Romisen RC-N3 II CREE XP-G R4 2-Mode

It's a little off topic but....................

I bought this light from Bryan @ ShiningBeam, but it's the Q3-5C NW model. I really like the "warmer" tint.

I'm using the light in the 2AA mode & am very happy with both the light & the CS @ ShiningBeam.

Mike

You just cant beat bryans service when it comes to lights......do you know that he will test the light out to make sure its working properly. I cant for him to get the new LMinis.

I bought one from shinning beam and I gotta say it's not nearly as bright as i was hopping it would be. Compaired to a single mode r2 xre drop-in that is several years old now. The r2 is much brighter than this r4 light. I know the emitters are different but up close and in a ceiling bounce the romison is dimmer. Shining beam says 280 lumens. This is almost dx like of him to say that. On a set of eneloops, low mode draws .73 amps and high mode draws .9 amps from the tail. Yes the low mode is too high.

I had one from dx for around 16$ that performed very well. Had the usual medium mode not really a low and disco mode which was very powerfull. It was decently bright tho. Would say on par with better 1AA flashlights let say skyray S-A1 1AA. Maybe perhaps a bit colder tint but still reasonable. At that time was my best thrower.

Yes, I have one of these I ordered from Shiningbeam. The specs said 280 lumens so I thought, WOW this is heckuva bright for a 2AA light.

The flashlight arrived within a week (very fast) and I eagerly opened it up and started using it in the 2AA configuration. Out of the many lights I own, it is one of the dimmest. Just to give you an example: 2 of my (budget) lights that are rated at 180 and 190 lumens are noticeably brighter than this one.

Later, I thought that maybe it would be brighter using a single CR123 battery, so I ordered a few. The batteries arrived 3 days ago and I promptly popped one in and switched on the flashlight. NO difference. The output was the same. I have now decided to give this light away as a present as it does not meet my needs (more power). And another thing... it's not that cheap. I have a number of lights that cost $12 - $18 that are brighter than this; except they're not AA ones.

Shining beam says 280 lumens. This is almost dx like of him to say that. On a set of eneloops, low mode draws .73 amps and high mode draws .9 amps from the tail.

A r2 properly driver at 1A @ 3.5v is 3.5w. N3 in this case is like .9*2.4 or ~ 2.5W minus loses or <2W. The ~10% difference in bins is not going to make that up.

Yeah i know it's a fault of the driver. This thing has a POS driver. Good thing this light wasn't for me. I purchased it for a friend who i would only trust with a AA light. He will think it's very bright anyway. He has nothing to compare it to. It wasn't very expensive but I could have bought somthing much cheaper had i known that it would be like this.

It doesn't have a crap driver. Most AA lights are limited to 1-2A anyway partly because you may need to use alkalines at times, and higher currents will require higher production standards which isn't necessarily worth it in a flashlight.

It's par for course if we're talking non-lith.

Yup, that's the whole point. If I had no other lights I might have thought the same. So far I've bought more than a dozen lights ranging from $5 to $25 and therefore have some sort of reference as to how a flashlight should perform, with regards to its price. Ordering online has its risks, and this is one of them. You never really know what you're gonna get, although sometimes reviews can give you a fair idea of what to expect.

The problem is that i think I'm the first person to post negatively about this light. Both here and at cpf, people generally have nothing bad to say about it. I think perhaps many people who tend to buy 2AA lights are stuck on 2AA lights and don't know any better.

There are tangible benefits to AA lights.

This is my first post ever on any forum so here we go. I could not resist commenting on this thread as the first lights I bought revealing my addictive light acquistion disorder were from SB and included the rc-n3 II. My version was an older one which had an XR-E which I found to be dim compared to the other lights in the same order with same emitter. I popped in an RCR123 but the light wouldn't run due to design of the tailcap which shorted the battery as it was too tall. I rectified that with a plastic washer in the tail switch and BAM! 3.7 volts wakes this light right up.

Not happy with leaving things alone I decidided to push the envelope (those envelopes always seems to be in my way)Wink. I just had to see what the xr-e would do directly driven sooooooooo..... popped out the driver hotwired direct, pulled off tailcap to insert ammeter and OMG! nearly 2 amp draw and WOW! BRIGHT! I fully expected to have sacrificed something in the name of "cheap lightquest science" but this lil light just keeps going. I have run it as long as 25 minutes without color shift or uhm.... flames. The body of the light & aluminum reflector seem to disapate the heat well enough to keep this light from becoming a flame thrower *YMMV*. Don't try this at home kids.... I use the light all over the place without any failures thus far.

SUMMARY:

While in its out of box form its a rather ordinary unremarkable light, once modded, I have yet to find its equal. I would love to compare it to its higher priced peers like an Jetbeam RRT-0 or Incendio V3 ultra etc. but I'm too cheap to buy one of those just for comparison. Bought a few xpg r5s which I expected to outperform this lil guy but to my surprise, it out throws them and almost keeps up with them in shear output. This light remains the brightest pocket thrower I have seen. I currently own about 20 or so lights mostly 'budget' or midpriced. I have xr-e various bins, an MCE mg rx-1 converted to sst50 then recently XML so I have a new but somewhat informed frame of reference. For the money I paid, I am WAY happy.

Welcome get2net!

I'm glad you chose BLF for your virgin post...and a fine post it was. It's not well known, but I love seeing lights modded... Sounds like you made yourself one fine little pocket torch. Hope to see you post some more.

Cheers! :beer: :bigsmile: :beer:

Aloha and welcome to BLF get2net!

Very nice virgin post. :bigsmile:

Blimey! Welcome to BLF :)

Thanks for the kind words folks.

Since this thread was started for the rc n3 xpg version. I am placing an order for the new rc n3 with xpg emitter. I'll prob get the Shining Beam version. He claims to have a better driver. Not that it matters as I am pulling the driver anyhow. Biggest diff is that I'll get my order in about 2 days instead of weeks and ummmm weeks. Not sure what beam profile I'll get but there's one way to find out. I would love to provide beamshots for the XR-E version I modded but I gave it away figuring I could always make another. I was so impressed by the old modded N3 I emailed Bryan asking if the "upgraded" N3 had a new reflector design to go along with the emitter. He claimed it had changed to accomodate the new emitter.

When XPG first started hitting the flashlight circuit I bought a Skyray sr5 which had a terrible beam profile. It seemed that the xpg was in xre optics though I hadn't tried to convert it to xr-e to confirm. XPG is usually floodier / brighter / more efficient but i prefer throw so XRE is for me.

I am also ordering an older rc n3 nuetral as well and to get the old reflector design and compare the two Out of box. I'll be comparing the old and new emitter and reflector designs complete with teardowns and electrical measurements. Nuetral emitters have less output but it is the optics and die characteristics in this light that I'm after. The Rc N3 has a nice deep aluminum reflector which has a nice focus mostly throwy with decent spill. I'll probably convert the XR-E to cool to get more output and to keep the comparisons semi-consistent.

I've never posted beamshots but I've been kickin around forums long enough to see how it's done so I think after all this I owe you folks some eyecandy. Stay tuned for another episode of how the torch burns ....maybe literally! :)

At a 2-amp draw on lithium-ion you're definitely cutting the XR-E's life expectancy short even if it doesn't go up in smoke right away. Though assuming continuous use 25 minutes should have gotten the light dangerously hot, so then maybe the tailcap is introducing enough resistance to bring that draw down to something more sane compared to the metered reading.

You can expect an XP-G to be floodier and less throwy than an XR-E in equal optics simply because the emitting surface is physically larger and it has to be driven much harder to reach similar average intensity. For example Romisen's "stock" RC-G2s are known for a surprising amount of throw for such low total power simply because they're using XR-Cs with tiny emitting surfaces.

You might want to consider XP-E emitters in your mods as well since their wider beam angle compared to an XR-E works better with a reflector. On the other hand you could also experiment with plano-convex lenses, in which case an XR-E would be very appropriate.

Thanks for the info Frills. I am aware of the other emitter packages and their characteristics in general but never considered XPE though it looks pretty good. I was under the impression that surface brightness in the XRE was higher in smaller package, better for smaller reflectors. At any rate lumens alone does not a pretty light, make. (obvious)

I haven't done a test at the top of the tube but i'd imagine there has GOT to be enough resistance built in the current path to keep this from going <POP>. I have run this light as modified above for better than hours total burntime since. Honestly I don't care if i lose an emitter in 20,000 hours or even 1,000 hours! I am SURE i will never run this light for that many hours. If I have to replace the emitter and/or star in even 100 hours I would still be happier than the 'old days' of replacing mini maglite incan bulbs. My main concern was mitigating the heat away from the BATTERY. I have run the light until the batteries have gone into "protected dark mode". Light gets warm but no signs of color shift or other detrimental effects. I should have the order referenced above tomorrow so I'm gettin ready for some FUN.

Looking forward to the comparison between the XRE and XPG RC-N3s.

My 1st flashaholic torch purchase was the 2 mode RC-N3 11 Q5 from Shiningbeam and it is still one of my favourite lights.

I have since bought the RC-C6 11 NW zoom, also from Shiningbeam. I am a fan of the interchangeability of the battery tubes.

I currently have the RC-N3 in cr123 configuration and the zoom with 2AAs.

Got one of the rc-c6s too. Love the focusable ashperics but they are crummy beam colors nice n cheap n versatile but not pretty. Got it in my last SB order along with a bunch of other lights. The drive to sample so many other lights was based off the rc-n3 direct drive. I had to see if any lights untouched came close to what it does modified. NOPE :) I will do the beamshots untouched for both versions then direct drive the x-re compare to xp-g then direct drive the xp-g then compare again. Then teardowns with electrical measurements. Have some IMR and blue trusty flames so i'll be powering up with those to get some good info.. stay tuned.