ZeroHour Relic XR2 Review Video

Hello everyone! I’m new here but definitely a tech gadget person. I’ve owned many different flashlights over the years but this is the first one I’ve reviewed.

I backed the XR2 on Kickstarter and I’ve had it for a few weeks now. I am fairly impressed with it so far which is why I decided to make a short review of it talking about what I like.

NOTE: Look for my posts later in this thread for even more testing and some pictures.

If you are interested, please check out my review here:

Note I do not have any ads or other monetization enabled, no sponsored links or affiliate stuff. I make videos for fun, not money.

I would appreciate any feedback on my review and I am happy to answer any questions and post additional pictures here as requested.

If you like my work and want to see me review other lights, like one of the ones seen at the beginning of the video, let me know.

I’ve done some more testing and data collection. I plan to continue doing more including some beam shot stuff since that seems to be a thing. I’ll post it here as I go.

For starters, the light’s internal charge circuit results in a battery with 4.14V after resting disconnected for about 15 minutes.

When charging another device, the flashlight will stop charging when it reaches what it thinks is 25% remaining on its own battery. I seem to consistently get about 40% charge of a LG V20 phone with the phone in-use during charge and the flashlight used as a flashlight for a few hours on low prior to charging the phone. More consistent testing here is required but I like these results so far since I can just use the flashlight as a flashlight but still get a good chunk of life for my phone (or wife’s phone) at any time. Since I now know the cutoff for charging is 25% I’m going to use it as a light until it reaches 50% indicated, sample the battery voltage, then charge the phone.

Any other suggestions for testing would be much appreciated! I recently picked up a Lumintop Tool AA 2.0 for those eventual beam shots since that seems to be a very popular light. I realize it is nowhere near the top output rating of the XR2 but it will be something to compare that is recent and common.

With additional testing I have some more updates. All of my recent testing has been done using an unprotected Samsung INR18650-30Q (3000mAh) charged inside the light. The included battery is an IMR type with 20A continuous rating and 3100mAh rated capacity. Supposedly it is a Sony. Based on my testing I don’t think the continuous power draw is anywhere near 15 amps. I will be testing power draw from the battery next!

First a correction, the status LED doesn’t light when charging another device.

It looks like it thinks 25% (blinking red) may be around 3.0V since the cell voltage after it stopped charging in my tests was between 3.16V and 2.94V with the lower number when I turned on the light to see what modes it would allow. It only allows low mode, ignoring all other brightness settings, when in the blinking red status.

The best charge for my phone (LG V20) I’ve gotten out of it was a total of 58% increase with the light fully charged and the phone starting at 21, ending at 79.

I took some high resolution images of the parts. This is based on watching some other flashlight review videos and looking at some of the reviews on this forum. The most-used threads (the ones for the tailcap) are very thick square threads which I think is a good thing. All the threads on each fitting are smooth and everything feels very solid.

Thanks for the review! It’s a very interesting light. It is the only rotary brightness control with USB-C charging flashlight on the market until the release of the Fenix PD40R and the Sofirn light Djozz is working on. But this one is easy to mod and comes with an XHP35 that looks easy to mod. I’m surprised no one is excited! Price is high though.

Geez... $149.00? Nice looking light but...

Ya I hear you. It was a little easier for me since I got the Kickstarter discount. I think after using the light for about a month now I would have paid $149 for it. I don’t like spending a lot of money on commodity stuff but a tool that should last me many years I feel is worth it. As you may have seen in the video, my Surefire T1A Titan still works and I still use it often (it is my bedside light due to its very low starting lumens). That thing cost me $250ish when I bought it. I only wish I had the skills to change out its emitter and I wish someone still sold an O-ring for it since the original one is looking a bit warn at this point.

As for the PD40R, this says it is Micro USB: Fenix PD40R V2.0 LED Flashlight - 3000 Lumens – Fenix Store …and I don’t see a rotary control. Maybe wrong model number? I had a Fenix L1P back in the day. I think I gave it away which I’m now regretting since I would have liked to compare it to my new Lumintop AA 2.0.

Yes the board with the emitter is only sitting on thermal paste. It could easily be de-soldered and a new one dropped in. I may do this in the future but I’d need to learn more about LED drivers before then.

I understand the price is a bit high but I see a lot of similar or higher priced lights discussed here and I think this is worth the cost. I wouldn’t mind picking up another rotary light of good quality. I’ve also been looking at the Emisar D4V2 since it has the programming pads exposed so I can start playing with driver firmware (I also like programming as a hobby).

Fenix PD40R v2.0 not the original one.

But all Fenix lights are glued shut making it impossible for amateur modders to get into.

Ok that’s why I couldn’t find it. I’m not a fan of the rubber cover for the charge port. I definitely like the screw-down metal cover design on the XR2. The Anker Bolder (crap light, don’t buy it!) also has a screw-down metal cover over its charge port. I just don’t trust those rubber covers to not pop out at the worst time.

Just a small side tangent on the Bolder. I thought it was an OK light when I bought it. At the time I looked for a USB rechargeable light with a standard battery you could replace (not that sealed-in crap). There were several options on the market back then (January 2018) but I was only searching on Amazon and I wanted the charge port covered up by a screw-down or similar secured method. I’ve had too many rubber flap designs fail to protect a port on a device over the years. I wish back then I was smart enough to stop by this forum first. At least I’m here now:)

I’ve got zero hour’s first flashlight. It’s sitting in my collection. I don’t use it very much, but I do like it. I was going to get their new one, but I wasn’t able to.

Cool Smoothynobutt :slight_smile:

I’ve finally gotten around to doing some amperage tests! These tests were done at a room temperature of 20c/68f. The battery voltage was around 4.08V with no load. I wanted to get the voltage while testing so I could post VA numbers but I’d need a better way to connect a battery to the light via my meter. All numbers were sampled from the tail with the switch removed (meter acting as switch). Sorry I don’t have a USB-C tester (yet) so I wasn’t able to get the numbers of what was coming out of the light to the phone.

Max brightness (test performed first with light at room temp):

- Started at 4.9425A and 8 seconds later stabilized around 3.1A (varying between 3.1013A and 3.1195A)

- Ended the test after about 20 seconds.

  • Not sure why there was an initial peak but I don’t think it was thermal-related. Ideas?

Charging my phone (phone was at 15% level, so should have pulled nearly maximum of what it wanted):

- Started at 0.5015A and within 3 seconds ramped up to 1.5492A.

- After about 10 total seconds (7 seconds after reaching 1.5492A) it jumped up to 2.7791A and then continued to climb up to a peak of 2.8786A.

  • I ended the test after about 30 total seconds seeing the power draw at a stable state in the 2.8A range.

Min brightness:

- Started at 0.0927A and was stable immediately with an average across 30 seconds of 0.0918A

  • I will preform this test again as a full VA test because they don’t list run-time at this level. (seems like a 3AH battery would last around 30 hours)

Was looking at this light again and just thought that if they used a 21700 cell it would not look so odd at the tube and would also make the power bank function much more useful. Still a very nice and unique light as it is.

Maybe their next one will use a larger cell. I would encourage them to NOT change the lumens / CD significantly since it already gets above 60c at the glass after a few minutes. I want to do more temperature testing but I haven’t had time. I don’t think the heating is unusual for its size but this is also my highest output light right now. I will be getting an Emisar D4V2 soon just to play with the open source firmware stuff.

Since it is very easy to swap in another 18650 and it gives a fairly modern smartphone a good amount of charge, I think it is ok as-is. Would rather carry a few extra batteries in a battery holder then a larger light.

Based on my earlier amperage testing, anyone think I would be safe using Samsung INR18650-35E (3500mAh) batteries?

My only concern is the recommended charge current is 1.02A for cell life, normal is 1.7A and max is 2.0A. I think the light charges at 2A so this would be pushing the cell kinda hard. I do have a stand-alone charger that I can control the charge amps on but I also want to make sure it is safe to use the internal charging.

The 30Q ones I use now have a standard charge of 1.5A and maximum of 4A so I know they will charge within specifications.