calibrated light box. :wink:

So, it’s looking really interesting as to just what the D18 may be capable of. :smiley:

The D18 has more emitters, so it will be brighter at turn on ;).

… in a no-holds-barred cage match … to the death!

Round Three! Fight!

I think we already know what to expect though. It should be a very bright burst at first, but it’ll get extremely hot and step down quickly to around 2000 or 3000 lumens. The main questions are whether LH351D will fit into these optics, how bright that initial burst might be, and how nice the beam will look. You might have to slice the domes or something before it’ll even come close to fitting.

Actually I did not want to argue. D18 is great and m43 is great flashlight too. Each has many advantages, they are just different device with different features. In some case m43 are more suitable is other D18 .

They fit the E07 just fine and i’ve not seen a TIR that they didn’t look acceptable in. Granted they are super floody but I doubt there is any concern of them fitting or the beam not looking good (if you prefer flood)

The D18’s optics have a significantly smaller inner void than the E07’s optic. The LH351D has a significantly larger dome than the SST-20. So it might fit… but it might not.

XP-L HI works, but it’s flat.

If I measure the pixels in my photos, it looks like the optic probably can’t fit an emitter which uses the full width of the XP pad… and the LH351D uses the full width.

But since no one has tested it yet, it’s still possible that it might just barely fit. I recall the XP-L HD would barely fit into Carclo optics… but it would end up permanently stuck and even a slight bump would cause de-doming. So I’m guessing this might be like that. It can probably be forced on, but it may never come off again.