Review: Zeusray FL05518 Domed & De-Domed

The SK-73 looks nice, can you tell me what kind of advantages it has? what do you get for the higher price?

The Zeusray has an (not large) increase in performance and a lower price. Sounds good to me.

It is shorter (won’t take most protected batteries). The shape is a little smoother. Probably more waterproof. Maybe other small differences.

Ok thanks for the answer, but that i can use protected batteries i see as an advantage for the zeusray, i gifted one plus a evva protected battery and a charger for Christmas and it was very well received :santa: for just 25$ that is a very affordable deal.

If the SK-73 has low volt protection it could be an option, do you know if it has that on the stock driver?

Can you measure the tailcap current? Noticed that with the stock light tailcap, in addition to body tube, also get slightly warm. Does the de-domed tailcap get warm up?

I did just with super short fat wires, i got 2,43A but with the battery at 3,80v
I will recharge my battery to take measurement at full charge and update.

And thanks for getting me to fix some proper wire for my DMM, i foresee lots of accurate tailcap measurement in my future :slight_smile:

Has anyone built a board that could simply drop into the tailcap to add low voltage/discharge warning or cutoff?

Has anyone got a reliable test for unknown drivers to determine whether or not they provide low voltage warning or cutoff?

I understand the warning (a couple of blinks) is more common than an actual cutoff (or drop to moonlight first, or whatever).

Just seems the more flashlights I come across, the less sure I can be about what their drivers will do.

New test, battery Panasonic NCR18650PF at 4,16v the dedomed pulls 3,3A with the same test wires i used before.

BUT i found some even thicker wires and those show…….4.0A…….
what…… i couldn’t believe it so i charged up the battery again after i used it some and got exactly the same results, for some reason messing about with it taking it apart and putting it back together + multiple times of measuring the tailcap current seems to have fixed it somehow, now i don’t believe i get 4A with the tailcap on because this switch is known to induce losses and it still takes longer to get nice and toasty in my hand than i remember my domed ones did.

At first i thought i had just been stupid and used different charged batteries for the domed & dedomed but i clearly remember double checking, by switching batteries multiple times and using the same battery in both just to be sure, always with the same result.

I am not really sure what to think of this it feels brighter outside now but it is a very different weather out now –15 celsius and much moisture in the air now vs 3+ and very dry air so i can’t really compare before i get my new stock zeusray.

And i charged up a Samsung 20R to 4,19v……….but the Amp reading on my DMM is dead :frowning: i don’t know what happened but it doesn’t work anymore i guess i shorted it somehow? so no more reading before i get a replacement :frowning: and i learn how to not destroy my equipment, any pointers guys?

I don’t think it has low voltage protection. I would also choose the Zeus and a protected cell as a gift. It is not a boost driver, so the cell can’t get more discharged than slowly approaching the XM-L’s minimum forward voltage.

Just to ask, I’m trying to dedoming using thinner (and also anothere attempt with gasoline 95).

Could I just soak it with the brown disc together, or thinner/gasoline will damage the brown disc ?

Better to only soak the LED if you can. That a terrible bad idea to soak the whole pill in gasoline ! :expressionless: (not even mentioning the serious fire hazard)

I wouldn’t soak the whole pill, but I have soaked one or two with the star with no problems.

I did it without the brown reflector and Chicken Drumstick said his got slightly damaged when he did it without taking of the reflector, and i you do the entire pill, please remember to take of the o ring, mine got damaged by the gas because i didn’t remove it.

I did the dedome on this light easily ! Just let it run on high for 5 minutes with a fresh battery and then use a wood toothpick to lightly lift the dome off all-around the LED !
The throw is rather nice for such a small lens (just a few millimetres larger than SK68) but a C8 size reflector light is much better at everything, expect flood of-course.

You can’t use it on high for very long or it will burn your hand ! Even worst if you use copper DTP star. But for the price and the good build quality (except the cheap anodizing) its an incredible value.

Interesting, i want try something like that on my next dedome.

You said on coppar it is even hotter? i bought some diffrent xp-l & xm-l2 on noctigon from hank that i had planned to try in the zeusray when i get some better driver for it.
Did you take the stock led and put in on a coppar mcpcb?

I don’t have a cell in my C8.

As Cereal Killer said, that is what modes are for.

The LED will be cooler but the flashlight body will be hotter much faster with noctigon.
I did it with the stock LED, its easier to do it with a aluminium star because you want the LED dome to be very hot so it become soft.

You should try XP-G2 1D for dedome, better tint and better throw. There won’t be much change compared to stock with another XM-L2 or XP-L.

Thanks for the answer Omega_17,

The plan is to get some A17DD-SO8 or BLF17DD drivers, and upgrade the switch to an omten and use one of the newer lumens bins XP-L V6 or XM-L2 U3 in some different hue bins to test what hue i like the most, i am rather new at this so i don’t have a preference yet. i also upgraded the lens to a glass one, it is not perfect in focus but almost so i will probably leave it like that.

I got the XP-L V6 3D among others because i think it is the warmest of the highest lumens bins.

So my plan is to max it out to the best of my abilities :slight_smile: the one thing i don’t know yet is what i like in hue, but thats where the different xp-l and xm-l2 comes in.

I know you said there is not much to gain from an similar led but Tom E upgraded his with the XM-L2 U3 on noctigon + omten + braided spring upgrade and got a pretty respectable lumens boost even before the FET driver upgrade, ~300 lumens extra.

This was Tom E’s post about it from the consolidated zeusray thread
“Post above has latest lumens measured with the U3 1A. The original #1 stock ZeusRay did 782 OTF stock w/tail of 3.6A. The 918 OTF lumens # was before the tailswitch replacement, afterwards, I measured 1081 OTF lumens. Also I found out later the XM-L2 U2 1A I had and tested in there was defective - it had that weird doggy image on the dye? I didn’t think it effected max lumens, but the XM-L2 U3-1A definiteily did better - bout another 220 lumens bump.”

Video Review:

Nice video review :slight_smile:

And surprisingly good camera work in the dark with lots of different flashlights to keep track of :wink: