Ultrafire F13 (stock)
It was $11.50 a piece with free XM-L2 upgrade from Wallbuys restocked. Also available in Pasien U2-Z6 , Sky Eye F13 and Windfire F13 versions.
New mod parts for Ultrafire F13
UltraFire F13 Personal Rating:
My likes:
Cheap.
Free XM-L2 20mm upgrade.
Uni-body pill-less design.
Beefy looking, should feel good in hand.
Head design and heatsink.
Good throw distance (better than unmod C8)
Alu SMO reflector - flawless
Free accessories - lanyard and adapter for different battery type.
Can fit cheap silicon diffuser at the tip.
Area between LED shelf and driver is spacious.
Relatively easy to mod.
My dislikes:
Produce horrible thread noise during unscrewing.
Alu body tube thickness feels a bit thin.
No memory mode. Get ready your pen knife?
Thermal conductance issue.
AAA battery carrier works but not fitting.
Bezel not stainless steel.
Weak anodizing.
Centering ring blocks off quite substantial amount light.
Grip feels a bit unnatural to me. However, I do no have problem with my other 26650 lights.
Conclusion
These lights just sit in my box and I do not feel like grabbing them. They are “bulky” and stock unit does not produce anything more than Convoy C8 or even S2. That is why I have sold all my UF-F13s. Sometime is better to save a bit longer, to purchase a light that you really like.
Will I buy another soon? Answer should be NO.
Previous Mod Issue
Spent an hr of cleaning the residues of the stock unit, applying lubricant on threads and photo taking. Swapped the driver with my newly build 14x 7135s stacked 105c and xm-l2 U2 1D noctigon as planned. Add copper braid to tail switch. Everything went on smoothly, with all the mode cycle accordingly with tailcap switching.
However, I am kind of puzzle why tailcap current is only around 3.12A (with unprotected NCR18650A) on HIGH after chip-stacking. Kcd value is also disappointing, just slightly more than 1/2 of my Tangsfire C8’s output.
Does anyone know able to identify my problem? I am not using high drain cells at the moment.
Pill-less design, not what I am hoping for I actually plan to insert a couple of mini copper heatsinks inside the pill but this new design do not have enough clearance for it.
Surpisingly, F13 gets hot rather quickly on high mode. Not sure if this is a good thing.
Getting hot quick is good, means the no pill design is working well to efficiently move heat away from the emitter.
The 3.12A I would think is due to resistance and the cell used. I know my (new) unprotected ncrB cells topped out at 3.8A direct drive at 4.2-4.21v. Then again, this was without braid-modded springs.
Did you make sure with each additional 7135 chip that they were working?
Heat travel to tailcap within 5mins. Temp really not comfortable to be carried with bare hands. I expect most heat to dissipate through heatsink fins or at least slow down the transfer, but that did not happen. I suspect is result from the thin body material (1mm).
Will try to measure again, if I get KingKong, INR18650-20R or 18650PF in future then.
I am pretty sure this is going to be my last UltraFire light.
It looks the best F13 available as long as the reflector sits low enough.
Check that the contacts are clear. I found that the end of the battery tube that mates to the tailcap had some anodization on it, so that needs to be scraped off. Lube can do the same thing.
Resistance is a real pain when it comes to Linear drivers, it all comes down to how good your cell is and how much attention to detail you pay to reducing resistance. What kind of AWG have you used for your wires, have they been cut down to the least amount of length possible? What kind of cell are you using?
I used 22AWG for this project. The length of cable is exactly shown on my pic. Doubt it will be a huge difference as they are somewhat the same length as stock ones.
Battery used: Pana 3400B(up), 3100A(up) and 2900(p)
The host was carefully cleanup and lubricated before assembly. Scraping off the anodizing and getting clean finishing may be tough. Doubt I will attempt that just for a mere +/-0.2A improvement.
freeme - those Pana's are totally no good for high amp single cell, 7135 drivers. They are a great cell, just not for this application - resistance is wayyy too high. Also the more 7135's you add, the more resistance you add (a little). If this is a 26650 light, use a SONY 50A cell. KK unpro's are good as well. The best cell: Powerizer is no longer available. The Sam 20R or maybe better Sam 24R is also great, the SONY 30A 18650 is good too. A compromise 18650 is the Pana PF, but if it take 26650's, definitely go for the SONY or KK ICR.
You got a bad combo for a single conventional Pany - XM-L2 on copper, high # of 7135's.
Tried to build up inner wall thickness with 1mm(dia) thick copper wires. Two separate coils of wires stayed in shape even reflector inserted.
I left my F13 tail standing on high for 10mins with fairly light breeze from the window(50cm away). Tube felt warm but not as hot as previous. Heat is more concentrated on the front and much more evenly distributed around the reflector zone and heat sink.
It only needs to be at the end of the battery tube where it makes contact with the retaining ring of the switch. It can easily be cleaned up with a file. My F13 was the first light of mine that needed attention in this area. It's just one of many things that could be causing a restriction in your light.
I have two of the new design F13 (no pill). One at about 4,2A and the other at 5,9A peak. I used to have one with the pill before too (running at 4,4A peak). All amp readings confirmed at the emitter.
Main complaints is that I dont have an AR lens for any of them that fit. With a Noctigon I dont get enough pressure on the mcpcb with a single stock O-ring at the front. Stock locating ring is horrible and steals a lot of light. Both of the stock XM-L2s (which they now come with) had a quite horrible super CW purple-ish tint..
Fantastic mod host for the money when modded correctly. Gotta love that you can get such a cheap light with a pill-less design. :)
The issue is not the Noctigon (basically similar size as stock mcpcb) or the O-ring. The issue I had on both my lights where the lack of pressure on the mcpcb when I changed to a proper locating ring that is not too tall and steals a bunch of light (cant remember the number, but might have been around 10% loss compared to a proper locating ring). It was a lot! I cant remember having that issue on the old version of this light.
Copper insert below mcpcb, thicker mcpcb, thicker lens, thicker O-ring (which is not too wide), or two smaller O-rings are ways to fix the issue...
I have two of the new version lights. I took the O-ring from one of the lights over to the other (two O-rings total). And got a new modified thicker O-ring for my other light...
Are you using stock locating ring? Are you able to get proper pressure on the lens/reflector/mcpcb without a locating ring or with a decent locating ring?
Oh, I got what you mean now. Yes, the stock centering ring is exceptionally tall. It block out the some of the light coming emitting from the edge of the dome.
I actually plan to insert a couple of mini copper heatsinks inside the pill but this new design do not have enough clearance for it.