UltraFire 535 Review

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

Got one to see what it was all about…compared to other budget lights…this is OK…but NOT the best…
I would classify this one as a bound for the “shelf of shame”

UltraFire 535 from fasttech

Product specs from website

  • Beam range: 500 meters
  • Working voltage: 3.6-4.5V
  • Head diameter: 3.5cm
  • Body diameter: 2.5cm
  • Tail diameter: 2.6cm
  • Lanyard length: 13.5cm

This is built and about the size of the UltraFire 502b, side clicky and has a novel charge port on the size, I got this to see what it was about and see if it had any internal charge circuitry (it doesn’t!!! more on that later)

Comparing it to a Convoy C8 this thing fails utterly short…

Came to me with a few scratches but that is because it was in the standard fasttech bubble envelope stuffed with alot of other things

PROS:

  • budget, for $6.27 it’s incredibly inexpensive
  • small size, roughly the exact same size as the 502b
  • side clicky
  • external charging port (both good and bad)
  • decent throw, can get out over 100 yards

CONS:

  • hollow pill (incredibly small thin hollow pill)
  • side clicky button incredibly sensitive switching modes
  • next mode memory (fixable with pencil mark mod)
  • plastic reflector
  • external charging port (that has NO charge controller circuitry…straight to the battery!!)
  • 1000 lumens…YEAH RIGHT!
  • XP-E emitter
  • Shiny finish

I am not a master of taking pics so you will have to forgive me…and they may be a bit small

XR-E on typical 20mm aluminum star, hollow pill underneat barely ANY lip for heat transfer to get from star to pill

Driver side, extra long spring is to contact the side click module in the handle between the battery and the pill

Driver, 20mm (HI/LOW/STROBE)…missing most of it’s components…extremely thin wires, next mode memory from HELL but capable of doing the pencil trace mod so that is fixed

Not alot of meat in the head area of the flashlight for wicking heat away from a larger emitter, as you can see pill and the head screw down on the end

Odd plastic reflector with 1/2 of it OP and 1/2 of it SMO, came with a few defects in the reflector surface

Now on to the clicky module and charge port

Definitely not going to be a ultra bright power house as the clicky switch itself has very thin leads, only touching some metal tophat elements that connect the battery compartment to the spring for the driver, the biggest concern/worry/gripe is the charging port…it is DIRECT CONNECT to the battery, the center pin + goes right into the module and thru a l shaped piece of metal goes right to the battery connection, ok fine and dandy until someone builds a charger using a standard 3.5mm DC power plug barrel connector and wires it directly to a 5vdc source thinking that’s what it needs to charge…nope…this will push WAY too high power to the battery and NOT stop charging it possibly resulting in a vent!

The proper charge method is to wire a 3.5mm DC power plug barrel connector into one of those small inexpensive USB Li Ion charge modules and charge it that way, any other way will result in VERY bad things happening. This is NOT a safe charging port for the inexperienced Li Ion user…PERIOD!

I would really like to be enthusiastic about this flashlight…but for $6 more you can get MUCH better budget flashlights out there…More or less the first flashlight that I am not wowed by and almost regret getting it, is it useable sure…but there are MUCH MUCH better flashlights out there.

Mod possibilities
A. XP-G on 20mm sinkpad JBWelded to what lip there is, then fill in the hole behind it with silicon to wick away the heat…but to where??

B. 101-AK-A1 driver at 1400mA (max), flash with STAR V1.1 firmware (heck the 2 group 3/5 would be better than the stock driver), mount it to a 20mm adapter insert
Almost not even worth it as the updated parts cost more than the entire light itself

C. The reflector does have the hole for a XM-L but if you run an XM-L at close to 3A it will get way too hot too fast, there is not alot of places for the heat to migrate away from the pill, except down the body towards the battery

I give this a 1.5 out of 5 stars…

2

Thanks for the review. :)

3

I got one too and I wouldn’t buy one again, for just few dollars more you can get way better lights. I really dislike the size, this thing is huge for the small amount of light it makes.
I got the 535, sc01 and sipik ck12(10:money_mouth_face: on the same day and the ck12 is hundred times better…

By the way the stock 535 has below 200lm at 4.3V and very ugly cool tint(I am no tint connoisseur but this one is not nice in my eyes) , the hotspot is a bit oval.
——
I will definitely mod this light, I haven’t measured the hole underneath the star yet but I hope I have aluminum round which fits in.

P.S: my shelf of shame is a paperbox of shame with lots of host for future mods….

4

If I’m understanding the info in the OP about this light, one nice thing about this is that it doesn’t use an electronic switch, but just uses the mechanical switch in that middle section, so you can use a normal driver and there’s no parasitic drain. Is that correct?

5

Yep correct. A normal reverse clicky.

6

This one Werner?
http://www.dx.com/p/sipik-ck12-cree-xm-l-t6-350lm-5-mode-white-flashlight-black-1-x-18650-260300

7

I can’t stand the amount of fail in this light, being cheap is one thing but a poor excuse of a aluminium flashlight is another.

8

There is alot of fail in this light, definitely one for the “shelf of shame”

I don’t even think it’s worth it trying to mod it (it would cost more in parts to bring it up to anything resembling decent than what was payed for the light)…really it is just that underwhelming

Honestly I wasn’t expecting alot when I got it…I got it just to see what it was all about, especially with the side charging port…and yes, fell way short even for an experiment

I might hang it up for the kids to use as one of those use this so you don’t use/loose/break my good flashlights :smiley:

9

Yeah this one but mine is from wallbuys for 10.71$/ 9.64 after coupon The blinky modes suck but for a cheap sideswitch light the ck12 is a lot better. A neutral XML driven good on high(not regulated so depending on bat voltage) and solid pill or emmitter base.
But it is no thrower because of XML and small reflector. Gives more than 600lumen stock and it is shorter than 535, tailcap can easyly be locked out.

I have ordered another cheap sideswitch light(the one with magnetic tail) from aurabuy and when it is here I will try to mod all in one rush.

10

It is really cheap though (in all ways…)
Personally I quite like the 3.5mm battery connector and side switch bit, but it makes a flashlight taller, especially when you don’t trim down the tailcap like in this one… B^[

I got one of them 5 mode shorties too.
Nice, but you have to click through the modes to turn it off…
But the switch and 3.5mm input are integrated with the driver, so it’s short.

11

Nice…what size star in that Sipik CK12, do you think a XP-G2 on sinkpad would spice it up a bit? yeah…ALOT smaller than the 535

12

Just modded my ck12 it’s a 24mm star but I used a xml2 U2 on 20mm and it worked perfect the reflector is quite Angeled so no problems with the wiring(stock was awg24 I useawg20) like on much other lights. Centering was also no biggie I used the stock centering ring and some arctic silver under the star.
I used the stock driver as a contact plate and because the switch is soldered on it, just added a nanjg with some stacked 7135 and STAr firmware…

I will test it tonight and compare to my other identical light and after that I will maybe dedome it. The stock driver is good driven and has a bank of parallel 1R0 resistors so the current could get even squeezed up a bit if someone wants…

I now will see what to make out of the 535….

Edit:535 is done.
The switch itself is good just the connections are a bit poor, I soldered the metal contact hats to the switch and removed the charging port. Then I drilled a hole in the stripped stock driver to use it as a contact plate for a nanjg105c 2.8A, I filled the empty space with Fujik and a 16mm Alustar which was laying around, on top of the edge I pressed in a 20mm noctigon xpg2 R5. Starfirmware with off time memory.
Now the spot is a bit bigger but it’s bright enough to be a flashlight. Around 600lm on turbo….