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

I hated my Nichia M43, the UI was the worst I’ve ever used, the button glowed any colour it wanted and the tint was pure green nastiness.

Why there is not a magnet and aux leds like on the D4S? Otherwise its an excellent light.
I understand the magnet would be very heavy and expensive.

With the individual TIR’s virtually covering the entire MCPCB, where would the auxillary LED’s go?


Looking at these images from TK, there is a cover plate that holds the TIR’s in the correct position and eliminates all gaps (as seen previously in the M43), literally covering the MCPCB in it’s entirety. So where would an aux LED be seen? Nowhere up top for sure. Not without a lot of alteration…

And I’m glad that there are no additional auxillary LED’s. I turned them off completely in D4s.

Lexal has been able to squeeze aux LEDs into every other Emisar light. I’m sure it could be done on the biggest one, especially if it was designed into the board from the beginning. They would still glow up through the lenses, or use an unpainted clear or opaque material for the cover plate.

The Optic is housed in a black plastic holder, an auxillary LED on the board would not bleed up into the TIR for this reason.

Hank uses a black anodized aluminum cover plate, again no light would escape through this. Machining a polycarbonate cover piece would be much trickier and prone to scratches that most people would surely complain about.

I would have thought everyone would at the very least look at the photo’s TK took…

maybe have it pulse to your voice…or music?

Would aux have been nice as an option? Sure. But I bet it would’ve raised the price do to the extra difficulty already mentioned.

I’m sure someone will figure out a way to rig it up, or something similar anyway. Lexel is probably already contemplating how to do it.

If nobody comes up with anything, I’ll just do the HAL 9000 lol

In the pics it looked like G10 composite to me, not aluminum. G10 would allow aux LEDs to glow through nicely, and I don’t see how scratching would be an issue with it being under the lens. If aluminum has to be used for some reason, additional holes could be drilled for the AUX LEDs to shine through.

I’ve seen the pics. It’s hard to tell without a light in my hands, but it looks like some light would still get up between the lenses and the lens holder plate. Light could maybe get up into the lens reflectors too (like Lexel has done with the D1 and D1s). Can’t tell from pics how tight the tolerances are.

I get it if you don’t want/like aux LEDs, but these issues aren’t that difficult to overcome.

(Edit: taking an even closer look, the lens holder plate still looks like g10 to me. Review also states that it is “thin pcb”.)

:slight_smile:

The aux LED question is the main reason why I showed that part of the light in so much detail.

… and also so I won’t have to open it up again to get details later.

I haven’t seen one yet and TK’s pics do look like it’s a pcb material but Hank used aluminum in the M43, which I am quite familiar with. At any rate, bright light might glow a raw or bare pcb material (which is usually a dull green in color) to a low degree but dim aux lighting isn’t going to come through the fiberglass material. Even IF there were space on the MCPCB for such an LED to be placed… perhaps around the outer periphery? Don’t know, it’d be tight. Maybe small outlet holes could be put in the cover plate to allow something to show? Again, complex but doable and at a price I’m sure. (I don’t really care either way, not something I’d add and I may be prone to turn it off it were in the factory light)

As far as a clear one would go, assembly would be apt to scratch it up.

Some of my lights would strip themselves if I gave em a shiny brass pole, they’ve been bared so many times already. :stuck_out_tongue:

FWIW, a buddy of mine has a D18 en-route and I will be putting Samsung emitters in it for him. The W6 5000K emitters are here already…. :smiley: We’ll see how/where that goes. …

G10 comes in many colors and thicknesses, including clear. The one in the D18 looks pretty thin, could probably even see through.

This is the G10 I’m thinking of. I’ve worked with stuff that is even less green and more of an opaque white.

That is thin G10, nice & opaque too…. :+1:

It lets light through about as well as a sheet of black paperboard. Which is to say… it doesn’t.

Is that an exaggeration or is it a joke?

I’m guessing neither. Just the truth… it does not let light through.

It must do because I can see the table surface through it.

That is not the material that is being used in the D18. :wink: