*** NEW *** Haikelite SC04 2x26350 / 2x26650

Freeme is organising a groupbuy here: ENEDED

First video of the Haikelite SC04:

[video:]Haikelite SC04 - YouTube

:sunglasses:

Is the ramping logarithmic or linear like in the SC62?

Finally a decent video of the SC26:

[video:]HakieLite SC04 Flashlight Review! - YouTube

Do i need protected 26650's?

Or protected 26350's when running 2 in series?

I do not have this light, but I do have the SC26 (single 26650, dual 26350), and two protected (Imalent) 26350 will not fit. I also would not run the SC04 on two 26350, as this battery is not powerful.
But generally speaking you do not need protected cells to run this light.

One other question as it is not made clear.

Does it output 5000 lumens on 1 26650?

Or does it need the extension tube and 2 26650's?

You need an extension tube for 2x21700/26650s since the boost driver can boost from 3,6-12V, with a limited power output at 2500 lumens, and 7,2-12V, with max output at 5000 lumens.

Thank you.

Just rcv'd one of these SC04's - oh boy, two major issues:

  • it will not run on 1 cell, RED LED comes on, comes on low only, then flickers, then goes off - all in a few seconds. It's acting like the driver is not designed for one cell. It works pretty well on 2 cells, though I only measured 4100 lumens at turn on, Tom E hyped up lumens even, on 2 good LK 5000 cells
  • The LED's are not centered and found out why - the LED centering pieces are too small for the reflector holes so have wiggle room, and the LED's wiggle around in the hole of the centering pieces. So with the 4 separate MCPCB's wired in series, not mounted, just has thermal grease under them, there's lots of slop movement and positioning possible.

Awful design issues... More comments:

  • But I do have to say the overall quality of the light is pretty darn good
  • The LED wires are only 24 AWG coming off the driver though
  • I do like the feel of the switch
  • the bezel is smooth SS, not as pictured strike bezel design - the Ali store page shows 1/2 pics with strike bezel, 1/2 smooth - luv the consistency...
  • it's a nice compact size with just a one cell setup (probably go this route with a replacement driver, rewired LED's in parallel)

What are u guys doin over there at HaikeLite? Why are you trying to kill your rep like this? I don't get it....

They’ve got some interesting designs on paper but it seems that there’s something missing in a few of their final products. Shame really. I really like my SC26, but hesitate to purchase any other Haikelite until they’ve been tested and reviewed here.

I got the Haikelite SC04 from their aliexpress store. I first modded the LEDs to SST20 2700K JB4 95CRI from Convoy. Here’s a quick look at the disassembly. The main gotcha is that the reflector does not slide out or unscrew out. It is held down by a screw on the driver side. One you remove the screw and take out the reflector, there are 4 16mm XP-sized MCPCBs wired in series. The brown stuff is not glue, so the MCPCBs can easily be taken out.

Since I don’t need the capacity of 26650s, I tested with 2*18650 protected Keeppower 30Q and these battery converters to keep the weight down.

Pros

  • The UI has a choice of ramping UI and several predefined modes UI groups. I chose the 6 predefined modes group:
    2lms -> 50lms -> 150lms -> 750lms 1500lms> Max 5000lms
  • Shining the light at a fan, I couldn’t see any PWM effect. In the lowest mode, my phone detected a flickering effect. Since I couldn’t see it on the fan blades, maybe it’s super high frequency PWM, or some kind of electrical noise. Whatever it is, I could not visibly detect it.
  • At close range (about 3 walking steps in front of me), the hotspot size is similar to a Convoy C8 XM-L2, but it doesn’t have a sharply defined hotspot. It has more of an orange-peel reflector type smoothed out dropoff from the hotspot to the spill area. When walking at night, I felt only a small amount of “tunnel vision” at this close range, so it’s quite usable.
  • At the max mode, the beam is concentrated enough to reach a large bush at 200 meters, despite ambient light coming from nearby building construction.

Cons

  • When the flashlight is on, the side switch is lit blue, and it has PWM. I can easily see the PWM effect by waving the flashlight around or by darting my eyes quickly.
  • The LED centering gasket is loose, not centered, so the LEDs aren’t centered. The gasket is round, different than the pictured square gaskets. They also fit a bit loosely around the LEDs, allowing the LEDs to shift around slightly under the gasket.
  • There’s no physical lockout. I unscrewed the head so the o-ring is visible, and I can still turn on the flashlight. There’s no difference with loosening the long tube adapter, or by loosening the tailcap.
  • The minimum required battery current is not specified. I first tested using these protected LG MJ1, max 8A due to the protection circuit. I can run the max mode from fully charged 4.2V down to 3.0V without tripping the protection, so that’s OK. But when the battery is partly drained (example, 3.6V), and I change modes, the protection circuit trips. This suggests that during mode changing, the driver causes a large pulse of current drain from the battery, tripping the protection circuit. These protected KeepPower 30Qs 15A max are OK.
  • I once saw a bright spark when screwing on the tail cap. This was also reported here.

UI Improvements

  • From off, add a long-press shortcut to the lowest mode. Right now, if I want to change to the lowest mode, I must cycle through the max mode, which is an eyeball fryer, especially at night. Also, if I forget that the last used mode was the max mode, and then I turn on the flashlight, I can also fry my eyeballs.

Conclusion

The SC04 is a good concept. It’s like a budget, compact version of the Thrunite TN40 quad LED searchlight. I like it more than I thought I would, because it’s usable at close, walking range, and it’s also capable of reaching far if necessary. Haikelite needs to fix the cons and make a version 2. Then this will really be a good buy.

Additional con:

  • In 1x26650 configuration, the driver sometimes works normally, and sometimes blinks, then shuts off. I was testing with a KeepPower 26650 15A. My guess is that when the driver first receives power, it tries to identify the battery configuration (1 or 2 battery). And it sometimes misidentifies the single battery as a two battery configuration. This explains why some of the review videos I saw show the SC04 running in single battery mode.

I bought one sort of to see how it stands up to a Q8, and definitely disappointing compared, but should be easily moddable, easiest way would be in a single cell configuration, GOLISI 4300 preferred. As a host, it's pretty nice, and at the time, I got mine on a deal for $45, so for that price it's decent.

Maukka cal'ed ANSI rated lumens measured about 3700 lumens (@30 secs), throw about 125 kcd (700 meters)), with CW SST-20's.

To me this light seems interesting in terms of power/ size/ weight only if it works in a double 26350 configuration ( shorter version with no extension tube). In this configuration, does anyone know if it :

1. Provides close to 5,000 lumens on turbo
2. Will have ramping capabilities all the way to 5,000 lumens?
3. How long will stay in turbo before heating up and decreasing lumens and what will be the sustainable level?
4. Will it dial down gradually from 5,000 or suddenly jump right down to the possibly maximum highest ramp level of 1150 lumens?
5. As the battery voltage go down will it gradually start giving off less lumens at turbo or suddenly jump to the next step level of say 1150? And in latter case what would such voltage of the 2 26350batteries in series be?
6 does the throw really look like 600m?

Thanks !

SC04

To me, not worth spending that kind of money.

True. I bought as a host for about $30 and I still have no idea what to do with it.

How did you get a host? Was it only missing LED's and the driver/ Or other parts missing as well?

Ohh - see it now at the Ali store, but it's listed for $50 now :FACEPALM:

4x 2mm WF and a FET driver would make a pretty potent combo. Would draw more than 20A from a good cell.

That combo would be pretty similar to a SBT90.2. Similar light emitting area and current density. Before this LED was available a multi emitter light was the only way to get high output and high intensity. Now we can get that sort of performance from a single reflector.