Review: Small Sun ZY-T08 2 x 18650 (Parallel)

Nice review, Old! Lovely pics of a lovely light. I want one of these badly but have to wait until I have the spare cash.

I'd take this T08 over a T16 any day since I don't care much for the longer lights that run cells in series (end-to-end, not voltage series). Parallel cell lights have truly spoiled me.

I just shined the T16 and the T08 against the wall and they look the same…

Thanks old4570. Is it possible to get to the pill and if so any dimensions of the driver and pill diameter would be good. There seems to be a few lights coming out with this form factor and its brother the 26650 in 1 or 2 cell with larger reflectors. Times are looking interesting.

from manafont

Ok, I was hoping maybe the current variances could be due to where they were bought, but you've disproved that hypothesis. I'll be sure to post my current reading when I get mine. Guess we can't just go with the same value resistor you did since our samples will likely vary.

Wish we knew what current ILF's reads since we've seen his beamshots. Hope his pulls low current! (Meaning if ours pulls more, or we do a resistor mod, the light will be even more impressive!)

-Garry

Just like I told you guys this light is a steal. Show me another XM-L thrower that will beat it for the price. I don’t believe there is one.

How about a FandyFire HD2010 @ $27.80 It’s close enough in price. Even $30.64 (which is what I paid for mine) is still essentially the same price range if you ask me.

I think the T08 is a more impressive looking like, that also has the added benefit of taking 2 18650’s in parallel of course, but I’d only pull the trigger on it if it was the superior thrower.

What I’d really like to know is what would happen in a HD2010/ZY-T08 showdown if the emitter in the latter was being driven just as hard as it is in the former.

Does anyone have the approximate PWM frequency?

Also, any insight on the feasibility of driver swap?

Looks like an awesome light - I can’t wait to get mine.

Is anyone else caught in customs hell? I ordered mine on 10/11 and it's been stuck at acceptance status in Hong Kong for 6 days.

That's mines status too. Ordered sunday night and it "shipped" next morning. Tracking stuck at "Acceptance".

-Garry

:(( :beer:

I'm crying in my beer, Garry. TGIF. :bigsmile:

Is it a contact board or driver ? but its 30mm dia

PWM is there , medium to higher freq … Its not Uber slow …

Some one needs to lift the contact board ? Im very busy ATM , exams next week etc , so !

Got the beams up …

Dont be put of by the tint , the camera picked up a lot more blue/purple than the naked eye sees … Thats what I get for not owning a decent SLR with good White balance …

I got my other T08 today. It’s quite a bit brighter than my first one.

Please let me help. I got mine from DX couple of days ago and was planning to write a full review, but you were faster. Thanks for your effort! (And for saving my time :))

PWM is 244Hz on Med and Low.

The contact board is the back side of the driver and it's 30.0mm

There's not much to see at the tail switch...

...but it makes it easy and accurate to measure the current (2.5A, 1.1A & 0.5A on my sample)

The emitter & it's leads are easily accessible for PWM & duty cycle measurements:

..and the results are: 244Hz 49% on Med, 244Hz 24% on Low

For some reason I measured "only" 2150lux @4m (on High, steady after 30s), resulting 34.4kcd (or 370m of ANSI-NEMA FL-1 throw).

2.5A high, 0.5 low, but only 24% duty cycle?

High doesn't have PWM, so maybe it has bit higher efficiency?

Has anyone tried taking out the white centering piece that sits between the LED and the reflector? It made a nice difference with the T13.

How did you get the 24%? Not scope I assume?

If I just use my dmm and got 2.5/0.5 I would just assume it’s 20%.

2.5, 1.1 & 0.5 A currents were measured by shorting the tail switch with DMM probes. This is the current draw before driver.

244Hz PWM & 49% and 24% duty cycles were measured by connecting the DMM probes to emitter leads => real values given to emitter (= after driver)

Hope this clarifies the measurements.