Review: Lumintop SD10 (2nd generation) XM-L2 NW 1xD/3xAA/1x32650/1x26650/1x18650

Do it! I’m waiting for confirmation from Lumintop to see if the NW version on HKequipment is the new 2nd gen edition. They ship fast and are reputable.

Orsm review on a one of a kind light. Thanks sb.

must resist…… :~

Great review. Many thanks. Feel a bit time warpy though with the review date of the 26th Oct 2013 :wink:

Thanks for the review .

Cool

Well, if I was a moderator here I would just have to give you one of those
“Front Paged and Sticky’d” post. :bigsmile:
Great job SB.

Good review, SB! I really like this light and it's only a matter of time before I have one in my grubby mitts. :)

Oops! Thanks for letting me know.

Is this light designed to reduce the chance of being ruined by leaking batteries?

That seems like it would be an important part of a survival light designed to run off of whatever people can find in their drawers and closets.

Nice! Another collector-worthy item.

S)

Good question. In fact I have been worried that this Alkaleak I have in it right now will start to do its thing after a 6 weeks of non stop use…

Hey, SB, have you noticed any parasitic loss with the electronic switch? Is it able to be locked out?

I was wondering about that too. I’m not exactly sure how to test it. I figured that if the light can be turned ON for 60 days nonstop, then it should be able to sit for a long time turned OFF as well. There is no electronic interface lockout mode, but the circuit can be opened with a turn of about 20 degrees of the tailcap.

Very nice review SB!

Thanks!

I also wanted to ask you guys about the horizontal banding that appeared in my beamshot picture. Would that be a sign of PWM? I tried to look for PWM, but I still can’t tell if it has it or not. Through my smartphone’s screen I don’t see any pulsation or banding of the SD10’s light. I’m fairly sensitive to the lower frequency PWM found in some lights, so if the SD10 has PWM it must be a pretty high frequency. I’ve had the beam in my peripheral vision near my computer for over a month now, and I haven’t detected anything yet.

That would be caused by PWM. The easiest way to see PWM is to point the light at a running ceiling fan or even the fan at the back of your PC. If the fan appears as a smooth blur then there is no PWM. If it looks like lots of blades spinning then you have PWM. If you play with different lights you will soon get a feel for the speed of the PWM. Slower PWM makes the blades seem farther apart from each other but a fast PWM will make it almost look like the blades are close enough together that they overlap.

Another real easy way is to run water in the sink or shower at night with the lights off. Shine your light at it and if it looks like you can see individual droplets then you are seeing PWM in effect. It's easy to see the PWM this way but is difficult to judge the speed of the PWM compared to the fan method.

Lights with PWM bother me when walking the dog at night. If I run the beam across the ground along side of me and follow the hotspot with my eyes unfocused the grass appears to be "digital". Once you try it you will see exactly what I mean by that. With a light with no PWM the grass is a smooth blur. The slower the PWM the more dramatic the effect. ;)

Thanks Johnny! Ah yes, I forgot about the running water trick. I’ll give it a quick test tonight.

Parasitic drain, set the DMM to read milliamps. Measure the same way as taking a current tail cap reading, except this time with the light off. Any current flowing through the meter with the light off, would indicate some parasitic drain.

Great review, sb, I wish more manufacturers would make multi-chemistry+battery size lights, at the moment SD10 is the only model to get if you like your lithiums just like your NiMh’s, fully charged and blasting on high :D!

My review here , I have to agree, this is great light and given that so far it has gathered 3 4 reviews and everyone seems to like it there is no reason not to get one :D!

The lights I have with really high frequency PWM do not show their PWM on the fan or running water tests. The only way I can see the PWM on lights such as my Roche F12 is by using the cell phone camera, and even then it’s hard to see it. I have to hold the light and camera really still. The higher frequency the PWM, the finer the interference pattern on the phone.

It helps to point the camera straight at the LED, like this picture below. I had to play around with the angles before it gave me a good view of it like this. Pointing it anything other than dead on it’s really hard to see.