review: Black Water Kite

Other Types of Lights Keychain / Pocket Flashlights
1

Hello my friends!

today i want to show you the

Black Water Kite 10180 USB Rechargable Mini LED Flashlight

which is available in Stainless Steel (SS) and Titanium (Ti) from banggood (who sent me the samples for this review)

with the code: 7811ac you get a discount : 30%off (nonaff)

and here is what you receive:

the lights are nicely packed - banggood added a beadchain and put it together in a zipbag

Specification: (from the shop)

Product name: Black Water Kite.SS Stainless Steel Mini LED Flashlight
Brand: Black Water
Model: Kite.SS
Emitter Brand/Type: CREE XP-G2
Material: Stainless Steel
Total Emitters: 1
Mode: Low,High
Battery Configurations: 1 x 10180 Rechargeable Battery (included)
Switch Type: Rotation
Switch Location: Head
Impact Resistant 1.5m
Brightness: 130 Lumens Maximum Brightness
Range: 59m
Runtime: 6 hours (Max)
Waterproof: IPX-8
Intensity: 910cd
Weight: 8.9g (without battery)
Size: 41mm(L) X 12.8mm (D)

Features:
1. Micro USB charging, two-color LED indicates charging status
2. 1 hour quick charge, quickly to meet demand
3. Circuit anti wear protection
4. CNC precision manufacturing optical lenses, optical excellence, excellent spot
5. Gold-plated contact points within, the internal resistance is smaller, low loss
6. Hanging hole unique ring designs

Package inlcuded:
1 X Black Water Stainless Steel 130LM 10180 Mini LED Flashlight
1 X O-ring
1 X 10180 battery
1 X Stainless Steel ring
1 X Bead chain

patient as i am i ripped the first open....

.... and the keyrings and both Orings jumped to the floor ....

with the second one i was more carefully and all parts stayed on the desk.

all included parts: chinese/english user manual, a note, 2 spare Orings, a split-keyring and the bead chain

here you can see the black plastic disks which prevented the light to work right out of the box....

(guess how i found out? - exact! i never read manuals ....)

see the black disks? (one right outside the tailcap - the other inside the tailcap on the left)

here are all parts of the flashlight

the SS came with a black cell

the wall "thickness" of the head is only half a millimeter!

Titanium is light...

solid stainless steel

sorry - the tailcaps was not tightened completely in this shots

the Titanium has a bit darker appearance (i like that)

very well made square threads and the USB charging connector (which makes this lights so useful)

the Ti is as greasy as the SS

now and then there are some marks from machining

a look into the battery tube

you knew i cannot NOT open it up...

thats the charging circuit

the other side of the charging part in action

red is charging - green is full

and yes - i opened the head also ;)

the TIR lens has a groove for the front Oring

the driver is part of the PCB where the LED sits on

the contactplate works as a switch..

which leads me to the

UI:

its eeeasy!

if you tighten the head until the plus of the charger makes contact with the head you get LOW

tightening further until the "switch" contacts in the middle gives HIGH

numb3rs:

the cells came charged to 3,75V (both)

the charger brings them up to 4,19V (both lights) drawing 110mA from the power supply

(which fits to fill the aprox. 65 mAh cell in an hour as specs say)

current Lumen
low 26,8 mA 10 Lm
high 231,5 mA 109 Lm

runtime:

i only did one on high (manually taking the values every 30 seconds is no fun at a estimated runtime of 6 hours on low...

sorry friends - not without automaic equipment!

here is the high:

cell started @ 4,19V and at the end it had 2,71V (which i consider safe)

beamshots:
(Sony NEX-F3 / ISO400 / F5 / 1/4sec )

upwards:

from 0,5m

from 1m:

size comparison....

some of my flashlights that can be EDC-ed

Thorfire PF03 (AAA) - Lumintop tool AAA - acebeam L10 (AA) - Olight S1 Ti (RCR123A) - the Black Water Kites - Lumatec K18 (AAA) - Manker Boney (AAA) - Olight S10R (RCR123A) - BLF A6³

conclusion:

i liked:

great light for the keychain

looks so nice my wife "let me gift one to her"

TIR lens makes a useful beam

very well built

charger and cell "built in" so everyone can use it out of the box

keyring and beadchain as well as spare Orings included

i did not like:

due to the simple design of the driver i doubt a low voltage warning (did not see something in the runtime test) or a cutoff i possible

so running the light unattended the cell might be drained completely

-> that can be happen if you turn it just until is OFF - but whiggeling the head a bit can switch it ON again

so after the light is OFF turn the head another half turn to be sure it stays OFF ;)

2

Thanks for the review! How do you like the tint?
I saw the coupon and tried it on the alu version, but then i saw that it only worked on ss and ti.
I’d like to buy one some day, when the price is even lower, or if my tube or tank007 that i keep on our carkeys stops working…

3

Alu version is a very nice price, even without coupon :slight_smile:

4

just BLF on the alu.

5

Excellent review. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for posting.

6

Very nice review. Thank you

7

Nice review and pics, thank you!

8

First post to blf. Noob
PM sent.
Joe

9

A viable alternative to the CooYoo Quantum, but both are too pricey for me :frowning:

How tight are the head threads? The Quantum was a perfect balance, just tight enough to not self-activate but one-handable using two fingers with keys attached. And how about the charger? There have been several recent reports of the Quantum experiencing failures with the charger, and in these lights that is the feature which most attracts me.

I don’t know how I missed this when you first posted but I’ll watch for sales and hope- this is a light I want!

Phil

10

the CooYoo and the black water (as some other “brands”) are the same :wink:
and so are the chargers…

i had no problem with the quality of the head/threads

for the price: did you look into the aluminium versions?

11

but I dug around and found it. Yep, gotta get one after Santa gets finished with my wallet this year :santa:

Phil

12

Can the cell be charged with the head off? Looks like that in the pic. Also, can anyone confirm weather the LED is Cree or luxbrite?

13

yes - you have to remove the head completely to access the charging port.

i hope my pictures help to identify the LED

14

Thanks for the charger pictures! :beer:

Tp4057 charger chip.They seem to have the charge current set rather high for a little 65 mAh battery. Probably well over 1C charge current. The wear from high charge current will reduce the battery’s life and capacity. The little thing doesn’t have a lot of capacity to begin with! But I bet they wanted to advertise “1 hour charge time” so they just set it to a battery roasting level. And people can always but a new battery once a month! Profit.

The current set resistor appears to be “85B” (7.5kΩ 1%). Which should be 133mA according to the datasheet via google translate. Though since your getting 110mA from the power supply the battery has to be seeing less after losses. If anyone prefers not to lose battery capacity too quickly due to excessive charging wear, I would suggest replacing the “85B” resistor with 10kΩ .

Though the tp4057 might just have trouble going as low as is really appropriate for 65mAh cell (32mA or less ideally, 65mA max). And they wanted to the cheapest chip they could. An MCP73831 would be a good replacement.

15

Forgot to ask:Does the light use PWM on low?

16

now i have fading lines in my eyes… :smiley:

did not see PWM :wink:

17

Code it coming up invalid btw. With either the Ti or SS.
And the “BLF” code on the aluminum is returning “This coupon is not available for limited offer products”.

18

Ordered one SS. Descent price with your code, thank you :wink:

19

the AL is on flash sale - that usually deactivates all codes… :frowning:

the code from OP works on both lights
even from EU warehouse!!!

20

How did you measure the lumens? By your own sphere, alternate measurement device, or approximation?