Mini review: Trustfire TR-803, now modded to pocket rocket

Trustfire TR-803

I got this light as a pocket rocket host. Soon(ish) it will boast U2 XML driven at 2,8 amps. Before that, let's take a quick look how's it as standard.

Seems like this light is made April this year. And the friendly people at TrustFire were nice enough to tell which way the battery should go... Nice.

Here's size comparison. TR-803 is just a tad over 8cm in length. With a minor Foybezeling it would go under the magical 8cm mark.

It's basically a little brother or TR-801, which is quite a common light I suppose. XPE emitter with 3 stupid modes. High-Low-Strobe. Pretty standard stuff for budget light. And there's a mode memory too, which works ok. The tailcap is double O-ringed, so suppose it waterproof for normal use. Did not test. All the o-rings are GITD, which is odd, as apart from the one inside the lens they can not be seen when light is put together. But it must be helpful in a situation where the light is disassembled and after a while comes a power outage... Then U can find the parts in the dark *rolls eyes*

The gold ring in the head looks neat, not cheap (which it is) as one could imagine. Threads are pretty standard. Ok quality, nothing to hooray for. Came unlubed. Has a strap. Would be nice if the strap would be grey to match the light, but it's no biggie. Black is the new black. OP reflector puts out nice floody beam. It's not deep enough for throw anyway. All the springs seems gold (coloured material) plated and better quality than the absolute cheapest crap sometimes seen on budget lights. Springs are a bit longish. CR123 primary is ok, but protected 16340 does not allow full tightening of head or tail. It will push the positive spring to touch places it shouldn't touch and it will short out. With some minor spring cutting it will be fine. Pill is bigger than I supposed and theads snugly to the body so It should make decent host for modding. It takes the standard 17mm driver.

Amps then. Fresh 16340 gives 0,91 on high, 0,24 on low. The mode leveling is not to my liking. The low is much too bright. High is not bright enough (and will not be with this emitter no matter how many amps it's pushing). And then there is the useless strobe.

I'm liking the looks of this. I don't like the modes. If modding doesn't go south, this thing is going to be my favourite pocket rocket.

Seems exactly the same as the 801. The 801's I have tailstand though. Same modes (unique among the cheap lights in that it mode memorizes when light is on instead of off) and levels. Personally I don't have much of a problem with 25% low, since that's already 10hr runtime in 18650, although with only 2 levels maybe 10% is better. You can remove + spring to maybe fit protected.

Very good light for not much over $10.

Damn that is one sexy light!!
Would it be hard to get a p60 drop in in there?
Srr in advance for a propably stupid question :d

Thanks. That would be a go for head-tailcap unification. Tail does screw directly to head. On the other hand, why not get TR-801 in the first place?

P60 dropin is a no go. That thing is way too big for this light.

Very nice review HID!

Ok, so that was then and let's see how my TR-803 does nowadays. Time for some pocket rocketery. For those who like letters and numbers the specs are 1A U2 XML and Nanjg 105C reflashed with BLF-VLD.

Yup, that is Cree XM-L, U2 bin, 1A tint. Took some fitting, as the 16mm emitter star was actually 16,4mm and 16mm pill was actually 15,7mm. Lot of dremeling and it went there. The + and - pads on the star are very, very close to the pill wall. But it doesn't short so the clearance is enough.

Yup, that is Nanjg 105C. Note the expert soldering of the pill... Yes, it looks rough and it is rough. But then again, it does not short out so it's good to go. Had to replace the positive connection spring with a blob of solder to make room for protected 16340, that it did not take happily as stated in original review.

Here's all the parts. There's about 1,5 rounds left of the tail spring. That together with removing of the + spring means this no longer works correctly with CR123 primary. It's 16340 (protected) only light. Which is fine by me.

It pulls 2,65 amps on high, less than my DMM can record on lowest. So that's what... like 650-700 lumens on high, theoretically? Lets see some beamshots then. And again, my camera is garbage, so pictures can not be compared to each other, only look the relative brightness is each picture. All the lights are run by fresh Trustfire flames. 880mah 16340 in TR-803 and 2400mah 18650 in others.

TR-803 is always on the left. First comparing the low mode. Right is 4Sevens Quark Turbo on moonlight, Ansi rated at 0,2 OTF lumens.

Yup, it goes low. Then Fandyfire 2100 1-mode, an XPG R5 light which is silly overdriven at 1,85 amps. Versus modded TR-803 on high.

Yup, 803 wins this one too. Hotspot brightness is about the same, but everything else is bigger with 803. Hotspot size, flood size, flood brightness etc.

And finally. 803 on high vs MF UF 3-mode XML @ SF L2P on high.

Now UF 3-mode wins hotspot brightness and as a result the throw, but look at the crazy size of that 803 flood!

Ok, it runs about 20 mins on high and it gets stupidly hot in less (much less) than 5 mins, but you got to be impressed about the quantity of light coming out of that tiny 8 cm stub. It's like the Manafont Microtech OTF knife I just presented. Both are pretty useless, but both are very nice things to have and I like them both. It's the bragging rights that matter... Who has light with same size/brightness ratio (well, at least Match probably but let's just rule him out, and E1320 too I suppose). And who has light with as wide brightness variation? From 0,0something lumens to 700ish. I dare you!

And E: This would definitely cause a major emergency in one's pants :)

Wow great job that beam shot vs the Manafont drop in looks very familiar. I love it, but be careful if you carrying it in your front pocket.

That's nice. For those who are not into modding, there is always the easy-to-do L2 micro which is like a L2m but just 83mm long. Laughing You can have a SST-50 pocket rocket as it uses P60s. 30s is really the max for Li-Co if you are running that high. Actually my non-IMR 16340s can only manage 2.4A or so.

I have about 20 Trustfire flame 16340 and they all push 2.7-2.8amps no problem. I have some AW IMRs that will do about 3.5 amps which doesn't seam worth the extra money.

My 4 x Trustfire flames only push about 2.4A at best in the Ultrafire XM-L drop-in. Maybe need to cycle them, or they are of a different batch. Anyway in that small a light (80mm x 20mm) there really is no diff between 2.4 and 2.8A, they probably just heat saturate the immediate metal within 30s unless you are doing copper. LOL! Laughing L2 micro is just a hair better. The Xeno E03 XM-L @ ~ 1.6A on 14500 for my copy its ok till the 5th minute.

The IMR is probably worth the money, if we are talking about "safety". I don't feel safe pushing that much for > 1 min, usually its 20-30s bursts, even shorter than my lasers.

In this light My 16340 TF flame starts at 2,65 amps but quickly falls to 2,3-2,4 when running on max. And yes, it's no big deal. 2,8 vs 2,3 in this kind of light makes no visible difference.

Cycle them a couple times and you might even see 3 amps that explains the low readings. I agree 2.4-2.8 definetly isn't visible and it isn't a good idea to push them for long at that level that's why I bought the AW IMRs. The pocket rockets I made heat up so fast high is a turbo mode used for short bursts anyways. I keep am IMR in a 501A since that can handle the heat better on high than my homemade XMLs.

Haha...i cycled them one more time and the crazy little Trustfire Flame buggers are doing 2.6A now.

My Solarforce V1 16340s can manage 2A-2.2A, not that its a bad thing anyway and anyway they are protected and usd3.5 each only.

They are perfect for using with a L2m with XP-G at 1.5A for longer bursts like 3 mins.

Nice!

I am going to do this same MOD, so today I ordered some parts from DX (batteries and the flashlight) and from KD (two drivers [one of them only to have some extra 7135] and the XM-L U2 1A).

OK, they are already paid... the XM-L costs USD11.58 but now I realize that KD sells the SAME emitter (U2 1A tint) costs USD10.98 mounted on a P60

So, I spend more money and I will receive it without pill, driver, and reflector xD

As others have pointed out - you need to stick an IMR in there... that way you could have left the spring too! Then you'll get max current draw... Is there room for an 18350 in there?

HID45 does the brass pill separate from the silver head? In order to install led?

Today arrived mine!

It came with a Q5, and the driver has ONLY 3xAMC7135 (1-mode), so it means 1050mA, PERFECT for a Q5!!

I forgot to center the emitter on the reflector, but for me it doesn't matter, I do not notice any difference so for me it's the same in this case.

I used NANJ10C (from KD, with 4-Stars) and XML-U2 1A (I love this tint!), it weight 48 grams, and 67 grams with battery (TrustFire "Flames").

I have to reinstall the driver because it's a little piggy right now, please take a look to this gallery, I've also included beamshots.

http://postimage.org/gallery/3xxijmbs8

Where did you get a 1 mode from?

DealeXtreme, at DX’s Customer Pictures it shows a version with a spring, mine came without spring.

I have extracted the 3x7135's from the board, but I can take some pictures of it if you want. It only had 3x7135, two wires, and the board. Not more, not less.
EDIT: Now I remember that at DX's forum there are pictures of the driver: http://club.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/threadid.668866

And another thing, well, i centered the led with the reflector, I corrected the driver position (now the tailcap closes 100% OK, at pictures you can see it didn't) and I changed the cables from driver to the LED. I drilled bigger holes and inserted short thick and very flexible wires, now it is much brighter!!!, the cables do make a big difference.

I have a pair of TrustFire Flames Protected 16340, I have fully cycle them more than 6 times and they don’t give more than 1.6A with fresh charge! (with IMAX-B6@100mA)

So, I have extracted the protection circuit from one of them, and it is giving 1.6~1.7 amps...

Why could be this? I want those 2.7 amps for at least half a minute!